The thing I’m most proud of, working for the LGAQ, is both the fearlessness and resoluteness of our organisation. We defend our sphere of government to the hilt when under attack and we have the will to have a red-hot go at new things like emerging technologies and business model opportunities that create big wins for our members.
Two wins for the ages this year were: the removal of Compulsory Preferential Voting as the election method in March 2020 - and, the big federal council drought funding breakthrough that came through in recent weeks. Both capped of a very successful year for our Advocacy team, led by the President and Policy Executive, and the LGAQ Advocate Manager Sarah Buckler, backed up by a team of LGAQ staff drawn across the organisation.
When it comes to reframing markets and capturing real opportunities, we do all the necessary homework - then pounce.
Last month, the LGAQ Board signed off on a $7 million investment in the Local Buy Next Gen project - a massive down payment on both fraud proofing and achieving greater value for money from the entire council procurement function - worth about $6.5 billion a year.
Yes sir- ee! This is as big as it gets. World leading and certainly the first of its kind in Australia. It follows on from the successful million-dollar Proof of Concept for Blockchain and Smart Contracts undertaken by the LGAQ and Local Buy over the past year. Now we are on to the full-blown version and some.
Here’s how it works: Peak Services/ Local Buy will create an ecosystem bringing together technology platforms through a single council friendly portal. This ecosystem includes analytics, a procurement platform and of course a Blockchain.
This will deliver a streamlined, easy to use platform with everything in once place for buyers and suppliers. This means - reduced risk, better value, smarter sourcing, with faster processes and visibility for councils across all procurement options in a single access integrated ecosystem.
Esentially, this is a sustainable solution that supports councils to improve their procurement– and another example of how LGAQ is enabling councils to stay ahead of the game with smart and emerging solutions.
The Auditor- General has been across our journey every step of the way and is fully supportive of the additional rigour and provenance that Local Buy Next Gen will bring to Queensland Councils.
This a very large undertaking so it will take between three and four years to progressively implement.
But what a journey we now are all on.
As I said at the outset, I’m so proud to work for the LGAQ a leader in every way.