Inside Kildare County Council’s procurement unit
For a period of two years Kildare County Council was unable to recruit a procurement officer as the competition with the private sector was an obstacle we could not overcome.
Therefore, it was decided that a position would be recruited internally with the procurement officer a designated Local Authority Grade 7. It was then decided by management of Kildare County Council to future proof the procurement role by establishing a team of staff to support to the Procurement Officer.
The Procurement Unit in Kildare County Council now comprises of a team of four comprising, Clodagh Lyons, Senior Executive Engineer for Procurement, Property and Facilities; Sabrina Fogarty, Procurement Officer; Fergus Hogan, Staff Officer; and Aiveen Dykes, Assistant Staff Officer. This ensures a solid team with procurement knowledge that will allow for staff movement into the future.
The role of the procurement unit in Kildare County Council is to assist staff to ensure procurement compliance, staff awareness and training, standardising procurement procedures, and promoting the goal of attaining value for money for public money spent. We have an open-door policy and are committed to assisting each section across Kildare County Council at any stage of the procurement process. We have a decentralised model of procurement in our organisation for the procurement of goods, services, and works which means that it is the responsibility of the individual sections to procure, which is backed up by the support and advice of the procurement team.
One of our key achievements in 2024 was the establishment of a procurement steering group which holds quarterly meetings. It has representatives organisation wide, from libraries, finance, economic development, transport, environment, public realm, community and housing. It serves as an intermediary between the procurement unit and the staff within individual departments.
There had previously been no such group in Kildare County Council for several years. The representatives in the group discuss the procurement issues that are going to have an impact on their sections, for example Office of Government Procurement reporting. The members then disseminate information back to their section. This has been very successful with full attendance from all participation at our quarterly meetings.
Another significant milestone for us in the Procurement Unit is the development of a procurement portal. Its function is to provide a ‘go to’ location for staff for all procurement information. This has become a popular site on our intranet with high traffic flow. We are also provided with information on the key areas that are searched and even the date and time when the portal is accessed. This allows us to build up trends on procurement across the organisation, and tailor our training programmes. In essence it acts as a ‘one-stop shop’ for procurement, providing information on procurement procedures and policies, guidance on thresholds, and tender document templates which end users can use when creating and publishing their tender and quotation documents.
The ‘Latest News’ section keeps our audience up to date with any procurement alerts or updates. The main types of queries that our staff ask are in relation to procurement advice, system support, and requests for procurement information. The portal provides a reporting facility which enables us to look at what the main areas that end users are viewing and this helps us identify potential training needs, which allows us to support the organisation. On average, between 700 and 800 visits are made to the portal per month. Feedback from our staff has been very positive.
We also support staff navigating such platforms as eTenders and Supply Gov. This has been very successful with sections as they found the new eTenders system difficult to navigate.
In November 2024 the Procurement Office, in collaboration with the Local Enterprise Office, hosted a Public Procurement Briefing designed to equip local SMEs with the knowledge to successfully engage in Ireland’s public procurement process. Our aim was to demonstrate transparency to SMEs and demystify the tendering process. This briefing highlighted KCC’s 2025 procurement plans, providing Kildare-based SMEs with valuable insights into opportunities for business growth. Kildare County Council is committed to encouraging more local SMEs to engage in the procurement process. The briefing also provided an overview of KCC’s procurement plans across five key departments: roads/transport, housing, environment, corporate services, and enterprise and economic development. We also provided breakout sessions for people to get further information from the presenters.
Over the last two years, great strides have been made in addressing the deficit of procurement advice and knowledge within the organisation. We have built up extensive support systems for all staff through the rolling out of extensive training on the basics of procurement through to more complex issues that arise.
Kildare County Council recently appointed an outside procurement adviser to develop the knowledge of the procurement team and to provide advice when challenges arise.
The key challenges we have faced were building up a good working relationship with our colleagues who are procuring in each section, and establishing a contracts register.
We work closely with the Office of Government Procurement, and they provide useful, prompt advice and assistance with tendering.
We aim to ensure high standards of openness, transparency, and compliance with all relevant public procurement directives and legislation in all our procurement work. Our mission is to support service delivery by the Council and to fulfil the strategic objectives in the Council’s Corporate Plan and to achieve value for money for Kildare County Council.
Our goal is to facilitate economic, social, and environment objectives through social and green procurement and by engaging with businesses and suppliers.
