The Chair of the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee, Nick Ramsay AM, has issued the following statement in response to the Wales Audit Office report on the National Procurement Service.
Mr Ramsay said:
“The National Procurement Service (NPS) has an important role to play in getting a better deal for public bodies for their goods and services and in delivering the Welsh Government’s wider procurement policy objectives.
“The Auditor General’s report makes clear that the NPS is falling well short of what appears in hindsight to have been over-optimistic expectations about the amount of public spending that it would be able to influence, at least in its early years.
“The report raises some broader questions about public bodies’ commitment to collaborative purchasing and about the balance between national and local priorities, and the overall governance of the NPS.
“The Committee will be considering this report about the NPS alongside the Auditor General’s wider report on Public Procurement in Wales, published last month.”