Decision details

Approval was sought for the contract extensions and commencement of procurement for the Housing repair and maintenance services.

The matter was considered urgent as procurement and contractual frameworks had identified that the Council had not implemented a planned procurement process to evaluate options, total contract value or alternative forms of contract and, in some cases, had continued to purchase goods and services following the expiry of existing contracts. Approval was required to enable take immediate steps to rectify this by providing for:

·               short term extensions to contracts;

·               the commencement of full procurement processes where required to ensure full compliance and the delivery of best value in our contracts, which would deliver improved services to Sandwell and its residents.

Reason for Decision

The Council used external providers to deliver a wide range of its services and meet its statutory duties to residents and service users. Providers ranged from global businesses to small and local

specialist suppliers.

In each case, the Council must procure services in accordance with its own Contract Procedure Rules, which set out the Council’s own

procurement rules to ensure it acted fairly and obtained best value when spending public money. Contracts which had a contract value in excess of the statutory financial thresholds for works or services/supplies must also be procured in compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR2015).

The Council had an overriding duty to achieve best value in the

procurement of goods, services and works.

Alternative Options Considered

The Council must take action to regularise the contractual position of the services currently being operated without formal contract or where existing contracts had expired and goods/services continue to be procured. The following options had been considered.

Do Nothing. This was non-compliant as existing contracts had either expired or agreed procurement limits were about to be exceeded or had already exceeded.

Without suitable arrangements, the Council was unable to fulfil its landlord obligations and maintain its housing assets. This option was not available to provide the services over the medium and long term and did not address continued service provision until further procurement activity was undertaken.

Re-procurement of the services and works. The Council could choose to undertake a procurement exercise without an extension to the contracts. This would mitigate some risks of non-compliance going forward but was not recommended as it would result in the cessation of services to residents and service users and places the Council at risk of not meeting its statutory duties. Furthermore, cessation of services to enable an immediate procurement exercise would likely result in significant delay until new suppliers/service providers were appointed.

Resolved:-

(1)          that approval be given to extend the following contracts on the terms set out in Appendix 1 relating to:

·               Domestic Electrical Components;

·               Electrical repairs and maintenance;

·               Timber supplies for council-owned housing stock;

·               Pitched and felt roof repairs to council owned properties;

·               Hand tools, Ladders and Steps, Power Tools, Fixings, Drills and Consumables.

(2)     that approval be given to:-

(a)          commence procurement for timber supplies for council owned properties, 3 years (2+1), total contract value up to £1.5m over 3 years;

(b)          amend the previous decision of Cabinet (January 2023) relating to the procurement of electrical services (repairs and maintenance) by revising both the approved term and limit from £3.6m over 4 years to £6m over 3 years (2+1) in line with the commentary in Appendix 1A and authority be granted to commence procurement;

(c)          amend the previous decision of Cabinet (January 2023) relating to the procurement of building supplies to council owned properties by increasing the previously approved limit of £1.6m to £1.8m and Contract Award to commence from 1st December 2023;

(3)          that the Interim Head of Contract Procurement be authorised to make minor amendments and changes to the extensions and / or processes described in this report in order to give effect to Resolution (1) and (2) above, in consultation with the Interim Director of Housing, Director of Finance and the Director of Law & Governance.