A major lack of skills and expertise among Council staff tasked with getting the best deals from its suppliers has been uncovered.

Bradford Council spends about £350 million with outside suppliers each year, and holds more than 1,500 contracts.

But the Council’s Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee has revealed a major skills shortage among staff who buy goods, commission work or negotiate contracts with suppliers.

The committee had conducted a wide-ranging review of the Council’s procurement and commissioning procedures, to see how effective they were in getting the best value for taxpayers’ money. It is now drawing up a final report into what it found, but initial findings reveal that: l Of 170 Council employees doing procurement work, none were actually trained in it l Staff lacked a “widespread understanding of both UK law and European directives related to procurement and commissioning”

l Among a 20-strong dedicated procurement team, there was also a “shortage of procurement skills and expertise”

l This team was “often asked to conduct tenders at short notice and are unable to maximise value improvement”

l Officers were “often restrained and inflexible in their approach to procurement and were becoming very compliant and rules orientated”.

The committee is drawing up a list of recommendations, which are likely to include calls to start regular training sessions for all relevant staff.

It could also recommend a change in the Council’s use of a body called the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation, which provides goods and services such as furniture and cleaning products to all local authorities in Yorkshire, including Bradford.

Committee member Councillor Simon Cooke (Con, Bingley Rural) said: “I think the officers have been quite honest about this, that the Council needs to improve the skills levels of the people in charge of these processes.”

He said it was difficult to say how much of the Council’s £350 million spend could be saved by overhauling the way the Council bought goods or services.

Responding to the report, a Council spokesman said: “Staff involved in the actual setting up of purchasing frameworks, or complex one-off requirements are specialists in commissioning and procurement processes and have knowledge of relevant UK law and European Directives.

“These staff support commissioning and procurement activity for all of the Council's departments.”