At its meeting on 13 January 2016 the Executive Committee revised Contract Procedure Rules and RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the updated Contract Procedure Rules, as appended to the report, be APPROVED.  

57.1           At its meeting on 13 January 2016 the Executive Committee had considered revised Contract Procedure Rules and recommended to Council that the updated Rules, as appended to the report, be approved.

57.2           The report that had been considered by the Executive Committee had been circulated with the Agenda for the current meeting at Pages No. 24-51.

57.3           The Mayor reminded Members that they had been asked to agree an amendment to the Rules which had been recommended by the Executive Committee; to delete the last sentence at Paragraph 12.2 which stated that ‘Where tenders are submitted electronically via the Authority’s e-procurement system, Authorised Officers shall ensure that they are kept secure and un-opened until the specified date and time’.

57.4           The recommendation from the Executive Committee, including the amendment as requested by Officers, was proposed and seconded. During the brief discussion which ensued, a Member expressed the view that Councillors ought to be involved with the tender process and he questioned whether Officers would consider informing Lead Members when large contracts were released and tender bids were accepted. He felt that, currently, quite rightly, the process was very much Officer led but he felt there should be a duty for Lead Members to be involved. In response, the Borough Solicitor advised that the Contract Procedure Rules set out the procedural side of the tender process and the awarding of contracts; since the Council did not have individual Councillor decision-making, Members were not included in that process. She agreed that Lead Members should be aware of large contracts that were being let and she felt that this was probably already done informally through the Lead Member Briefings. However, if it was considered to be necessary this could be spelt out in the appropriate place and she undertook to consider what that might be. 

57.5           Accordingly, it was

                  RESOLVED          That the updated Contract Procedure Rules, as appended to                                   the report, be APPROVED subject to an amendment at                                           Paragraph 12.2 to delete the last sentence that reads ‘Where                                  tenders are submitted electronically via the Authority’s e-                                             procurement system, Authorised Officers shall ensure that they                                are kept secure and un-opened until the specified date and                          time’.

To recommend to Council that the updated Contract Procedure Rules be approved.  

That it be RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the updated Contract Procedure Rules, as appended to the report, be APPROVED.  

67.1           The report of the Finance and Asset Management Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 89-116, set out revised Contract Procedure Rules and Members were asked to recommend to Council that the revised Rules were approved.

67.2           Members were advised that the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules had last been fully updated in December 2006; although authority was given to the Borough Solicitor to approve minor amendments, the Contract Procedure Rules were now nearly ten years old and in need of revision to reflect the latest EU Directive and Public Contracts Regulations 2015 as well as the increased value of purchases. The Council was required to adopt Contract Rules in order to comply with Section 135 of the Local Government Act 1972 which required all local authorities to make standing orders with respect to the making of contracts by them or their behalf.

67.3           Attention was drawn to the revised Rules, attached to the report at Appendix A, and Members were advised that best practice had been sought when informing their development. The main changes recommended against the current Rules included: increased thresholds for low, intermediate and high value procurement; a legal requirement for any contract with a ‘whole life’ value in excess of £25,000 to be advertised on the Government’s contract finder website; a requirement to keep a contracts register of all contracts over £5,000 in line with the Local Authorities Transparency Code 2015; a legal requirement for electronic tendering; and an open tender process to be used from 1 January 2016 for all procurements under the EU threshold of £164,176.00. If the revised Rules were approved by Council on 26 January 2016 it was intended that they would become active for all procurement activities with effect from 1 February 2016. A revised procurement toolkit would be issued to Officers and training would also be provided.

67.4           A Member questioned whether the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 applied to all bodies of Local Government and, in response, the Finance and Asset Management Group Manager explained that he would need to look at the Regulations and advise the Councillor following the meeting. A Member suggested that better communication was required throughout the Council when contracts were considered, in response; he was advised that the Contract Procedure Rules would not address this but Officers were aware that this needed to be looked at corporately; particularly where IT systems were concerned. The Chief Executive advised that the Council was reviewing its corporate governance arrangements at management levels in terms of IT procurement as this had been one of the recommendations from the recent IT review. It was understood that consideration needed to be given to all contracts, not just IT, and a Member suggested that Group Managers, as well as the Corporate Leadership Team, should be involved in this.

67.5           Accordingly, it was