12 April 2006

E-auctions can "dramatically" cut costs of council goods and services, new figures reveal.

Research conducted by the Regional Centres of Excellence even suggests that the cost can be reduced by an average of one quarter.

The report also found that nine e-auctions held in 2005/06 produced savings of £12,886,000 from an outlay of £137,000. This works out at a gain of £94 on every £1 spent.

Particularly successful examples were outlined in the report, including some London boroughs and Surrey County Council which have reaped the financial benefits of e-auctions for the future supply of highways salt.

The auction managed to secure a saving of £240,000 from four lots of salt weighing around 122,000 tonnes.

Similarly in the south-west councils worked together to conduct an e-auction designed to find the most cost effective way of hiring agency staff.

© Adfero Ltd

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