The public sector in Wales spends approximately £6 billion per annum with external suppliers. This represents nearly one third of total devolved expenditure.
Approaches to procurement have recently come under critical scrutiny and a new national procurement strategy is currently being developed.
Public bodies in Wales need to ensure that their procurement decisions reflect the requirements set out in Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Adopting the principles of public services stewardship will enable them to do this because it ensures that procurement decisions address strategic and long-term priorities as opposed to narrow short-term cost based criteria.