Leadership on procurement

Procurement is always at the top of the priority list for CEWales members and the wider industry, so it was great that the CEWales Procurement Forum met on Monday 11 November at the offices of Blake Morgan. This was the first time we formally met as one of the sub-groups operating beneath the CEWales Leader Forum. We got off to a splendid beginning: we had 41 attendees with seven of these being public sector clients.

There was an excellent presentation by Eurgain Powell and Alice Horn from the Future Generations Commissioner of Wales office. The team there is undertaking research into how the Public Sector bodies are procuring Well Being. Everything construction does in the public sector must align with the sustainable development goals and principles of the FGW Act and we must begin to challenge our processes.
There was lengthy discussion with a general acknowledgement that local authorities are inconsistent. The FGW Act has been incorporated at a high level in LA's, in their Corporate Plans, but this hasn't yet filtered down to the various departments yet, so we are not seeing it in action. There was also a lot of discussion around best practice not being celebrated enough or acted upon which then led to why we do not identify bad practice. These factors are key if we are to learn from mistakes and share our experiences.

It was agreed there are anomalies, some policies do not complement each other or the FGW Act. We also need to be clear what we believe success looks like. There is a lot for the group to be getting on with, so the next steps are to form a smaller working group – some names have already been put forward. This will then finalise the Terms of Reference and identify key issues to be taken forward. These will be reported on after the next meeting in early December.