Interview with:

·  David Tibbit, Property and Procurement Manager; and

·  Steve Trigg, Procurement Manager.

The Procurement Manager, Steve Trigg, introduced the draft Procurement Strategy 2010-2013 to the Committee.  Mr Trigg explained that the previous Procurement Strategy had focussed on embedding good procurement practices and supporting the Council’s aims. The new strategy had built on this and looked to respond to the social and economic context in which the Council was working.  The four key elements of the strategy were sustainability, supporting small and medium enterprises and local businesses, ensuring equality of opportunity, and partnership working, particularly through the Mid-Kent Improvement Partnership.  The Council aimed to spend more of its money in the local area and procurement could influence this through, for example, providing guidance to council officers who procured lower value items.

A Councillor asked how more support would be given to local small businesses.  Mr Trigg informed Members that the Council’s contract procedure rules raised the threshold for competitive tendering from £25,000 to £75,000.  This gave officers greater scope to spend up to that threshold in the local area for services and goods.  It was noted, however, that it unclear how long this threshold could be maintained as laws could be introduced forcing it to be reduced.  Procurement could also work with client departments to influence specifications for larger contracts to encourage the main contractor to use local businesses as sub-contractors.  Tender documents had been simplified to make them clearer for small businesses.  Local businesses were encouraged to use the South East Centre of Excellence Business Portal to access forthcoming tendering opportunities.  The Procurement Department generally used electronic means to communicate with suppliers, however this was not always accessible to some small businesses and therefore a balance of communication methods was maintained.  Mr Trigg emphasised that it was important not to raise expectations as the Council could not give work to everyone; the main issue was to ensure the Council’s procurement processes were clear and opportunities were well advertised.

With regard to the amendment to the contract procedure rules, a Councillor asked when the impact of this would be reviewed.  Mr Trigg stated that Corporate Management Team required a review of this when it had been in place for one year, therefore a review of the financial records would take place in June 2010 to identify any trends.  There was a Key Performance Indicator that looked at the Council’s spend in the Maidstone postcode area and this would be used to analyse the impact of the change. 

In response to a question, Mr Trigg explained that when the contract procedure rules had been amended, Heads of Service had been asked to send relevant officers to training sessions on this and detailed guidance notes had been provided.  Training for new officers with procurement responsibilities was not well-embedded in the induction process and was the responsibility of line managers and Heads of Service.  The Committee agreed that ensuring new officers with procurement responsibilities were adequately trained in the Council’s procurement processes was vital and recommended that this be included in the induction process for relevant officers.

A Councillor asked who was responsible for managing contracts for the Council.  The Property and Procurement Manager, David Tibbit, explained that the client department monitored the delivery of the contract on a day-to-day basis, however the Procurement Team did keep an overview of the contract management and held occasional reviews to monitor this.  With regard to the Maidstone Leisure Centre contract, Mr Trigg stated that the Leisure Centre management company and the Council worked together to improve services there.

In response to a question, Mr Tibbit stated that when services or goods were procured, the responsibility for sustainability was with the contractors and suppliers.

A Councillor asked whether partnership working would conflict with the objective to support local businesses.  Mr Trigg agreed that there was a conflict in directives from Government, best practice advice and so on about how local government should be more effective.  European directives on procurement were only concerned with ensuring that opportunities above a certain threshold were advertised, rather than local concerns around equality of opportunity and sustainability.  Partnership working would be used where this could deliver excellent value for money, but all procurement activity would try to balance the conflicts.

A Councillor asked whether complaints about the procurement process were received.  Mr Trigg stated that any complaints received were generally from suppliers who did not win contracts, however no challenge to the Council about the awarding of a contact had ever been successful.  Detailed reasons for awarding contracts were given, and Mr Trigg considered it his role to ensure that procurement processes were rigorous and to protect the Council from challenge.  Mr Tibbit emphasised that a lot of time was spent explaining to suppliers why they had not been successful when bidding for tenders so that they could learn lessons for next time.

A Councillor noted that a future aim within the strategy was to issue and accept all tender documentation electronically by 2012, in line with Government guidelines, and asked what the Council’s progress on this was.  Mr Trigg stated that Council processes required the return of tender documents to be in hard copy; he would like this to change, however he could only make recommendations and the existing processes were very embedded.

With regard to the aim in the strategy to “investigate the viability of creating a register for local suppliers to record their interest in being considered for predefined business areas”, a Councillor asked whether being on this register would give local businesses the impression that they had an advantage over other businesses.  Mr Trigg agreed that it would be important to ensure that businesses were aware that being on a register was no guarantee of work, and stated that such a register was not the ideal answer to increasing work with local businesses.  Work needed to continue with council officers to encourage them to buy locally.

A Councillor referred to the Strategy Action Plan and suggested that April 2011 was a long target date for reviewing the website.  Mr Trigg explained that updating and reviewing the website was an ongoing process, therefore the target date did not mean that no action would be taken until then.

With regard to income generation, Mr Trigg confirmed that the Procurement Team did make some income through taking on procurement processes for other councils without procurement teams, though it was considered that this could be improved upon.

The Committee expressed its support for the strategy and thanked the officers for their attendance.

Resolved:  That training be provided to new officers with procurement responsibilities as part of the induction process.