Council reduces consultancy spend

Councillor Farooq Ahmed

Rochdale Borough Council has reduced its spend on external consultants by almost 70 per cent in the last three years.

In January 2010 processes were improved governing the use of consultants and between 2008 and the end of the 2010/2011 financial year, revenue spend had reduced to £378,000.

Councillor Farooq Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Finance said, “We understand that public money spent on consultants is something that residents are interested in and I’m delighted we’ve been able to reduce spend this much.

“Sometimes we do need to draw on consultants if we don’t have the experience or skills within the Council, but I am now confident that we have a rigorous process in place.

“The new process ensures a consistent approach is used and further guidance has been provided to officers writing specifications to make sure we are clear about what we want from consultants, and that we achieve our objectives.”

The Council is to adopt the ‘Seeker Managed Service’ system in October this year, to further improve the management of consultancy spend. The system is being implemented across Greater Manchester and Lancashire and is already operating in Salford and Blackburn with Darwen Councils.

Georgina Jones, Head of Procurement at the Council, said: “The Seeker Managed Service will provide many benefits.

“For example it will give us even more information on which to base our decisions, it will enable regular benchmarking of rates to ensure that the best terms are achieved and it will make it easier for local consultancies to bid for work, which is always a key priority for the Council, by creating one point of contact via the Seeker system.

“We will be holding an event in the near future to introduce potential suppliers to the system.”

The reduction in consultancy spend and the adoption of the new system will be considered by Cabinet on Monday 11 July.