North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has called on the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership to ensure that quality, value and price are at heart of public procurement in Wales.
Responding to the Minister’s Statement ‘Update on the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill’, Mr Isherwood also emphasised the need for flexibility of locality and community causes to benefit local communities.
He said:
“In your Statement you say you will place fair work, decarbonisation and well-being at the heart of procurement, but don't mention the current guidance for procurement, which is based on quality, value and price, and also the flexibility of locality and community causes to benefit local communities.
“So, how will you ensure that the priorities you identify will not lead to higher cost, lower quality procurement and that issues such as cost, quality, value and community benefit are still at the centre of decisions made?”
Responding, the Deputy Minister Hannah Blythyn MS said:
“It's a really key question in terms of actually making sure that we don't impact on things when we know that there's value there already. And like I said in the Statement, there'll be more work to follow that sits in the broader opportunities of procurement reform, as we align ourselves in terms of the process with UK Government and actually how we can look at that across the piece. …. We're very mindful that we don't want to create extra bureaucracy and we don't want to duplicate; we want to complement, enhance and make sure that it all fits together in much better ways in the future.”
