Contents

Report 8 of the 5 July 2010 meeting of the Resources and Productivity Sub-committee, setting out the summary of requests for contract action received in Procurement Services within the last quarter

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Requests for contract action - management information

Report: 8
Date: 5 July 2010
By: Director of Resources on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report sets out the summary of requests for contract action received in Procurement Services within the last quarter (January 2010 - March 2010), with a particular focus on the requests that fall under the remit of Single Tender Actions (STA) and submitted via the associated form 1049. The report provides details of compliance with EU Procurement law and the MPA Contract Regulations by providing members with information on the number of requests for STAs against each of the legal exemption types and provides a summary of the number and value of those approved and declined.

A. Recommendations

That Members note the summary of competed tenders received in the fourth quarter of 2009/10 and the control of single tender exemptions through Procurement Services and the MPA.

B. Supporting information

1. Members have previously agreed the content and presentation format of the Contract Action - Management Information report, on a quarterly basis, to afford them the opportunity to have sight of contracting activity that is not competed but undertaken compliantly with EU Procurement law and MPA Regulations. The report (“Update on the control of Single Tender Actions”) was last presented to MPA Resources and Productivity Sub-Committee on 1st February 2010.

2. Requests for Contract Action - This management information report will continue to be presented to Members on a quarterly basis. The next update will be issued in September 2010 to the Resources and Productivity Sub-Committee.

Management Information

3. Following a request from the Authority the data is now presented for the full financial year in order that, from the next quarter, year on year comparisons can be made. Prior to compiling these annual figures the data, for the now closed financial year, has been through a rigorous cleansing exercise and therefore some of the data may have changed from the numbers previously reported. It has not been possible to show a comparison with 2008/09 year as data has only been recorded since the introduction, in April 2009, of the new 1049 form and revised authority levels for procurement action and single tender actions. Some of the specific notes relating to the tables contained within this report contain commercially sensitive information and can be viewed in the attached exempt appendix A.

4. Table 1 details the number of: requests by month for contract action (Form 1049) received since April 2009.

Table 1 - Requests for contract action

  2009/10
Number Value - £m
April 41 14.3
May 57 27.5
June 94 16.5
July 117 [1] 70.1
August 92 27.5
September 116 [1] 22.4
October 98 61.9
November 78 41.9
December 87 149.4 [2]
January 96 71.5
February 107 134.7 [3]
March 97 12.7 [4]

Notes

  1. The number of requests received fall as a ‘bell curve’ skewed to the right as the financial year tends to start slowly as budgets are being set and financial planning is undertaken. The peak of the ‘bell curve’ dipped in August 2009 as this is traditionally a quieter month due to annual leave.
  2. The high value of requests received in December 2009 was due to the concentration of a number of high value requests for framework agreements to be competitively tendered for forensic services.
  3. See Appendix A (Exempt).
  4. The value of the requests for contract action dropped in March 2010 (£12.7m) to their lowest level for the year; this is due to the internal constraints put on spending and the fact complex requests, unless submitted early in the month, cannot by processed before the end of the financial year.

5. Table 2 details the number of requests processed by month for variations or extensions to existing contracts since April 2009. These outline where a non-competitive approach has been taken by virtue of the fact they were either a variation or an extension to an existing contract.

Table 2 - Requests for Variations or Extensions processed

  2009/10
Number Value - £m
April 3 0.1
May 31 1.9
June 41 3.2
July 42 6.7
August 32 3.2
September 65 [5] 18.3 [6]
October 35 4.6
November 14 2.2
December 28 12.4 [7]
January 38 6.4
February 26 1.7
March 60 4.8

Notes

  1. See Appendix A (Exempt).
  2. See Appendix A (Exempt).
  3. See Appendix A (Exempt).

6. Table 3 details the number of single tender actions processed by month since April 2009. These outline where a non-competitive approach has been taken by virtue of the fact they were single tender actions.

Table 3 - Single tender actions processed

  2009/10
Number Value - £m
April 14 1.1
May 22 3.4
June 15 1.7
July 28 1.4
August 18 1.1
September 33 3.3
October 26 4.6
November 16 0.7
December 26 3.2
January 24 12.8 [8]
February 20 2.0
March 58 [9] 2.3

Notes

  1. See Appendix A (Exempt).
  2. The high volume processed in March 2010 is due to the fact that many software support arrangements are due for renewal at the end of the financial year. Many of these are subject to intellectual property rights (IPR) for proprietary software and therefore support cannot therefore be provided from elsewhere. As a large proportion of the STA’s relate to software support renewals, the ICT Procurement team are working, where no competitive alternative exists, with MPA Officers to let longer contracts and therefore reduce the number of requests for single tender action.

7. Table 4 details the hundred (100) requests for a legal exemption to competitive tendering (single tender action) considered by Procurement Services during the reporting period. The data in table 4 is broken down by both number and value against each of the exemption types claimed, and indicates whether they were approved or declined.

Table 4 - Single Tender Actions processed during the quarter

Legal Exemption Type Number received Value received
Approved Declined Approved - £m Declined - £m
Absence of appropriate tenders following a previously advertised procurement 0 0 0 0
For technical or artistic reasons, or for reasons connected with protection of exclusive rights, the services, supplier or works may be provided only by a particular provider 54 (9 above) 8 11.75 0.22
A contract following a previously advertised design contest 3 0 0.15 0
For security reasons advertising would not be in the best interest of the Authority 16 0 0.99 0
Additional works or services which were not foreseen at the time of contract award but have now become necessary for the performance of a previously tendered contract 1 0 3.2 (8 above) 0
Work or services similar in nature to that covered by a previous tendered contract and have now become necessary for the performance of that contract 6 2 0.22 0.03
A genuine unforeseeable operational need arose and competition was impracticable where the urgency of need is such that it did not permit the full procurement process to be carried out 0 0 0 0
When goods to be purchased or hired under the contract are to be manufactured solely for the purpose of research, experiment, study or development 2 0 0.03 0
To take advantage of particularly advantageous terms for the purchase of goods in a closing down sale 1 0 0.01 0
Replacement goods which can only be sourced from the same contract 6 1 0.22 0.03
Totals [10] 89 11 16.65 0.27

Notes

  1. The individual numbers are subject to rounding but the totals are correct.

8. Two requests were processed during the reporting period that requested a single tender action that were due to the MPS causing urgency through poor planning. One request was declined as it was not a legal exemption type and could be dealt with by using an existing compliant framework. Details of the action taken on the other can be found in the exempt appendix B.

C. Race and equality impact

1. There are no specific race, equality or diversity implications arising from this report, but it is notable that equality of opportunity is promoted by competitive tendering processes; this pertains especially to the support of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

D. Financial implications

1. The data demonstrates that the vast majority of spend (86.2%) has been tendered competitively and therefore every effort to achieve value for money in the procurement process has been taken.

2. The costs associated with the activities set out above are covered within existing budgets as approved in the 2010/13 Business Plan. Specific savings generated through individual contracts will be recognised in future Business Group Business Plan submissions.

E. Legal implications

1. MPA/MPS Governance procedures require all procurement reports to Management Board, Contracts Board and the MPA to be approved by DLS, who as part of the governance process confirm in the Legal Implications section of the report whether the MPA/MPS have complied with EU and UK procurement law and highlight any relevant risks in this regard.

2. No legal implications arise from this report which is submitted as part of the Governance process.

F. Background papers

  • None

G. Contact details

Report authors: David Woosey, Acting Director of Procurement Services, MPS

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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