Issue - meetings

In the recent IDeA Members' Guide 'Top tips for making savings through better procurement in professional services', Members are told it is their role to ask three fundamental questions. The questions are as follows:

- What are we spending on temporary agency staff and consultancy?

- Do we have a co-ordinated corporate approach to procuring and managing these contracts?

- Are we collaborating with others, regionally and nationally, to gain efficiencies and implement best practice?

Please can the Leader of the Council advise whether answers are available for these questions and, if not, when Members can expect to receive satisfactory answers?

Councillor Mrs CAED Murfitt asked the Leader of the Council the following question:

In the recent IDeA Members' Guide 'Top tips for making savings through better procurement in professional services', Members are told it is their role to ask three fundamental questions. The questions are as follows:

- What are we spending on temporary agency staff and consultancy?

- Do we have a co-ordinated corporate approach to procuring and managing these contracts?

- Are we collaborating with others, regionally and nationally, to gain efficiencies and implement best practice?

Please can the Leader of the Council advise whether answers are available for these questions and, if not, when Members can expect to receive satisfactory answers?

Councillor RMA Manning, Leader of the Council, advised that he had read the same article. Before providing figures, he requested clarification on the time period over which the information was required, and the level of detail sought. For example, should the definition of temporary agency staff include refuse loaders providing Christmas cover and staff covering maternity leave, and should ‘consultancy’ include work such as that undertaken by the Environment Agency in respect of Covell’s Drain, or that reimbursed partly or wholly by outside organisations such as Cambridgeshire Horizons? It was likely that the detailed scoping of such a report would entail a substantial time commitment. The Leader requested that Councillor Murfitt and other Councillors should focus their attention on providing ongoing challenge to the Council’s approach to agency and consultancy costs through their contributions to debates at Cabinet, Portfolio Holders’ meetings and Scrutiny and Overview Committee. Councillors’ suggestions for alternative courses of action would be welcomed and considered.

In terms of regional collaboration, the Leader advised that the Making Cambridgeshire Count project had commenced, under the terms of which all relevant service providers in the county would examine how the £1.85 billion annual funding was allocated, to enable them to work together to ensure it was spent most efficiently and effectively.

By way of a Supplementary Question, Councillor Mrs. Murfitt requested relevant information relating to the current financial year. The Leader of the Council responded that he was happy to provide this information, and would discuss details with Councillor Murfitt outside of the meeting.

Cabinet AGREED to adopt the updated Procurement Strategy, subject to the following minor amendments:

·                      clarification of “service” at 3.5.1; and

·                      clarification of “termination of the provision in whole or part” at 3.6.1.

Decision taken and published 12 March 2009.  Call-in period expires 19 March 2009 and decision can be implemented from 20 March 2009 if not called-in.  

Cabinet AGREED to adopt the updated Procurement Strategy, subject to the following minor amendments:

·                      clarification of “service” at 3.5.1; and

·                      clarification of “termination of the provision in whole or part” at 3.6.1.

Cabinet had approved a strategy for the procurement of goods and services in January 2004.  The revised strategy took account of events since the original strategy, and the increased expectations of the outcomes from procurement activities.  The Finance Portfolio Holder urged that value for money be demonstrated wherever possible, and reminded members that it was essential to have a wide-ranging strategy to ensure the best deal for the Council. 

Concerns were expressed that the requirements of the strategy could discourage smaller local businesses from bidding for contracts and Cabinet urged officers to adopt a sense of proportionality and use their best judgement not to overwhelm with paperwork and procedures any such businesses bidding on contracts just over Level 1 (£5,000).  Councillor NIC Wright confirmed that, as part of the work to deal with the economic downturn, the Council would be running an event to support local businesses, including advice on the Council’s procurement strategy.

The Chief Executive explained that, whilst e-auctions were still being investigated and the process appeared attractive, the procedure placed significant demands on officer time as every specification entered must be extremely precise to ensure that all tendering parties were bidding on exactly the same specifications.  Non-electronic procedures allowed contractors options to provide details, method statements, in their tender documents as to how they would meet the contract requirements, allowing greater flexibility and innovation than available through an e-procurement system.

Cabinet AGREED to adopt the updated Procurement Strategy, subject to the following minor amendments:

·                      clarification of “service” at 3.5.1; and

·                      clarification of “termination of the provision in whole or part” at 3.6.1.