Ref. 28599-03A COUNCILLOR is to be made a "champion" of good housekeeping for Swindon Council.

It follows the recent revelations in the Advertiser that Swindon Council spends £100m a year of taxpayers' money on new equipment, yet there is no central purchasing department ensuring public money is spent prudently.

Now the decision-making cabinet is expected to agree to appoint a "champion" of procurement from among councillors at its meeting tomorrow.

This member will be responsible for:

Monitoring procurement strategy.

Overseeing contract management.

Instigating best value reviews of council buying.

The cabinet will also be paving the way for the appointment of a procurement manager even though just before Christmas it voted for a freeze on recruitment in order to save money.

However, the council's chief executive, Simon Birch, claims that these costs will be met from within existing budgets, suggesting that the appointment could be an internal one.

The new officer will be in charge of identifying how savings can be made in all departmental budgets.

Mr Birch said: "There is clear evidence that we are not exploiting our purchasing power to minimise the costs of goods and services procured for the council.

"Implementation of the strategy should allow savings to be achieved on the costs of some goods and services.

"It is estimated that by robust application of the principles of the strategy significant savings could be achieved on council budgets once any initial one-off costs have been incurred."

More than £400,000 was spent by the council on stationery and general office supplies during 2002-3.

In his report to the cabinet, Mr Birch will estimate that as much as £80,000 could be saved annually on office supplies.

Swindon Services, the refuse collecting and recycling arm of the council headed by John Short, currently buys the same goods as other departments at, on average, 40 per cent less.

More than £1m is currently being paid yearly to agencies for temporary staff and Mr Birch believes that it could be cut by £50,000.

"While some of this spend is for specialised professional staff with little scope for savings, the majority is with non-specialist agencies offering individuals with general office skills," he said.

"By placing this business with one or more agencies by competitive tender, personnel staff have indicated that they would expect a saving of at least five per cent, equating to approximately £50,000."

Council leader Mike Bawden (Con, Old Town and Lawns) believes that nothing short of a complete culture change will suffice.

"What's been going on is appalling," he said.

"It would not be tolerated in the private sector.

"It's as if the heads of departments haven't been speaking to one another.

"We have to bring the operation together into a tight ship not another Titanic."

Michael Litchfield