Report by Senior Solicitor and Monitoring Officer (attached)

The Committee considered a report by the Senior Solicitor and Monitoring Officer (circulated previously) regarding the Procurement Strategy 2023-2027.

The Senior Solicitor and Monitoring Officer invited the Lead Member for Resources and Commercialisation, Helen Walker to introduce the item.

The Lead Member for Resources and Commercialisation advised of the following:

·         Having a strategy which set out how the Council would carry out its business was a very good thing.

·         The procurement strategy had been updated and the Council had signed up to work with the Devon County Council procurement team which it was hoped would make improvements on procurement of items going forwards.

·         This covered all areas of the Council’s corporate plan.

·         Items procured would not always be the cheapest but certainly would be the best item.

Councillor gave thanks to the team for their work on this strategy.

The Senior Solicitor and Monitoring Officer highlighted the following:

·         The Council’s Procurement Strategy expired at the end of 2022. The Council had been part of the Devon Districts Procurement Strategy since 2019 and had joined in the development of a new Devon Districts Procurement Strategy but the preparation of this new Strategy had been subject to delays.

·         The Council has since lost its Procurement Officer and has signed up to partnership working with Devon Procurement Services, which was Devon County Council’s procurement team. Devon Procurement Services already works with Mid Devon District Council, East Devon District Council, Plymouth City Council, Exmoor National Park and Dartmoor National Park on the same basis.

·         Devon Procurement Services has a Procurement Strategy which Devon County Council has adopted. The Procurement Strategy they have produced is such that its partner authorities are similarly able to adopt it albeit they are also able to personalise the Procurement Strategy to suit their authority but keeping the overriding themes which are common to all.

·         The key themes covered included climate emergency, supporting the economy such as local suppliers and SME’s, Social Value, Additional Transformation, Contract Management, Value for money, Economic Commercialisation and development, Working efficiently, risk appetite, Work force skills development as well as that of Suppliers, Transparency and legal framework.

·         Not all the listed themes would be delivered for every single procurement but was a framework for Officers to keep these themes in mind when going through the procurement exercise.

·         There was a sound basis for holding a Procurement Strategy in common with Devon Procurement Services as the service they provided ensured that template documents and how advice was provided had the Procurement Strategy in mind. It was also beneficial for suppliers who did not have to deal with a different set of rules and requirements in different parts of the County.

The Senior Solicitor and Monitoring Officer highlighted a correction in the report at section 2.1 reference to Appendix 1 should refer to Appendix A.

Councillor D Knight welcomed the strategy which would bring the Council into line with other Authorities.

Councillor R Knight welcomed that the inclusion of being mindful of the climate and environment emergency.

In response to a question about who would make a decision if a procurement came down to a clash between climate versus cost.  The Senior Solicitor and Monitoring Officer set out that at present officers set evaluation criteria in procurement procedures.  The Chief Executive confirmed a decision would need to be made on this and a debate held to agree how the Council would proceed in terms of the potential for Member involvement in setting evaluation criteria.  The framework presented today did not answer those questions so a discussion around how members would be given oversight of this type of conflict would need to be had.

RESOLVED that the Procurement Strategy 2023-2027 as included in the report at Appendix A be adopted.