Questions to the Minister for Finance and Government Business
Minister, the ‘A Picture of Public Services 2015’ report by the Auditor General for Wales identified several common barriers affecting the access to public sector procurement, especially for small, local enterprises, in particular the amount of bureaucracy in local authority procurement that makes it absolutely impossible for smaller providers to compete. Minister, how can we address these barriers in the next Assembly term, so that we can all keep the Welsh pound going around in our own constituencies across Wales?
Of course, all local authorities have signed up to our Welsh procurement policy statement. And, the adoption of tools like the supplier qualification information database and the joint bidding guidance do lower barriers for Welsh business to access our contracts, but also we have invested in the home-grown project to ensure that we can improve the ability, consistency and professionalism of those in the procurement sector, particularly in local government.