Agenda item

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Corporate Governance which requested that Services be provided with the opportunity to procure Business Support Services from identified pre tendered framework agreements.

The report explained that the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006, Regulation 2(1) defined a framework agreement as ‘an agreement or other arrangement between one or more contracting authorities, and one or more economic operators, which establishes the terms (in particular the terms as to price and, where appropriate, quantity) under which the economic operator will enter into one or more contracts with a contracting authority in the period during which the framework agreement applies’. The report continued that it would be important for Services to consider whether a framework agreement was the right approach for the particular goods, services or works to be purchased, which would require a value for money judgement for the Council, taking account of the type of purchases involved, the ability of the providers on a framework to deliver the requirement, and the ability to specify such purchases with sufficient precision.

The report advised that the Office of Government Commerce (Buying Solutions) had established a full suite of business support services covering a broad spectrum of needs, which were tendered on behalf of all UK public bodies in line with EU Procurement Regulations. The Scottish Government (Procurement Scotland) had also undertaken further similar exercises, for all Scottish public bodies for those areas they had identified that had not been adequately covered by Buying Solutions.  Also listed within the identified frameworks, were arrangements through the Improvement Service which had gone through the same tendering process as above.

The report highlighted that this way of working would provide all users with access to a database of identified contracts that had maximised the combined leverage of potential participants in order to provide the most competitive pricing structures available. The use of the frameworks also limited the time and resources spent by internal tendering.

Where the Council’s requirements were more specific than those detailed under the framework, ‘mini competition’ exercises would require to be undertaken between all the providers on the framework agreement to identify the most competitive offering for the Council’s requirements, and to ensure that the providers would be in a position to mobilise resources to meet those requirements.

The report concluded that additional requirements that Directors identified to the report author as being required to support delivery of their Services, covered a number of common themes, and in order to address these requirements, access to all Buying Solutions, Procurement Scotland and Improvement Service Frameworks would be available, providing the protocol outlined was followed. In each instance a fast track ‘mini competition’ between the approved providers on each framework list could be facilitated, where necessary, once the specification and scope of need was ascertained.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee:-

(a)       approve the action taken by the Head of Procurement to ensure that use of the identified national framework agreements are in full compliance with EU Regulations, Council Standing Orders and Financial Regulations;

(b)       agree the suspension of Standing Orders 75 and 76 to the extent necessary to permit the delegation of powers, to allow the use of the Office of Government Commerce (Buying Solutions), Scottish Government (Procurement Scotland) and the Improvement Service framework agreements, to Service Directors in consultation with the Head of Procurement and Head of Legal and Democratic Services; and

(c)        to instruct that the Head of Procurement administer the central database of approved framework agreements.

The Committee requested clarification in relation to the use of the Standing Orders as detailed above, and the Legal Manager (Policy and Advice) advised that Standing Orders 75 and 76 were no longer in use further to a recent review of the Procurement Standing Orders.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)        to approve recommendations (a) and (c) as detailed above;

(ii)       to agree that the relevant Standing Orders be suspended (if required) to the extent necessary to permit the delegation of powers to allow the use of the Office of Government Commerce (Buying Solutions), Scottish Government (Procurement Scotland) and the Improvement Service framework agreements, to Service Directors in consultation with the Head of Procurement and Head of Legal and Democratic Services, and in consultation with the Convener of this Committee; and

(iii)      to request, in relation to the Procurement Standing Orders that were being reported to the Council meeting of 30 June, 2010, that the Legal Manager (Policy and Advice) makes explicit the use of the suspension of Standing Orders to utilise the use of framework contracts.