Issue - meetings

(Director of Communities) At its last meeting, the Working Group considered in detail draft new Procurement Rules, produced by the (Officer) Contract Standing Orders Working Party and endorsed by the Corporate Governance Group, to replace the Council’s current Contract Standing Orders.

The Working Group suggested some minor changes, which have been incorporated in to the final version.  The Council’s Legal Team also arranged for the Draft Procurement Rules to be considered by an external procurement solicitor, following which the Legal Team suggested some further relatively minor wording changes, which have also been incorporated within the final version.

The final version of the Procurement Rules, for submission to the full Council, are attached as an Appendix to this report.

The Working Group received the new Procurement Rules from the Assistant Director of Governance and Performance Management.

At its last meeting the Working Group considered the draft new Procurement Rules which had been produced by the (Officer) Contract Standing Orders Working Party, and endorsed by the Corporate Governance Group. The draft was to replace the Council’s current Contract Standing Orders.

The Working Group had previously suggested some minor changes, incorporated into the final version. The draft had been considered by an external procurement solicitor, following which some further small changes had been made.

This final version of the rules was supported by the Working Group and recommended to the Full Council for adoption.

RECOMMENDED:

That the new Procurement Rules be recommended to Council.

(Director of Communities) To consider the attached report and appendices.

The Working Group received a report from the Director of Communities regarding the New Draft Procurement Rules. The Corporate Governance Group (CGG) had requested that the Director of Communities chair an all officer group called the Contract Standing Orders Working Party to fundamentally review the Council’s Contract Standing Orders and formulate a new set of Procurement Rules that:

(a)  Adopted a more modern and flexible approach;

(b)  Were simpler to understand and comply with;

(c)  Were more responsive to the current and future procurement needs of the Council;

(d)  Met the recently enacted Public Contracts Regulations 2015; and

(e)  Ensured appropriate controls and probity to safeguard the use of public money.

The Working Party had met on 6 occasions since June 2015. The draft procurement rules, incorporating all of the comments from the Working Party, were approved by the CGG this month and recommended to this Working Group for consideration.

Members noted that the new rules were fundamentally different from the existing CSOs. They supported the new draft and were advised that they would be checked externally by a specialist procurement lawyer to confirm that they complied with UK/EU procurement legislation.

RECOMMENDED:

(1)  That the new Draft Procurement Rules be agreed; and

(2)  That the final version of the Draft Procurement Rules, incorporating the comments of the Working Group and the specialist procurement lawyer, be considered at the next meeting of the Working Group to be held on 22 March 2016.