Agenda item

To receive and consider the attached report of the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development.

The Head of Scrutiny and Member Development submitted a report regarding issues arising from a Call-In meeting of the Scrutiny Board (Children’s Services) held on 12^th October 2009, which had looked at the tender processes surrounding the award of a Connexions contract.  Various matters had been raised at that meeting which, in turn, had raised questions regarding the role of scrutiny and Members in the procurement process, and these concerns and issues were outlined in the report and its appendix.

In attendance at the meeting and responding to Members’ queries and comments were:-

-  Councillor W Hyde, Chair of the Scrutiny Board (Children’s Services).

-  Wayne Baxter, Chief Procurement Officer.

-  Dean Backhouse, Procurement Compliance , Procurement Unit.

In brief summary, the main areas of discussion were:-

·  Councillor W Hyde outlined the concerns arising from the Call-In meeting.  In summary, these related to the contract specification and tender questionnaire and whether sufficient weight was given to local knowledge and experience during the evaluation process.  The concerns also encompassed the lack of involvement of, or consultation with, Members in drawing up the specification, whether the existing process made it more difficult for local voluntary, community and faith sector organisations to get involved and to bid successfully, and the role of Scrutiny Boards in calling–in these types of decisions.

·  A letter dated 27^th January 2010 to Councillor Hyde from the Chief Executive was circulated.  This made it clear that the Chief Executive’s view was that Scrutiny Boards’ did have a legitimate role to play in such matters, and that these kind of decisions should not be exempt from Call-In, even if it was regarded that the Council might be at risk of damages claims from particular bidders for Council contracts.  The Chief Executive’s view was that the earlier in the process any involvement or intervention took place, the better.  Reference was also made to a proposed variation of the Scrutiny Board Procedure Rules to allow for the intervention, where appropriate, of the Executive Board in the process.

·  Reference was made to EU regulations relating to tendering processes.  Whilst a degree of local knowledge and experience might be able to be built into the process, care needed to be exercised in respect of weighting and evaluation to ensure that these regulations were not breached.  It may well be that what was required was Member involvement, in consultation and conjunction with Council Departments, in reviewing the current procurement process, to incorporate early involvement of Members, be they local Members if the contract was area-specific, or Executive Members for wider contracts.

·  Care did need to be exercised in carrying out a review and possibly implementing new procedures, because the Council was liable to legal challenge and possible compensation claims from successful bidders who had complied with the tender process but had not ultimately been awarded the contract.  The risk would vary from contract to contract, dependent on the circumstances.

·  The Board regarded that Member involvement would be more helpful and successful at an early stage – say the policy analysis and selection criteria stage – rather than late in the day at the tail-end of the process, where legal challenge was more likely.  Any revised procedures would require commissioning Council Departments to be more acutely aware of political considerations and Member interest areas, and to be proactive in consulting appropriate Members at the appropriate time.  It was accepted that this represented something of a sea-change in terms of existing processes, and would be difficult to build into any revised procedures.  Different criteria might also apply to different types of purchasing, e.g. a piece of equipment or plant as opposed to provision of a particular service, and whether this service was local or City-wide.

·  Best value, price and weighting factors were referred to, and whether Members would require any training to enable them to perform an enhanced role.

·  Reference was also made to the ‘Where Contracts Go Wrong’ Inquiry previously undertaken by the former Scrutiny Board (Transforming Services), and whether the recommendations of that Board had been implemented and embedded in current procedures.

RESOLVED –

a)  That the report, the representations of Councillor W Hyde, and the letter dated 27^th January 2010 from the Chief Executive, all be received and noted.

b)  That the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development, in consultation with the Chair and the Chief Procurement Officer, be instructed to pursue further the issues and concerns raised during the discussion of this item, and that an update report be submitted to a future meeting.

(NB:-

1.  Councillor W Hyde left the meeting at 10.26 am, during the consideration of this item.

2.  Councillor A Hussain temporarily left the meeting at 10.15 am during the consideration of this item (see later Minute No. 64).