Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at 2:00 pm on 18 April 2018.
Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. It's become more and more apparent in light of the report of the auditor general, for example, and then the evidence gathered by the Public Accounts Committee recently, that one of the cornerstones of the procurement policy of the Welsh Government, namely the National Procurement Service, is underachieving to say the least. The target, if Members recall, back in 2012, when the service was created, was to generate £25 million of savings on expenditure of £4.3 billion within the public sector. But, in the most recent years for which we have figures in the auditor's report, only £15 million has been delivered on a spend of £6 billion. We also discover in the report that only 19 per cent of members of the service have declared that they are making financial savings, and only a third of all local authorities are content with the service. And even the Welsh Government are saying that they are dissatisfied with the service that they themselves have created. Isn't it clear, Cabinet Secretary, that Welsh Government procurement policy is currently failing?