COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, June 14, 2010
MOTION NO.2 (ii)
MOTION: Councillor J. Lahart
That the Council examine the possibility of innovation concerning procurement policies regarding supplies and services which could generate significant savings to local authority consumers and to the local authority itself and to outline and initiatives already underway in this regard.
REPORT:
The modernization of procurement of goods and services is one of a number of modernisation and change programmes delivered to date by this Council. As part of the Council’s objectives to meet the National Public Policy Procurement Unit’s requirements for modern, effective and efficient procurement policy the Council published its first Corporate Procurement Plan in December 2008.
The objectives of Corporate Procurement Planning in the local government sector are to achieve greater value for money by ensuring that purchasing within all local authority organisations is carried out in a co-ordinated and strategic manner, reviewing and where possible streamlining the administration of existing purchasing processes by using available e-procurement tools to achieve financial and staffing savings, and utilising the buying power of the local government sector to achieve greater value for money when purchasing goods and services in the marketplace.
The Council's Corporate Procurement Plan is underpinned by a number of procurement principles and high level objectives which ultimately aim to enable the development of better processes leading to real cash savings and processing efficiencies.
A number of initiatives have been undertaken at organisational level which have generated significant savings to this authority. These include:
- LAQuotes - an online Annual Quotations system which is used by over 30 Local Authorities for the supply of Plant Hire, Haulage, Tool Hire, Supplies and Services. Efficiencies gained by Council using LAQuotes include savings in staff time and expense in compiling the Annual List, improved tracking of external plant hires, and an assurance that suppliers are compliant.
- Framework Agreements: A mechanism for awarding contracts of a repetitative nature whereby an agreement is entered into between two or more contracting aiuthorities and one nor more economic providers eg ICT Telephony.
- Selection and targeting in monetary terms, of ‘top’ trade suppliers and the opportunity to achieve substantially improved terms through negotiated contracts. A number of Corporate Tenders have been awarded in 2009 / 2010 which included: County Hall Mixed Waste Management, Mobile Phone and Data Services, Construction Materials, Electrical Maintenance, Security, Print Management, Potable Water and Energy Supplies. The following is a brief outline of efficiencies gained / anticipated as a direct result of recent corporate tenders:
Mixed Waste Management: Contract Costs 2009/2011 : 35,471 v previous annual costs 112,000 x3 336000– 35,471= 300,529 (As% = 89%)
Construction Materials: Estimated savings based on current prices being paid for the sample of items used to evaluate the tender are approximately 40%. Using 2008 spend as a base figure this represents a potential saving of approximately €760,000
Security: On a previous total annual spend of €1.6million on security services overall savings are expected to be significant. Based on 2008 expenditure savings of up to 18% are envisaged
Print Management: Annual Costs for printing pre contract €259,000 v 2009 costs €133,000. Savings €126,000 .
Energy: The projected saving over gas, electricity and unmetered public lighting for 2010 is €240,000 and for full year 2011 it will be c€350,000.
- Shared Service: Collaboration with other public sector agencies, such as Fingal, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Dublin City Councils, to agree terms with selected ‘common’ trade suppliers where the opportunity exists to negotiate substantial improvements by virtue of the collective value. The council already shares a number of services including waste enforcement, fire service and water service delivery to name but a few, and being mindful that sharing of services also leads to more efficient use of back-office services such as accounts and payroll, IT, legal etc. the Council has indicated its willingness to partake in a feasibility examination of a number of other shared services. It is invisaged that there will be further focus on the shared servcies approach within the local government sector and across the public service into the future.