Millom Town Council
Millom Town Council was formed in 1974 when the parish boundaries changed from Cumberland.
Millom Town Council wants to mitigate as many procurement risks as possible, but before taking the risks head-on, we need to understand what we are up against. We have identified and put together a list of the top 5 procurement risks that the Council’s procurement planning should be aware of.
All procurement activities are prone to risks, and any Council’s procurement planning knows the value of the art of juggling these risks. It’s all about safeguarding our projects/services from any problem that can arise during the procurement process. We must consider the significance of controlling procurement risks and how those risks can be prevented, identified, and controlled.
Procurement risks are best understood as opportunities for something to go wrong or not happen as planned. Risks are essentially events that are uncertain in terms of their occurrence or impact on the Council’s ability to achieve its goals and objectives. They also include events that have already happened but haven’t had enough time to play out yet (known as “delayed consequences”).
Risks are anything that can happen with projects/services that will negatively affect our ability to achieve set goals or objectives—and there are many ways these risks can manifest themselves: late deliveries; quality issues; difficulty recruiting qualified staff; negative publicity; litigation costs; etc.
A robust Procurement Risk Strategy ensures future success of the Town Council’s capabilities with projects and acquiring suitable services.
Managing risks across the procurement process can help provide key benefits:
Having a clear understanding the needs, when and why they are needed, and how we will source them is critical to the success of any procurement project/services. Before starting the need analysis process, document the reasons like:
Throughout the need analysis process, check if the needs are stated accurately and within a realistic schedule and budget.
Contracts are not just agreements for purchasing; they are meant to foster mutually beneficial relationships, mitigate risks, and reduce costs. A deficit of dependable vendors and poorly constructed contractual procedures can delay projects. The only way to avoid these is to regularly audit the contract management process for inefficiencies and subsequent failures.
The Council must ensure they have a variety of reputable suppliers to maximise full efficiencies for all deliverable projects. For this to happen carefully audited process for purchasing, approvals, and payments need to be in place. A robust supplier selection process in place, will limit any risks from a host of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
In order to avoid such risks, we need to:
Supplier management is a big responsibility for any procurement process. Monitoring is the key for any projects undertaken. The cause of errors can be anything, but understanding and rectifying them is necessary to remove frictions from processes. Early intervention and continued monitoring is the key.
The challenges are: labour shortages mean companies are struggling to find workers with the skills they need; transport networks are under strain due to increased freight volumes; and there’s an increasing reliance on electronic components which makes manufacturing more complex than ever before.
The Town Council will review and monitor weekly work undertaken by contractors. Ensuring deadlines and expenditure are managed in accordance with project timeline. This can be recorded on the Procurement Check List or the “Weekly Report Sheet”. All issues must be brought to the attention of the Procurement Councillor and Clerk in the first instance.
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