Agenda item

To receive a report by the Legal and Procurement Operations Manager (copy enclosed) reviewing the Collaborative Procurement Service

The Legal and Procurement Operations Manager introduced the Annual Review Collaborative Procurement Service report (previously circulated).

The report detailed how the Council has a collaborative procurement service with Flintshire County Council. Denbighshire County Council acts as the host authority and provided the service to Flintshire County Council. The Service had been in place since 2014 and Cabinet agreed to renew the Service Level Agreement (SLA) in 2019 for a further 3 years. The SLA established a Procurement Joint Management Board (PJMB) consisting of senior officers and the Cabinet Member from each Council. The PJMB holds the Service to account, monitors performance and resolves issues relating to the delivery of the Service.

The SLA states that the Councils would split the costs based on their share of the combined overall spend of both Councils. Spending would vary from year to year depending on capital projects but the Council broadly spends 45% and so its share of the running costs was 45%. The report covered all aspects of the service such as budget and structure, as well as performance against its Key Performance Indicators. The trends noted that over 60% of procurements for quarters 1 to 3 of 2019 have delivered savings on the existing budget. There was still improvement to be made on the number of collaborative procurements, with only an average of 13 % of procurements being carried out collaboratively.

The number of contracts including community benefits dipped in quarter 3. It was anticipated that with the Community Benefits Hub and the appointment of a Community Benefits Manager, there would be an increase in the number and type of Community Benefits delivered by contracts.

The following points were discussed in further detail –

·         The committee highlighted that Lay Member Paul Whitham could not attend the meeting however he suggested that the matter be discussed in either Partnerships or Performance Scrutiny Committee alongside being discussed in Corporate Governance. Members agreed the matter be discussed in Scrutiny chairs and vice chairs to decide which scrutiny would be best for the matter to be discussed.

·         Officers agreed with members that the matter would benefit from being discussed in a Scrutiny committee and the governance aspect of the Collaborative Procurement Service be discussed annually in the Corporate Governance and Audit Committee.

RESOLVED that

(i)    The Corporate Governance and Audit Committee note the report and endorse the proposed actions to improve performance

(ii)  The committee refer the annual performance report be sent to Scrutiny chairs and vice chairs for the report be sent to the appropriate scrutiny committee.