Despite targeting £1bn a year in cost coverage nationally when it was set up in 2013, the Welsh National Procurement Service has had to be bailed out by the Welsh Government after failing to deliver.
A body conceived to deliver savings across Welsh public sector spending has been bailed out by the Welsh Government after making millions in losses.
The National Procurement Service was formed to aggregate public sector spend for categories such as energy and temporary staff worth around £1bn a year.
Spending watchdog the Wales Audit Office found that only 15% of the £1bn public spend target was captured by the service in 2015-16, though it did generate £25m of savings on this addressable spend.
One major issue is that the service was only able to recoup £400k of its £2.4m operating costs.
The service did manage to increase its spend portfolio to around £235m in the 2016-17 financial year, but only achieved savings of £14.8m - around 60% of what was expected - and it again made a loss of about £2m.
The service has not been able to repay a Welsh Government loan totaling almost £6m.
The audit office also found that only a third of public bodies who took part in a survey were satisfied with the service.
The news follows reports last year that the NPS were forced to re-tender their largest single contract lot following a challenge from an unsuccessful supplier.
The challenge related to the application of the defined award criteria - a topic which can be a fine line to tread in public sector procurement.
A parliamentary review will explore ways of refocusing the strategic direction of the service.
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