Trading with the Council
Most of the Council's procurement arrangements are managed at a departmental level. It is the Council's duty to spend wisely the money it receives through Council Tax contributions from its residents and grants from government departments and agencies. It attempts secure value for money in procuring works, goods and services through robust and transparent rules with potential providers being required to submit prices and tenders. In accordance with national guidance most contracts are awarded on the basis of price and quality (otherwise known as "most economically advantageous"), rather than just lowest. All tendering exercises and contractual arrangements must comply with the Council's Contract Standing Orders, UK laws and European Directives.
In general the Council uses two methods to seek tenders; by placing a public advertisement or selection through an approved list. The corporate approved list is mainly used for construction related contracts whose estimated values are below £3.5m. Some departments maintain approved lists of consultants, but these are only use where the total estiamted value is below £144,000. In other circumstances the usual method is to seek expressions of interest through public advertisements appearing on the Council's website, trade jounals, local newspapers and the Official Journal of the European Union (otherwise known as OJEU).
Before going out to tender the Council will normally consider its procurement options, and these may include using a framework agreement awarded by another council or councils (e.g. London Contracts and Supplies Group) or public organisation (e.g. OGC-Buying Solutions)
The Council has a number of contracts with organisations from the private, public, voluntary and community sectors to provide services to the community, and when contracts are due for renewal it welcomes expressions of interest from any organisation who feel that they can provide local authority services.
The Leader, the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and the Cabinet Member for Performance and Procurement on 14 February 2006 approved a recommendation that the Council sign up to the Small Business Friendly Concordat. The Concordat is being promoted by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), Small Business Service (SBS) an agency of the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Local Government Association (LGA). The aim of the ODPM, SBS and the LGA is for all local authorities to sign up to the Concordat.
The Concordat is a voluntary, non-statutory document, and the Council’s agreement to signing it has demonstrated that it will actively engage with small businesses to promote good procurement practices. This in turn should help foster a professional approach to managing procurement in the Council and, in doing so, help implement key strategic objectives and milestones in the National Procurement Strategy for Local Government.
