Agenda item

Report of the Chamberlain

For information

Members are considering a Report of the Chamberlain concerning the risks faced by City Procurement.

Focussing on CHB CP005 (Impact on procurement resources) a Member identified three concerns;

i) delays in repairs and works at investment and operational properties and the knock-on impact for income

ii) schools have only a narrow time frame throughout the year to carry out works

iii) the Police’s performance in ensuring procurements are reaching City Procurement in a fully and timely manner.

In response, the Commercial Director assured Members that City Procurement were working closely with the Police to ensure procurement problems were kept to a minimum. The Schools were now performing better, but it was important to keep this monitored as the respective masterplans began to come to fruition over the next few years. He added that, so far, the team was coping with unplanned work, however, it was clear, at least in the medium term, that with the vacancies in the team, and the likely downstream increase in work due to the major projects the team’s workload will be significantly expanded. Members proposed sending a resolution to the Capital Buildings Committee and Project Sub Committee emphasising the need for officers and Members to appreciate the full “overhead” cost of a new project, it was vital to recognise that the “downstream” costs could quite profoundly alter the initial budget forecasts. It was also important to keep in mind that it wasn’t always cash that posed the challenge but a lack of skilled people.   

Members again asked about the nature of “unplanned” procurements, officers responded that there had been six procurements in the last 10 months that had “come out of the blue”. The Commercial Director reassured Members that this would be a diminishing problem as the cycle goes on as each procurement would be added to the Corporate Contract Register. Members emphasised that they were there to assist in putting pressure on those departments that were failing to keep City Procurement informed

In response to a query the Commercial Director confirmed that the team was currently running with four key vacancies, representing 20% of the senior team.

Members raised concerns about the VAT risk, it was unacceptable that officers were still failing in their duties here. The Commercial Director responded that in mitigation, the number of offences had reduced in recent years. City Procurement would continue to take the institutional lead and encourage best practice, but ultimately it was down to line managers to take responsibility. There was no “silver bullet”, as withdrawing P-Cards entirely and asking Procurement to take the manage the process would necessitate a material uplift in extra staff to manage the administration involved. Members suggested that if further in roads could not be made, the Sub-Committee should assume the authority to “call in” departmental heads to explain why their officers were not complying, with one potential consequence being the shortfall should be taken from the department’s local risk budget.

RESOLVED – that the Sub-Committee noted the Report.