CBH staff good at following contracts when purchasing
KTH's annual Spend Analysis for 2023 shows that CBH had a low percentage of purchases that were not properly tendered. Only five percent of purchases deviated from KTH's procedures.
"The Spend analysis shows that CBH's staff do a fantastic job when it comes to purchasing and procurement," says Kristina Holmberg, purchasing manager at CBH.
Spend is a collective term for an organization's purchases of goods, services and fixed assets. Salaries, rent for premises and VAT are not included in the concept.
The analysis is carried out annually by KTH's procurement group to identify future purchasing needs, identify non-contractual areas, increase KTH's contractual compliance, identify the need for training and support in the field of purchasing, and to find out what is not put out to tender.
Twice as many purchases
In April, the results for 2023 were released, showing that CBH accounts for 24% of KTH's total spend. In comparison, the other schools' spend was between 6 and 13 percent, while the share of operational support was 40 percent
"We have about twice as much purchasing as the other schools, 317.7 million SEK. If you look at the major areas for CBH, labs and core business make up 62 percent. That is by far our largest item. The next largest is fixed assets 16 percent, such as instruments. The rest are small items, such as consultants at 7 percent," says Kristina Holmberg.
What does the largest part of the purchases consist of?
"Everything within labs. We are very lab-heavy and there are a lot of purchases to run a lab in the form of consumables, reagents and chemicals."
CBH's largest supplier in terms of money is, as for several years in a row, Illumina AB with SEK 106.5 million. The purchases concern equipment and reagents within NGI Genomics Production and Clinical Genomics. The next largest item is Diners and concerns travel and accommodation. The 15 largest suppliers account for 63 percent of CBH's total spend. This figure does not indicate the number of purchases made.
Good track record in complying with agreements
Purchases within the government must be made either through framework agreements, procurement or direct procurement. The item "Other spend" is something that should have been put out to tender in the right way, but which did not follow KTH's purchasing procedures. Something that stands out is that of CBH's total spend for 2023, other spend only accounts for five percent of purchases.
"Five percent is an incredibly good figure. Everyone at CBH is terribly good at purchasing and executing it correctly. The staff have done a fantastic job in 2023," says Kristina Holmberg.
The trend for other spend has been declining for several years.
Why do you think that is?
"We have worked actively over the years and the training and information efforts that have been made have worked and been well received. These figures show that," says Kristina Holmberg.
Purchasing manager helps
The purchasing manager will guide, train and do the parts of purchasing and procurement that the organization's employees cannot or may not do themselves and be an intermediary between the school and the procurement group.
"You can contact me for any questions regarding the implementation of purchases. If you have or are planning purchases, you should contact me as early as possible. It makes things easier for everyone," says Kristina Holmberg.
Is there anything else that is important to consider?
"I would like to refer to the information available on the school's intranet pages and that you start there for a good start to your purchasing and procurement process."
Text: Sabina Fabrizi