Welsh public procurement policy has come under significant critical scrutiny over the last year, with the Wales Audit Office highlighting strategic and practical shortcomings and the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee finding mixed results for the effectiveness of procurement policy.
The First Minister has emphasised the importance of smarter and more ethical procurement to support the Well-being policy goals, of raising the status of procurement and of harnessing its power to support regionally-based SMEs and the foundational economy.
The Wales Centre for Public Policy has been exploring the case for a more strategic approach to public procurement, with a series of events and publications over the last eighteen months.
We believe that there is value in bringing public procurement professionals together to discuss practical approaches to addressing the barriers they face. The aim of this event was to offer a ‘safe space’ with some commentary from experts and a facilitated open and honest roundtable discussion of practical challenges and what would need to be done to address them.
Speakers included:
• Liz Lucas, Caerphilly County Borough Council
• Jane Lynch, Cardiff Business School
• Kevin Morgan, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University
• Steve Robinson, City of Cardiff Council
You can read more about this event on our Twitter moment.