Councillors in Orkney have heard that delays to their procurement process have come as a result of a damning internal audit.
At a meeting of the council’s asset management sub-committee yesterday, members viewed a report that said the council is experiencing delays in its procurement process.
Councillors Steven Heddle asked for some more detail on the delays.
Specifically, these related to the council’s plant, equipment and vehicle replacement programme.
He was told that council’s team have more work on their plate, following the review of a situation where 80,000 of stone was ordered from a quarry on mainland Scotland.
The council’s procurement process came under criticism in March last year after an investigation that looked at how almost £1.5million worth of stone was purchased from Glensanda Quarry, Oban.
A review by the council’s internal auditors found significant breaches in the local authority’s own policy and protocol.
Responding to councillor Heddle, the council’s interim executive director of environmental, property and IT services Haley Green said: “As members will be aware, over the last 12 months, the procurement team have picked up quite a bit of additional work.
“This is following on from the internal audit with regards to the quarry stone.
More work coming to the procurement team is ‘a good thing’
“For example, we’ve been doing procurement plans for every procurement over £10,000 which is quite a bit of extra work.
“There’s been more work coming through procurement because of that.
“It’s what we expected and was spoken about at the time of the internal audit. We’re looking to get additional resources into the procurement team through the year.”
However, the council officer said there had been two, if not three, unsuccessful attempts to recruit a new procurement officer.
Although there had been more luck bringing in help at a more junior level, she said.
She added: “We are getting there but there’s no doubt that there’s been more work coming through. That’s a good thing. However, it has led to some delays.”
Councillor Heddle said he had asked to see what help could be given.
However, he added that he was “satisfied that something is being done about it”.