Agenda item

(Item 6)

PUBLIC MINUTE OF EXEMPT ITEM

Cabinet received an ‘exempt’ report providing a detailed evaluation of the results of the back office procurement process for the transactional services within Finance, HR and ICT (Lot 1) and the Customer Services (Contact Point and Digital Communications) (Lot 3) and seeking decisions on the next steps for each.

The Chairman, Mr Paul Carter, Leader of KCC, asked that information be provided about each lot in turn, followed by questions and discussion of that lot and finally a decision on the next steps.

LOT 1 – Transactional Services

Richard Hallett, Senior Responsible Officer, Back Office Procurement Project, spoke to the item and introduced the matter for Members, including a summary of the debate and recommendation to not proceed to a contract award for Lot 1made at the Policy and Resources Cabinet Committee on 18 September 2015, to which the Cabinet was to have regard when taking its decision.

Andy Wood, Corporate Director for Finance and Procurement and Section 151 Officer described for Members correspondence received from the remaining bidder for Lot 1 and the responses given by officers.  Members took account of the correspondence and were satisfied that the responses given by officers to the points raised were full, fair and detailed and were assured that the process had been handled by officers in an objective, professional and impartial manner, having full confidence in the information they had received in the report and appendices.

Amanda Beer, Corporate Director of Human Resources, reported that the Officers Commissioning Board had completed a technical evaluation of the Lot 1 process and described for Members the results of that evaluation, which were to not proceed to a contract award for Lot 1 unless the Value for Money report was exceptionally favourable.

Following this submission, Andy Wood addressed the meeting again, describing the conclusions reached in the Value for Money report written in his capacity as Section 151 Officer.  He also described for Members the methodology used to create the report and the areas to which he had had particular regard when forming his conclusions.

Finally Rebecca Spore, Director of Infrastructure, addressed the meeting to explain some of the detailed considerations relating to the contract offer contained within the report.

The matter was opened for comments and questions and a discussion followed. 

The Chairman, Mr Carter, summarised the information received and comments made and expressed his thanks to the team assembled, from within KCC and outside, for the hard work, rigorous professional standards and excellent, cross-party, elected Member engagement applied to the process.

Mr Carter put forward a recommendation, seconded by Mr Simmonds as follows:

That Cabinet, having regard to the papers received, including the submission from the bidder, the ‘Technical Evaluation’ and ‘Value for Money’ reports and the recommendations reported from the Policy and Resources Cabinet Committee and the Officers Commissioning Board, agree to not proceed with a contract award for Lot 1.

Members unanimously agreed the recommendation.

LOT 3 - Customer Services

Richard Hallett, spoke to the item and introduced the matter for Members, including a summary of the debate and recommendation to accept the bid made at the Policy and Resources Cabinet Committee on 18 September 2015, to which the Cabinet was to have regard when taking its decision.

Amanda Beer reported that the Officers Commissioning Board had completed a technical evaluation of the Lot 3 process and described for Members the results of that evaluation, which was to proceed to contract award, subject to a satisfactory Value for Money report.

Following this submission, Andy Wood addressed the meeting, describing the conclusions reached in the Value for Money report written in his capacity as Section 151 Officer.  He also described for Members the methodology used to create the report and the areas to which he had had particular regard when forming his conclusions.

The matter was opened for comments and questions and a discussion followed. 

Mr Carter summarised the information received and comments made and again expressed his thanks to the team assembled for the work undertaken.  He also reminded Members that work would continue to find innovative solutions for the efficient and effective delivery of the Edukent Service which had initially been part of the Back Office Procurement Project but had been withdrawn for reasons set out in the exempt report.

Mr Carter put forward a recommendation, seconded by Mr Simmonds as follows:

That Cabinet, having regard to the papers received, including the submission from the bidders, the ‘Technical Evaluation’ and ‘Value for Money’ reports and the recommendations reported from the Policy and Resources Cabinet Committee and the Officers Commissioning Board, agree to proceed with a contract award for Lot 3.

It was RESOLVED that: