Agenda item

Executive Mayor in Cabinet RESOLVED:

2.1            to approve the 18-month Procurement Pipeline as set out in Appendix A.

2.2            to approve the delegated decisions over £500,000 in value within the Procurement Pipeline to those Lead Members or Officers as stated in Appendix A, that includes the procurement strategy and award decisions, the duration of the contracts and contract values.

2.3            that delegated decisions shall only be exercised following recommendations from the Contracts & Commissioning Board, which include approval from both the Lead Cabinet Member and the Cabinet Member for Finance.

2.4            to allow for minor changes to proceed whilst retaining the agreed delegation so long as none of the following thresholds for changes are exceeded:

         i.        Contract value exceeds that proposed in the Procurement Pipeline, by the lesser of £500K or 25%, or the new aggregate value exceeds £1m and it becomes a key decision

       ii.        Substantial / material changes to procurement from that defined in the Procurement Pipeline e.g. material risks are identified

(Should either of those thresholds be exceeded, the delegation cannot be exercised, and the decision shall be recommended to the Executive Mayor, unless a further delegation is approved. Where a delegated decision is a Key Decision to Officers, it must be made in consultation with the Lead Cabinet Member).

2.5            to note the improvements to the pipeline format as set out in section 4.4 of the report.

The Executive Mayor introduced the Procurement Pipeline highlighting the headlines which enhance strategic planning, improve resource allocation, and streamline procurement processes.

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Jason Cummings, shared with Cabinet that overall the proposed changes were positive and would help the market in terms of procurement and future contracts which in turn should help the local voluntary sector with visibility whilst also increasing the Council's visibility in terms of what is going forward, and performance; ensuring that those procurements are done correctly and timely.

The Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Callton Young, welcomed the report with its full disclosure of the council's procurement pipeline and asked if any work had been done in the past year to assess cumulative savings that can be achieved through contracts, and if so, what level of savings had been shown.

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Jason Cummings, responded that there is not an overall figure for contracts across the council, each department manages their own which is then scrutinised within the budget settings and savings proposals. Once the budget setting process is complete a figure can be put together on how much of the savings relate to contract savings as it would be interesting to see the overall figure.

The Executive Mayor in Cabinet RESOLVED:

2.1               to approve the 18-month Procurement Pipeline as set out in Appendix A.

2.2               to approve the delegated decisions over £500,000 in value within the Procurement Pipeline to those Lead Members or Officers as stated in Appendix A, that includes the procurement strategy and award decisions, the duration of the contracts and contract values.

2.3               that delegated decisions shall only be exercised following recommendations from the Contracts & Commissioning Board, which include approval from both the Lead Cabinet Member and the Cabinet Member for Finance.

2.4               to allow for minor changes to proceed whilst retaining the agreed delegation so long as none of the following thresholds for changes are exceeded:

           i.           Contract value exceeds that proposed in the Procurement Pipeline, by the lesser of £500K or 25%, or the new aggregate value exceeds £1m and it becomes a key decision.

          ii.           Substantial / material changes to procurement from that defined in the Procurement Pipeline e.g. material risks are identified.

(Should either of those thresholds be exceeded, the delegation cannot be exercised, and the decision shall be recommended to the Executive Mayor, unless a further delegation is approved. Where a delegated decision is a Key Decision to Officers, it must be made in consultation with the Lead Cabinet Member).

2.5               to note the improvements to the pipeline format as set out in section 4.4 of the report.