Corporate Procurement

Procurement Strategy

5. Culture and leadership

5.1 The National Strategy for Procurement is clear that leadership from members and senior managers of the council (The Management Team and heads of service) is key to good procurement practice.

Councils will not be able to realise the full potential of procurement to improve public services without commitment from the top.

This means that chief executives, elected members and chief officers must support procurement as a strategic, corporate priority and provide political and managerial leadership'.

Communities and Local Government National Strategy 2003

5.2 The Council endorses this view and is in the process of implementing the recommendations. To date the following has been achieved:

There is an Executive Member in place with portfolio responsibility for procurement
A Chief Officer Champion for procurement has been nominated to take responsibility for the strategic lead in this area
The 2004-2005 Council Balanced Scorecard includes procurement as a key area for improvement, thus ensuring that all service areas actively engage and define aims and objectives through this route

5.3 In addition, we will, in the next 12 months:

Recruit a senior level Head of Procurement to drive forward the challenging procurement agenda
Develop procurement key performance indicators to be reported to chief officer meetings (The Management Team), the Executive, Corporate Monitoring Group and the Standards Committee where appropriate