Minutes:
Holly Wilson, Head of Procurement presented a report which provided details of all Waivers and Breaches to the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules (CPRs) for the period 1st September 2020 to 28th February 2021.
The table at paragraph 2 of the report provided a summary of the number of new waivers and breaches recorded for each Directorate since the last report submitted to the Committee in October 2020.
It was noted that there were 2 new breaches and 15 waivers to Contract Procedure Rules during the reporting period, details of which were provided at Appendices 1 and 2 of the report, respectively. Details of the percentage of waivers granted against the amount of the contracts awarded for this period were set out in Appendix 3 of the report.
During discussion, whilst Members expressed disappointment about the level of waivers, it was noted that compared to previous reports presented throughout the Covid-19 pandemic the number of waivers were decreasing. The Head of Procurement reported that the Procurement Team continued to support the Council’s recovery from Covid-19. The Pandemic had adversely impacted on the resources of the Council, this coupled with the need to distribute Covid-19 grant funding from central government quickly had sustained the number of contracts requiring a waiver to meet the deadlines.
Further to a request from a Member, in relation to the total contracts awarded for the period 1st September to 28th February 2021 versus the number of waivers, as detailed at Appendix 3 of the report, the Head of Internal Audit gave an undertaking that future reports would provide details regarding the contract value of waivers in each directorate.
In response to a question from Members regarding the two new breaches relating to contracts for Offsite Storage of Archives within the Learning and Opportunities Children and Young People (LOP&S) directorate and whether a training need had been identified, as detailed in Appendix 1 of the report. The Head of Procurement confirmed that a request had been submitted for retrospective waivers but they had been rejected as there were insufficient grounds for doing so and therefore were in breach of CPRs. The Head of Procurement stated that the issue was being monitored and provided assurance that the project was on track with a date for completion in October 2021, and the necessary funding was in place to procure the works. The Head of Procurement assured Members that she had met with the Assistant Director and Officers within the Learning, Opportunities and Skills directorate in relation to the contracts and had provided an overview of the correct procedures to be followed and that further training would be undertaken by Officers.
A Member raised concerns with regard to the timeline to resolve the breach in respect of the contract at YMCA Goodhall House within the Adults, Health and Wellbeing directorate which had first been reported to the Committee in April 2017. The Head of Procurement stated that this contract linked to the adoption of the Homelessness Strategy which had been approved and that part of this Strategy involved the de-commissioning of this service contract in March 2022 and would remain an issue until the Homelessness Strategy was adopted.
During subsequent discussion, a Member stated that it would helpful if future reports were to provide more detail as to the reasons for the delay in resolving specific breaches. The Head of Procurement gave an undertaking to ensure that future reports provide an explanatory note with regard to those breaches that were taking longer to resolve and the rationale for the delay, in order to provide greater assurance to the Committee.
In response to a question regarding the number of waivers that had been delayed or required an extension due to Covid-19, the Head of Procurement gave assurances that prior to waivers being granted, robust challenge arrangements were in place and that only those requests that passed the challenge stage were granted a waiver. It was anticipated that the number of waivers would be reduced as the Council comes out of Covid-19 in the recovery phase.
The Assistant Director for Finance provided further assurance that there was funding in the capital programme for the Archives project and reported that the overall projects would be monitored and managed as part of the performance management cycle of reporting and meetings. The Assistant Director for Finance, in consultation with the Head of Procurement to consider sending an update to Managers highlighting the Audit Committee’s concerns regarding the need to manage and reduce waivers.
RESOLVED
(1) to note the information and actions contained in the report regarding waivers and breaches in relation to the CPR’s, as set out at in the report; and
(2) to note any new procurement and contracting activity matters;
(3) that the Assistant Director of Finance, in consultation with the Head of Procurement consider whether any action should be taken at the present time to highlight the use of waivers; and
(4) that future reports provide more details with regard to the reasons for breaches that have been outstanding for a long period of time.
Supporting documents: