Last weekend, Island Labour’s chairman, Julian Critchley, questioned why the Isle of Wight council has spent over £40,000 with Amazon in the last twelve months.
He argued that in 2015 the Isle of Wight council signed an accord with the Island Federation of Small Businesses which pledged to, where possible, use small businesses to provide goods and services, but had discovered that “significant amounts of money that could be kept on the Island and might even be the difference between local businesses thriving or dying are routinely being spent on companies like Amazon”.
IWC: Amazon spending “for reasons of urgency and specificity”
In response to the report, a spokesperson from Isle of Wight council told OnTheWight,
“We have spent £37,000 with Amazon in the last 12 months, mostly on books and IT equipment, for reasons of urgency and specificity of the items required.
“This represents 0.02 percent of our total spend with suppliers over this period.
“We have spent £50 million with local suppliers over this period and this does not include mainland companies who have Island-based businesses, such as care homes.
“It also does not include spend on larger contracts such as Island Roads, Amey and the NHS.”
Different figures
There’s a difference between the two claimed figures – £41k from Cllr Critchley vs £37 from IWC. IWC have confirmed to OnTheWight that the period of time they based their spending figures on (Nov 17 – Oct 18) is the same as Cllr Critchley’s.
Use IW ‘where they offer best value’
OnTheWight asked whether council had a policy in place to encourage officers and staff to buy locally rather than through Amazon?
The spokesperson replied,
“The council’s procurement policy contains provision that, where they offer best value, officers should use an Isle of Wight based supplier for contracts where the value falls below £25,000.
“Contracts over this value are advertised in the open market.”
Update 12:25 : Altered text about the different in claimed Amazon spending figured, after IWC confirmed they were covering the same period.
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