Decision details

(Time: 3.33pm to 3.41pm)

The Executive received and considered report 114/07 of the Strategic Director and Chief Finance Officer and the Deputy Director (Contracts and Procurement), which proposed a Procurement Strategy to guide staff involved in the procurement process.  The strategy set out how to buy effectively on behalf of the Council and how to demonstrate to tax payers and other stakeholders that the Council was compliant with the law and best practice in carrying out its procurement activities, as well as delivering value for money.  The strategy had been developed from a procurement framework that was submitted to Strategic Review Committee for review in January 2007.  The strategy took account of Government recommendations and took account of current priorities such as environmental, economic and social sustainability and equalities and diversity. 

The strategy was accompanied by a plan which detailed 15 key activities which needed to be carried out in order to develop procurement excellence in the Vale.  The plan identified some key areas to improve purchasing effectiveness, including simplified and automated processes. 

The Council did not have a dedicated purchasing team and lacked purchasing professionals; procurement was carried out by departments across the Council with a range of procurement skills.  Therefore it was considered important that adequate support and training was provided to all staff to enable them to carry out their procurement responsibilities effectively.  Additionally, a Contracts and Procurement Forum would be created to enable best practice to be shared. 

A savings plan had been produced and fed into the medium term financial plan which targeted an annual saving of £136,000 to be achieved during 2009/10.  There would be a need to buy-in some expert resource on a temporary basis to assist in delivering this saving.  Work was proceeding with colleagues in the County and OxfordCity to establish the most cost-effective means of buying-in such resource and would produce a separate report for the Executive in the New Year. 

The Executive welcomed the predicted savings from the implementation of this strategy. 

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee asked for a definition of a strategy, compared to a policy.  The Chief Executive reported that a policy set the overarching framework or statement of aspiration; a strategy set out how to implement the policy.  It was noted that although the Procurement Strategy was operational and therefore a strategy, there needed to be more clarity when naming some strategies and policies and more care in presenting them to Members.  This was highlighted as an area to be considered by the Constitution Advisory Group. 

RESOLVED  (by seven votes to nil)

(a)               that the Procurement Strategy be approved; and

(b)       that the Constitution Advisory Group be requested to better define the boundaries between policy, that needed Council approval, and strategy, that could be approved by the Executive or a committee.