The reality of Welsh Procurement

There’s been a lot of discussion from government ministers, opposition politicians, academics and business groups about what a more Welsh focused system of procurement could do for Welsh business and Welsh jobs since the financial crash and recession in 2008.

Much of the debate has been constructive, there’s good will from all parties and ideas have begun to be turned into action albeit 5 years after the initial crash with Finance Minister Jane Hutt making a statement to Assembly last week on the formation of a National Procurement Service for Wales and the legislation that is to be introduced.

However for all the positive talk from Minister’s the reality on the ground is that non Welsh companies are still winning contracts by undercutting and because they have often have no knowledge of Wales they hire local businesses/people often those who bid against them at a fraction of the cost to do the work - not a good situation for anyone except the winnign bidders.

And if you're not convicned here's some examples I know of that have happened recently  

The Family Information Service (FIS) tender was put out before just Christmas 2012 and was recently awarded to the Family and Childcare Trust, a recently merged body that included the Family & Parenting Institute and Daycare Trust neither have links to Wales and are headquarters in London. The FCT are already looking for welsh consultants.

Then there’s the local FIS in Caerphilly County Borough Council and Blaenau Gwent County Borough Councils which went to English consultancies both tenders were the lowest bids and both had local consultancies bidding against them.

Next the 'Scoping of the Welsh Social Enterprise sector' went to accountancy, yes an accountancy firm with no track record of social enterprise evaluation and based in England as well.

And lastly the 'Evaluation of the Welsh pilots of Integrated Family Support Team (IFST)' went to a well-known English Consultancy despite the UK expertise that was used to develop the programme across the country being based in Wales.

Now aside from Welsh firms with knowledge and expertise of the programmes and communities missing out, a lot of these tenders deal with sensitive policy areas which shouldn’t be farmed out to the lowest bidder according to those who deliver it and evidence that similar outsourcing has resulted in poorer results in England when LA’s tried to save money.

I’m not giving these examples to be anti-English but to point out that political talk and the reality on ground with regard procurement are miles apart, besides a lot of it is down to the cuts being made by the UK government affecting the large consultancies who are looking for alternative work, but if the Welsh Government is genuine in its aim of getting a higher percentage of welsh business winning contracts then big changes at a political level will have to be made.

If our political class are serious then Ministers and Civil Servants will need to start asking if tenders should only be awarded according to the cheapest price. In Scotland for instance the awarding criteria actually gives Scottish firms with the relevant expertise extra points enabling them to secure contracts and keep jobs and money local – if the Scots have managed to get around EU law why are we Welsh so afraid to do the same?

The Welsh Government has made a start with the National Procurement Service, the statement and debate from last week is HERE. Only time will tell if they are able to reverse the trends that frustrate so many small and large businesses in Wales when it comes to government tenders.

Any source