National Assembly committee highlights the three ‘C’s for better public procurement
15 May 2012
Creativity, competency and capacity are the key drivers to successful public procurement in Wales, according to a new report from a National Assembly for Wales committee.
A task and finish group, set up by the Enterprise and Business Committee, has concluded that the Welsh Government is being offered an important opportunity to re-examine its existing procurement regime that will allow it to tackle any weaknesses and investigate potential barriers for Welsh businesses trying to access the public procurement market.
The opportunity coincides with the publication of European Commission proposals for reforming and modernising public procurement policy.
The task and finish group found that, broadly, the current European Union rules themselves were not the problem. Rather it was their application that was creating a barrier.
“Public procurement is an important driver for economic growth and employment,” said Julie James AM, Chair of the EU Procurement Task and Finish Group.
“The scale of ambition for the public procurement sector must be far greater, and strategic leadership is essential to raising the status of procurement, both as a profession, and in terms of what it can achieve.
“The Welsh Government’s review of public procurement policy, currently being conducted by John McClelland CBE, is welcomed and we hope that our recommendations will be considered alongside that review.”
During the course of the inquiry the task and finish group also highlighted a breach of the EU’s principle of subsidiarity, the process by which national parliaments can challenge legislative proposals at European level if they believe objectives can be better achieved at local, national or regional level.
In this instance, the EU proposal to create a single national ‘oversight body’ for procurement for member states was challenged by the task and finish group.
This view was supported by the National Assembly’s Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, which in turn wrote to, and received support from, the UK Parliament.
It is the first time the National Assembly for Wales has raised such a concern under the European Lisbon Treaty.