Officials at Birmingham City Council accused of wasting millions of pounds of public money by refusing to use centrally-negotiated contracts when ordering goods and services are likely to face disciplinary action and could be sacked.
The council hopes to save more than £35?million a year after investing in the Voyager computer system to improve procurement procedures.
But directors heading a business transformation programme have admitted that, despite being handed “how do I buy” guides covering 65 approved suppliers, many managers are ignoring centralised purchasing rules and continuing to go-it-alone by buying more expensively “off contract”.
Corporate director of business change, Glyn Evans, told a scrutiny committee that a pilot study in the chief executive’s department would identify anyone failing to follow the new procurement procedures and is likely to be rolled out across the rest of the council.
The council spends about £1billion a year on procurement and has been attempting for years to cut costs by negotiating better deals with suppliers.
Mr Evans added: “It is critically important that we address this issue.
“We are battling against history here and trying to move to a more corporate approach, but I would like us to be moving more quickly.”
Scrutiny committee members remain highly sceptical about the corporate services section of business transformation, which seeks to save the council almost £1?billion by 2017.
Much of the money will be used to improve front-line services and to keep council tax increases low.
More than £300?million of the savings have already been signed off by the Customer Services Transformation Benefits Realisation Board, and 167 council jobs have disappeared as a result.
Mr Evans said “robust” evidence was required to satisfy the board that the savings were being delivered.
