Plymouth City Council has refreshed its contract standing orders - its procurement bible - to make it simpler for local businesses to bid for contracts.
The Council recently launched its ‘Spend 4 Plymouth’ initiative to keep the pound in Plymouth as much as possible and to make sure the authority’s spending benefits Plymouth, its people as well as its environment.
This is part of the Council’s Resurgam COVID-19 economic recovery plan to reduce the impact of the pandemic and to deliver a more equal, sustainable and prosperous city. The programme looks at what the Council can do to protect jobs and help the city’s residents and it has already set a target of increasing by 10 per cent any spend on Plymouth goods, services or works over the next two years.
The Council is in the process of reviewing its policies and procedures to make sure they are flexible, efficient and local-supplier friendly. It has refreshed its Contract Standing Orders - part of its constitution that sets out the rules for procuring goods, services and works.
This refresh increases the opportunity for local suppliers by:
- Being more flexible around selecting procedures so that suppliers do not waste time completing unnecessary paperwork
- Streamlining procedures so that suppliers spend less time bidding
- Standardising procedures meaning fewer processes for suppliers to learn
- Ensuring the benefits for the city’s economy, society and environment are taken into account over and above the basic cost and quality of every procurement
- Streamlining internal governance so suppliers find out the results of a procurement faster.
For more information on Spend 4 Plymouth and our wider Resurgam programme visit resurgam.uk.