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Guildford Borough Council is First in Surrey to
Deploy spotlightonspend for Greater Transparency on Public
Spending
spotlightonspend enables Council to publish and compare
spend data over £500 against standardised metrics in line with
‘Programme for Government’ requirements
Newbury, Berkshire – 12 July 2010 – Guildford
Borough Council has deployed spotlightonspend,
an online transparency platform, designed to radically improve the
accessibility, relevance and value of Government spend information
to the general public. The Council is the first in Surrey and
the second in the country to publish all spending over £500 online
as part of the new ‘Programme for Government’ requirements on
public spending and transparency, which comes into effect in
January 2011.
spotlightonspend is a web-based platform providing an easy and
intuitive way for councils to publish information on overall spend
on goods and services being purchased above £500 or £25,000 for
Central Government, and in addition, information on which private
sector companies are doing the supplying. Published spend
information can be compared against useful standardised metrics,
making comparisons possible between authorities of differing sizes.
Metrics include: per full time employee, spend with small and
medium sized enterprises (SMEs), spend relative to the number of
households, working population, persons of pensionable age and
number of children that make up the resident population.
"We offer a wide range of services and some of our residents may
not be aware of exactly what is involved in providing these. So
we've signed up to present our spending figures in a clear and open
way using the spotlightonspend platform,” said Councillor Andrew
Hodges, Lead Councillor for Finance and Resources for Guildford
Borough Council. ”The coalition government recently said it would
like all councils to supply this information online, and we are
pleased to be the first council in Surrey, and the second in the
country to do so. One of the core values of the Council is that our
work will be publicly accountable and presented with openness and
transparency. spotlightonspend is an excellent way of helping
us to deliver this."
Guildford Borough Council's financial data is available to
search and view via its website http://www.guildford.gov.uk under
‘Spotlight on Spend’. It contains information on how much the
Council pays for services such as street cleaning, leisure and
housing.
spotlightonspend enables standardisation and a consistent method
of classifying spend making it possible to compare a public bodies’
spend to either the average level for that public body type or
another public body, facilitating a deeper level of transparency.
spotlightonspend allocates suppliers and their associated spend
into clearly labelled categories, with easily recognisable terms
for goods and services, such as ‘building supplies’ or ‘taxis’ for
example.
spotlightonspend is powered by Spikes Cavell whose products and
services are currently being used by more than 720 public sector
bodies nationwide to support their drive to improve the way they
buy goods and services with the objective of saving money as well
as addressing important policy related questions, including
transparency. http://www.spikescavell.net/
- ends -
About spotlightonspend:
spotlightonspend is an innovative online platform and supporting
data processing infrastructure that has been designed to radically
improve the accessibility, relevance and value of Government spend
information to the general public. http://www.spotlightonspend.org.uk
For further information, please contact:
Hayley Wienszczak
Spikes Cavell & Co
Tel: +44 (0)1635 556970
Email: hayley.wienszczak@spikescavell.net
Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: +44 (0) 7768 693 779
Email: vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com
Catherine Abraham
Guildford Borough Council
Tel: +44 (0)1483 444336
Email: catherine.abraham@guildford.gov.uk