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Meeting of the Parliament 17 April 2013

17 Apr 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Public Procurement Reform

Stewart, Kevin SNP Aberdeen Central Watch on SPTV

I thank the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee for giving us this opportunity to debate this important issue today. For many, this issue is not particularly sexy, but I am an anorak when it comes to procurement, and the submissions that we have received show that there are many other folk who take a keen interest in what we are about to embark on with regard to the public procurement bill.

As I said, I am an anorak. Where do I begin? In my previous life as a councillor, I was often told that we could not do certain things because of EU procurement rules. That got to me so much that I decided that I would go on some training to see whether those barriers really existed, and I had the council’s procurement system—PECOS—installed on the computer in my office, so that I could track what was going on. I know that that is beyond anorakishness, but I think that it was important, because I found that a lot of the barriers that were said to be there were not there at all. I discovered that the reason why some folk took the view that they did was down to custom and practice and an aversion to risk. We need to challenge some of the custom and practice that exists around procurement.

Beyond that, we must ensure that folk know what best value and value for money are. Giving evidence to the Local Government and Regeneration Committee on 27 March this year, James Thomson of Scott-Moncrieff said:

“On best value principles, there has been confusion in some of the responses from others. It is not about just going for the lowest-cost option; it is about having regard to economy, efficiency and effectiveness, and delivering continuous improvement and sustainable services.”—[Official Report, Local Government and Regeneration Committee, 27 March 2013; c 1971.]

I agree with his definition.

Page 3 of the Scottish Government’s “Community Benefits in Public Procurement Guidance Note” says:

“The priority for all public procurement is to achieve Value for Money … Value for money does not, however, mean ‘lowest price’. It is defined in the Scottish Public Finance Manual as ‘the optimum combination of whole life cost and quality to meet the end user’s requirement’.”

The mention of “whole life cost” and “the end user’s requirement” makes me think of the story about grandma’s 50-year-old broom. It has done a huge amount of work over its 50-year life and it has had only nine new handles and 11 new brushes. Those are the kind of things that we must think of when we make major decisions on procurement.

The proposed bill will not be a panacea, as Linda Fabiani and Tavish Scott said. We must deal with the situation in the bill and other forthcoming bills in which procurement will play a major role, such as the community empowerment and renewal bill and the health and social care integration bill. Procurement will be at the forefront of those bills, and we need to consider carefully what we do in that regard.

A huge number of the difficulties that we have are the result of a lack of common sense—a severe lack of common sense in some cases.

The Local Government and Regeneration Committee visited Ayr on Monday to hear the views of folks from Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway. A huge number of community representatives gave their views in the community engagement session and, beyond that, we had folk giving formal evidence at a meeting in the afternoon. However, some of the best conversations are always had during the breaks and at lunch time.

In those communities and throughout the country, a huge number of community organisations are doing everything possible to better the lives of the folks they live alongside. However, bureaucracies that local authorities, health boards and others have put in place are impeding the small-scale procurement that those organisations are doing.

I will give an example, although I have only one minute left in which to give it. A guy talked about his community group wanting a new wheelbarrow. They had to go around the houses to buy a new wheelbarrow. They had to get three written quotations and give them to the council for the council to decide which wheelbarrow the group could get. However, this guy had the gumption—the common sense—to realise what the wheelbarrow requirement was and where he could get it for the lowest cost.

That kind of nonsense must be dealt with. Although I welcome the bill, it will not be a panacea. I call for a degree of gumption.

15:48

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Meeting of the Parliament 17 April 2013

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