Decision details

1.            That this report be exempt from disclosure by virtue of the Local Government Act 1972 Schedule 12A, Part 1, paragraph 3 (as amended), in that it contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

2.            That the Cabinet Member for Housing and Customer Services approved a waiver of the Procurement Code to permit the direct award of interim contracts for the contracts listed in Appendix 1 of the report, to the total sum as detailed in the reportfor the period 1st April 2018 to 31^st March 2020 and noted that this will allow for a programme to be developed and implemented for the re-procurement of these services over the next 2 years.

Reasons for Decision

1.            Regulation 72 (1) of the Public Contract Regulations 2015 require that for any variation clauses to be lawful they must be couched in ‘clear, precise and unequivocal’ terms, that state the scope and nature of possible modifications. The ‘review clauses’ in many of the existing contracts that enable the contracts to be rolled on without limit would therefore not be considered lawful. The contracts must be put onto a compliant contractual footing with clear start/expiry dates and provisions to extend that do not continue indefinitely.

2.            The current ‘expiry date’ for these services is 31^st March 2018 and further extensions to the contracts are therefore sought to maintain continuity of service whilst a re-procurement programme is developed in order to achieve full compliance.

3.            At present, all the contracts are closely monitored and, as recorded in capitalesourcing, are considered to meet the Contract Managers’ expectations.