Welsh Government
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McClelland procurement review published
Finance Minister Jane Hutt commissioned John McClelland CBE in February to review how procurement policies were delivering on the ground in Wales. He was also asked to recommend actions required to strengthen policies to ensure the public sector is getting the best value for every pound it spends.
John McClelland said:
“Outstanding work has been done in developing policy, strategies and practices and very good progress has been made in public procurement in general. In particular the ‘community benefits’ policy is leading-edge and has had a significant impact on how money has been spent on some major publicly funded projects in Wales.
“However, the quality of deployment does not completely match the quality of the policies. It is disappointing that some organisations are at the extreme low end of policy adoption, compared to the more advanced. Implementation is being constrained by a serious lack of professional procurement capacity in some organisations. Resources are not only in shortfall but are also not consistently spread. While some have excellent resources, there are others with concerning gaps that are likely to impact on performance.
“It appears that some organisations place a low value on procurement capability. However, there is a wealth of evidence to prove that investing in procurement skills reduces overall costs and I strongly urge the Welsh Government to consider the recommendations I have made.”
Jane Hutt said:
“I’d like to thank John for the work he has done on this review. He has recognised the good work underway in Wales and has given us some constructive recommendations on how we can improve the impact of public procurement.
“The Programme for Government includes a number of procurement commitments – to ensure the widespread adoption of the community benefits approach, to simplify processes and ensure contract opportunities are open to all, and to realise efficiencies through joint procurement systems. In addition we are already addressing the shortage of professionals through our Home-Grown Talent programme.
“We will now consider John’s recommendations in detail and I will issue a procurement policy statement in the autumn. This will outline the way forward for procurement in Wales and will show our determination for Wales to lead the way when it comes to public procurement.”
