Issue - meetings

To review the Procurement Strategy 2010-13 before it is considered by Cabinet.

The Overview & Scrutiny Committee considered the Haringey Procurement Strategy 2010-2013 report prior to its being considered for approval by the Cabinet on 14^th September 2010, presented by Michael Wood, Head of Procurement and the Cabinet Member for Finance and Sustainability.  The Committee noted the written responses to its advance questions and the following information was provided in response to supplementary questions.

The Council encouraged its suppliers to pay the London Living Wage and more work could be conducted to encourage suppliers to meet the Council’s social objectives.

In February 2010 the Council held a large event involving 130 businesses including local partners and a report will be available at the end of the year detailing what new local business had been conducted as a result of the event.

Officers recognised that sharing information about the cost of services and utilities was a good practice but could also be a disadvantage during negotiations.  Haringey had established a pan-London energy contract with other boroughs and partners which meant all were purchasing energy at the same price.  Similar schemes had been set up for the purchase of water, stationery and the employment of security services.

RESOLVED

i.          The strategy should clearly set and, as far as possible, quantify the anticipated savings and the financial years in which they will be delivered.

ii.         That there is likely to be a substantial increase in the formation of social enterprises and that L B Haringey lead capacity building should be explicitly encouraged in the Procurement Strategy.

iii.        That the Procurement Strategy should encourage working with public sector partner agencies to explore the pooling of procurement in a more structured way.

iv.        To help drive prices down, web-based commodity pricing should be    considered in association with partner agencies.

v.         Voluntary Sector and community organisations should be encouraged and supported to bid for contract services.

vi.        Procurement should continually seek to encourage local businesses and suppliers to bid for contracts.

vii.       LB Haringey should take the lead on capacity building and training of existing and new SME's, Social Enterprises and the Voluntary Sector but should encourage other public sector bodies to engage and contribute to this process.