Statements on Expenditure 2023-24

Efficient government

In 2004, the Scottish Government began developing a programme to improve efficiency in the public sector. A target of increasing efficiency savings by 2% for each year of the 2007 Spending Review was applied to portfolios across the Scottish Government.

Following on from this, the Scottish Government set targets of 3% savings which were to be achieved each year going forward. The baseline against which the percentage efficiency savings is measured is 2010-11 DEL. For AiB this was £3.2 million and a savings target of £96,000.

AiB continues to work to this target and the total efficiency savings for the last two years are shown below:

Savings as a percentage of the total expenditure budget is as follows:

Estimated savings of £108,000 were achieved through our use of Scottish Government collaborative frameworks.

The collaborative frameworks utilised include, but are not limited to, those for the provision of IT equipment, legal services, printing, postage and utilities.

Shared services

In 2023-24, AiB made use of various collaborative frameworks and contracts including the Scottish Government contract for facilities management (MITIE). We also relied on the Scottish Government for our building security arrangements.

AiB made use of the Scottish Government Legal Directorate for advice and awarded call off contracts using the Scottish Government framework for banking services.

As an Executive Agency we make use of many Scottish Government systems. We use the Scottish Government Accounting System (SEAS) to record financial transactions, we also use the Scottish Government PECOS system for some procurement activity. Some finance support is also provided by the Scottish Government Treasury and Banking team, for payments and banking of income, and Central Accountancy Services provide support for financial statements consolidation work. All human resource activity, including payroll, individual casework, grievances, HR policy and advice, contract management and recruitment for specific roles utilises the Scottish Government systems.

AiB also has a strategic partnership with the Scottish Government’s Information and Technology Services division (iTECS) which delivers SCOTS & network services, telephony and applications support.

Procurement and contract management

The procurement team consists of a Head of Procurement and two further procurement posts.

Our procurement policy and purchasing procedures for staff are communicated through our internal and external websites, ensuring up to date contract information is available for interested parties. Annual procurement strategies and reports are published on the website.

The AiB Contract Management team continued to manage the majority of AiB contracts in 2023/24, ensuring up to date management information was being collated to allow review of performance. This management information continues to be used for commodity and supplier analysis in tendering exercises.