Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Commissioning Support and Business Intelligence.

Further to Minute No. 30 a above, the Committee considered the report of the Head of Commissioning Support and Business Intelligence advising the Committee of work being undertaken to review the Council’s procurement processes, rules and guidance and seeking approval for revised Contract Procedure Rules produced as part of that review. The report set out the background to the matter, indicating that Procurement was an Executive function, and a summary of the key changes to Contract Procedure Rules were attached to the report at Annex 1. The revised Contract Procedure Rules were set out at Annex 2 to the report.

In relation to Annex 2 attached to the report, and the revised Contract Procedure Rules, a subsequent amendment to the rules that applied to schools that had opted to purchase the Council’s Procurement service, was reported.

Members of the Committee asked about processes involved in awarding contracts and the balance between qualitative and quantitative standards. It was reported that individual tender documents and specifications set out criteria for evaluation and scoring.

RESOLVED: That

(1)       the work being undertaken to review the Council’s procurement processes, rules and guidance, be noted;

(2)       subject to the following amendment, the revised Contract Procedure Rules, as set out in Annex 2 to the report, be approved:-

            Section 1.1.1 of the Contract Procedure Rules – Link to the Constitution, the deletion of the 3^rd paragraph, to be replaced with the following:-

            “These rules will apply to all Sefton Council maintained schools, in accordance with “Fair Funding Guidance: Scheme for Financing Schools”.”; and

(3)       as Procurement is an Executive function and in light of the importance of good procurement practice both for the achievement of value for money, and to provide assurance to the Cabinet, the revised Contract Procedure Rules be referred to the Cabinet for it to receive that assurance as to action taken and to note the changes made to the Contract Procedure Rules.