Issue - meetings

This report provides an update on the progress of the More for York procurement work stream in delivering savings, identifies increased potential future savings, sets out a proposed delivery method and requests a change to the More for York investment profile agreed in February 2010, to facilitate the delivery of increased savings.

RESOLVED: (i)         That the proposal to establish a Commercial Hub be agreed.

                        (ii)        That the appointment of V4 to undertake procurement work between September 2010 and March 2011 be agreed.

                        (iii)       That this be funded through a variation to the investment fund already set aside for More for York.

REASON:      To improve the long term effectiveness of the Procurement function and generate savings of £1.25m in 2010/11.

Members considered a report which provided an update on the progress of the More for York procurement work stream in delivering savings and identified the potential for increased savings in the future.

The procurement work stream had already made good progress, achieving far more than its target savings, as set out in Annex A to the report.  It was suggested that additional efficiencies, with the potential to achieve annual net savings of up to £5m in the next two years, could be achieved by creating a Commercial Hub to control all procurement activity.  The proposal was to establish a core internal team to undertake the regular procurement activities and to supplement this resource by bringing in specialist managers on a temporary basis to lead on certain categories of spend.

The idea of collaborating with other authorities in the autumn to create a shared commercial hub would be explored over the autumn.  In the meantime, so as not to lose momentum, it was proposed to use V4, a top provider in this area, to bring in a team from September 2010 to review existing contacts, implement demand management programmes and deliver £1.25m savings before April 2011.

Members thanked the procurement team for their contribution to the success of the recent ‘Meet the Buyer’ event held in the Guildhall.

Having noted the comments of the Labour Group Spokespersons on this item, it was

RESOLVED: (i)         That the proposal to establish a Commercial Hub be agreed. ^1.

                        (ii)        That the appointment of V4 to undertake procurement work between September 2010 and March 2011 be agreed. ^2.

                        (iii)       That this be funded through a variation to the investment fund already set aside for More for York.

REASON:      To improve the long term effectiveness of the Procurement function and generate savings of £1.25m in 2010/11.