More could be done to help local companies win council tenders

More could be done to help local companies gain council tenders in Gwynedd, councillors have conceded.
A meeting of the cabinet heard that while the period between July and September 2019 saw 56% of capital and revenue expenditure spent locally, it was 3% down on the same period last year.
According to the report, this was mainly a result of a £1.8m contract going to a Wrexham-based company  Read Construction for the new Ysgol y Garnedd project in Bangor.
But despite 36% of that sum being spent on companies within a 40 mile radius thanks to subcontracting arrangements, calls were made for a review to see if more could be done to help companies within Gwynedd.
The council leader, Dyfrig Siencyn, said: “I’m aware that not every small company can win contracts but are we taking note of issues which are not perhaps working in the way they should?
“I recently received a complaint from someone who was unable to gain such work with the council and weren’t sure why, so what measures are in place are there to measure satisfaction in this regard?”
In response the portfolio holder for corporate support, Cllr Nia Jeffreys,  said t was a priority to keep benefits local but there was a responsbility on individual departments when it came to procurement.
Cllr Siencyn added it may be useful to implement a complaints procedureso that cabinet members were made aware of any issues while the chief executive, Dilwyn Williams, added: “The aim of the procurement department is to ensure value for money while trying to keep the benefits local, so sometimes there is a trade-off to make there.
“But bearing in mind the second point, at any time when a contract does not go to a local company, do we carry out a review to find out why that didn’t happen?
“There could be a variety reasons why not, but if we implement this systematically we can learn from this and move on for next time.
“Any situation where a local company doesn’t gain such contracts is a failure in that regard and is what we should be going after.”
However, the report also provided some positive news with the procurement unit making efforts to cut tenders into smaller lots in order to give companies every opportunity to compete for a part of the contract.
Cllr Jeffreys’ report concluded: “The feedback from the market has been positive, and local companies are grateful of the opportunity to compete.
“In the maintenance field, a new framework agreement has been in place since June this year, and I am very glad to note that the number of local suppliers who received a place on the framework has increased from 41% to 60%.”

By Gareth Williams – Local Democracy Reporter