Council achievements in improved services and savings recognised

Thursday, 8 November 2018

Inner West Council’s continued efforts to harmonise and improve services were recognised last week with a citation for “advancing it’s procurement performance and maturity”.

The Inner West Council citation was for improved performance and almost a million dollars in procurement savings for 2018.

The annual Local Government Procurement Awards celebrate those procurement professionals or groups who are making a difference in local government and their community.

The Awards recognise excellence and best practice in the field of procurement within the local government sector.

Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne said there was still years of work ahead in fully harmonising Council’s services, and that Council was moving as quickly as possible to identify the best of the services offered by the three former Councils and then introducing these across the entire new local government area.

"It's about protecting all the things good in the former three councils but also raising the bar and extending the things the councils did well into the other areas," he said.

“It’s really gratifying that all our hard work so far has been recognised in this way,” he said.

The award is also a recognition that Council is on track to meet the four per cent savings target identified in this’s budget.

“As I said at the time, we will achieve this at the same time as we protect jobs and not cut services.

“Instead, we have concentrated on harmonising computer systems and improving procurement to reduce costs," Mayor Byrne said.

“For example, by consolidating our cleaning tenders across all Inner West Council sites, we’ve saved over $600,000. And by teaming up with Strathfield, Burwood and Canada Bay councils on a new Library Management System, we saved another $80,000.

“Just through better purchasing, we have saved our community almost a million dollars,” Mayor Byrne said.

Local Government Procurement CEO Luke Kenny said, “Local Government Procurement congratulates Inner West Council for achieving the advanced stage in the Leading Efficiency and Analytics Program (LEAP). The program is a joint initiative of Local Government Procurement and ArcBlue and recognises 16% improvement in procurement maturity and $946,000 procurement savings for 2018.”

For more on the Awards, go to https://lgp.org.au/councils/training-professional-development/procurement-awards. For a print quality image, contact the Communication team.

For further information, please contact Elizabeth Heath | Media and Communications Coordinator P: +61 2 9392 5334 | E: elizabeth.heath@innerwest.nsw.gov.au