Issue - meetings

That the Procurement Strategy Action Plan in general and the measures and actions for public reporting be recommended to the Cabinet for adoption.

The Chief Officer (Governance) introduced the report which identified that in November 2016, the cabinet had approved a joint procurement strategy with Denbighshire County Council.  The Council spends £150m per year on buying goods and services.  The Procurement Strategy sets out how the Council intends to use that purchasing power to support its wider policy aims. The strategy includes the following 2 high level outcomes

1.      Flintshire County Council achieves value for money from the goods, services and works it procures

2.      Flintshire County Council improves the contribution its procurement activity had on the local economy especially social enterprise

These outcomes underpin and support the following key aims in the Council Plan

            The procurement strategy did not contain any measure or actions that could be used to track progress and these were included in the action plan.  There was by contrast a very high level of detail in the action plan to enable managers to track progress on all aspects of the strategy. Rather than report all measures and actions. It was proposed to report a number of key issues if councillors agreed that they covered the most important points.

            Referring to the proposed measures for public reporting, Councillor Richard Jones asked about other measures which would not be reported, tender arrangements and for an example of community benefit which had already been secured.

            The Chief Officer Governance responded to these points. With regard to Community Benefits, he referred to the Wates contract which had an Apprenticeship Scheme and free training for council lawyers being provided by solicitors and barrister and firms.

            Chief Officers and Service Managers would work with the local supplier market to help them understand the council tendering processes.  This would improve the quality of their bids and hopefully result in local suppliers winning contracts because their bids were both the cheapest and highest quality.

            Councillor Richard Jones asked if progress would be reported to the committee.  In response the Chief Officer Governance confirmed that outcomes would be reported with keys issues highlighted.

RESOLVED:

That the Procurement Strategy Action Plan in general and the measures and actions for public reporting be recommended to the Cabinet for adoption.