Agenda item

Contracts Update

Meeting of Strategic Policy and Resources Committee, Friday, 13th December, 2024 9.30 am (Item 6a)

Minutes:

· approved the public advertisement of tenders as per Standing Order 37a detailed in Appendix 1 (Table 1);

· approved the award of STAs in line with Standing Order 55 exceptions as detailed in Appendix 1 (Table 2);

· noted the award of retrospective STAs in line with Standing Order 55 exceptions as detailed in Appendix 1 (Table 3); and

· approve the modification of the contract as per Standing Order 37a detailed in Appendix 1 (Table 4):

Table 1: Competitive Tenders

Title of Tender	Proposed Contract Duration	Est. Max Contract Value	SRO	Short description of goods / services
Complex Lives Case Management System	Up to 4 years	£34,634	S McNicholl	To enable BCC Complex Lives staff and external statutory, community and voluntary organizations to collaborate, share information, create and monitor plans to support vulnerable citizens affected by chronic homelessness
Provision of mobile phone service and mobile devices	Up to 3 years	£570,000	S McNicholl	Mobile phones are needed for Council staff working away from Council offices.
Consultancy support with online Office 365 testing exercises to assist with the recruitment and selection of Business Support Clerks	Up to 1 year	£40,000	C Sheridan	The procurement of externally validated online Office 365 tests is required for the recruitment of Business Support Clerks to assist with the Council’s employability programme i.e. use of externally validated online tests in place of requiring prescriptive GCSE qualifications for applicants.
Procurement of external Security Operations Centre (SOC) Services to augment the security team in Digital Services	Up to 3 years	£500,000	S McNicholl	To manage the council’s escalating cyber security risk, Digital Services must procure the services of an external security operations centre (SOC) to acquire the skills and toolsets to augment a smaller and less experienced security team in BCC
Laptops, docking stations and other peripherals e.g. monitors	Up to 3 years	£1,500,000	S McNicholl	New devices to facilitate hybrid working and replacement devices as per regular business as usual replacement cycle.

Table 2: Single Tender Actions

Title of Contract

Duration

Est. Max Contract Value

SRO

Description

Supplier

STA Reason Code

Provision of catering services at Belfast Zoo

Up to 2 years

Income based contract

D Martin

Following a recent open tender exercise no bids were received.

The Zoo’s current catering contract finishes on 3 January 2024, so an alternative operator must be quickly sourced to ensure a catering provision is available to service the zoo’s year-round operation.

We have been able to secure an agreement with Carousel Ice Cream to provide all year round coverage with seasonal variations to suit demand (i.e. mobile catering in winter months/ low footfall) and normal café/restaurant operations in summer months/high footfall.

Carousel currently operates a mobile food unit in the Zoo so they are familiar with the zoo’s operation, visitor experience and seasonality of the catering provision. Their familiarity will allow for quick mobilisation and will aid with a smooth transition between catering providers.

The 2-year STA (1+1 year option) will allow BCC to trial the new operation to ensure it is profitable/viable with a view of re-approaching the market with an open tender.

Carousel Ice Cream

Table 3: Retrospective Single Tender Actions

Title of Contract	Duration	Est. Max Contract Value	SRO	Description	Supplier	STA Reason Code
HPE Foundation Care 2x7 SVC Hardware plus Software Support for Aruba Servers and Controllers	Up to 1 year	£68,448	P Gribben	Hardware and software warranty and support on Aruba Servers and Controllers for wired and wireless networks. No other suitable supplier is available. Retrospective approval required due to delays in agreeing terms with supplier.	Specialist Computer Centres (SCC)	3
Review and update final business case ‘FBC’ for the proposed new Crematorium at Roselawn project	Up to 3 weeks	£47,500	S Grimes	Given the suppliers prior involvement in the commercial analysis of the project they have unique knowledge and insight to help finalise the ‘FBC’ without unnecessary delays to enable Committee consideration of the project	Morrow Gilchrist	3
Pest Control Services	Up to 6 months	£59,990	D Sales/N Largey	There is an ongoing need for an external contractor to provide pest control services required at Council owned sites. These are additional services to what the Council’s internal Pest Contract Unit is currently resourced to provide. Approval to proceed to tender for these services via a corporate contract was presented to SP&R in June 2024 but was not approved. This was approved for 6 months on the basis that Depts seek quotations to cover service continuity and/or approval is granted to procced with a tender for these services.	Termapest	11

Table 4: Modification to Contract

Title of Contract

Original Contract Duration & Value

Modification

SRO

Description

Supplier

CPC Driver Training

2 years & £30k

Additional £4k

D Sales

To ensure new & current BCC drivers have CPS training/ qualification. Requirement originally procured via quotation as estimated to be <£30k; however, due to increased demand the £30k value has now been exceed. Reported to SP&R for information.

Work underway to procure replacement longer term contract.

Logistics UK

In noting the award to the retrospective STA for the Pest Control Services, which had been put in place to ensure service continuity, the Committee expressed its dissatisfaction that the award of the STA had been made without seeking, in the first instance, the Committee’s approval and in the absence of submitting a report on other potential delivery options as previously requested. It was agreed that a report be submitted to the January meeting outlining the status of the STA and whether it could be withdrawn.

It was agreed also that, prior to the award of future STAs, where time does not permit these to be submitted to the Committee, that they be considered firstly by the Chief Executive in consultation with the Chairperson.

Supporting documents: