THINK Procurement

What did we have?

MOSTLY DECENTRALISED PROCUREMENT

• Staff purchasing in isolation with little guidance or adherence to Council policy

• Inefficient spending• Minimal environmental consideration• Almost no incorporation of socially responsible

elements in procurement planning or purchasing

Issue Identification and needs analysis

Objective: to avoid unnecessary consumption and generate economic, social and environmental value, and this in turn will ensure that publicly funded purchases achieve and maximise overall value for money, while minimising risk.

Supplier social and ethical responsibility

Minimise environmental impact

Sustainable

The Plan1. Research what systems exist, how, why people

procure – analysis and diagnosis2. Collaborate cross council for input and buy in via

workshops, working group, trials - objectives3. Draft a policy - criteria4. Create new workflow procedures - options5. Finalise document suite and start training staff -

execution6. Revise and adapt - review

What have we got now

Sustainable Choice

Environmental Leadership

Ethical Leadership

Australian Made

Contains Recycled Content

Energy Efficient

Water Efficient

Low Carbon

Non Toxic Content

Minimal Environmental Impact

The key training strategies are to: (Run by North Sydney Institute of TAFE)

• Emphasise the transformative potential of sustainable procurement practices;

• Encourage systems thinking;• Motivate learners to participate in sustainable practices by developing a

shared vision for a sustainable future;• Emphasise the importance of partnerships for change in establishing

procurement relationships;• Create a group-learning environment with peer mentoring;• Employ inquiry based learning approaches• Facilitate action learning using the Marrickville Council procurement

policy and procedures as a simulated workplace context.

What worked?

• Cross Council working group• Peer to Peer learning• Fresh perspectives – thinking outside the

box• Short, user friendly, simple policy• Simple step by step procedure• Links to our new project management

framework• Link to our Finance One training• Living the Marrickville Values

Where could we have done better?

• Having a reference group made up of staff who purchase often e.g. infrastructure services – this would have saved us time with the many iterations of the procedures

• Presenting key issues, statistics, opportunities to Senior Management early on in the process (to get more buy in)

• Better understanding of software/systems in place and how to integrate new procedures into those

• More comprehensive testing• More practical and mandatory tools e.g. clauses into

tenders• Dedicated resourcing (staff time and budget) to lead the

project

Next Steps

• Move to a centre led model through the SSROC Procurement Roadmap

• Further embed social responsibility into tender criteria

• Revise our: stores list, contracts and tender panels to ensure we are achieving against our QBL!

Questions…?