As we close out 2024, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who has supported LGP during 2024. It has been a remarkable 12 months for our business, customers, and staff.
The LGP Board has once again been terrific supporters of the Executive team and continues to actively encourage and engage with the LGP team at all levels. We appreciate the support, advice and guidance we receive in leading and growing our business.
Our loyal staff at LGP have truly excelled this year. We have taken our opportunities, worked through challenges and emerged even stronger. The strength of the new talent we have brought into the business during 2024 is testimony to where we are as a business, and the vision we want them to help us deliver going forward. I would like to publicly thank them for their hard work, persistence, reliability, unwavering focus in supporting our goals.
In terms of achievement, as I have shared across various LGP News editions in 2024, we of course celebrated another great LGP Annual Conference, collaborating with over 250 attendees. We delivered nine Network Meetings across the state, along with more than 20 webinars and information sessions. In November, our rebate scheme distributed $1.5 million, and under Release 3 of our Procurement Capability Grant Program, we funded a record $145,000 in new projects. We continued with our Indigenous Procurement Program for local government, expanded our use and application of artificial intelligence across the business, had LGP staff appointed to various external committee positions. We also trained over 600 people throughout 2024.
Our contracts drove $978m in spend, supported by our councils who released 2,240 Request for Quotations under our 35 contracts, where 32 councils achieved record spend by tapping into our 1,100 valued suppliers. Once again, we assessed all our suppliers for modern slavery risk in their supply chains. We began our ISO9001 quality management journey to help us become operationally better, and we published another white paper this time on Circular Economy. We completed our Stakeholder Sentiment project which is shaping how we can provide even greater value to our councils and, importantly, to our suppliers.
The FY2024 Annual Report is now available on our website. We invite you to explore the many accomplishments and stories that highlight our year of success. https://lgp.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/LGP-Annual-Report-24.pdf
Looking ahead to 2025 we again have a busy events program of network meetings in new locations, more webinars and information sessions, and of course the LGP Annual Conference. Shortly we will launch a new indigenous procurement strategy to help NSW councils find indigenous businesses to deliver initiatives and build new relationships. Additionally, Release 4 of the Procurement Capability Grant Fund will be announced, along with the new Innovation Development Fund to be made available to NSW councils who are looking for support with digital transformation. Later in the year, we will introduce new training courses and a new disaster response procurement solution.
There is so much more to come….stay tuned!
On behalf of all the LGP team, we wish you a safe and happy holiday, and all the very best for the 2025 year ahead.
Thank you.