Agenda item

Contracts

Meeting of Strategic Policy and Resources Committee, Friday, 23rd February, 2024 9.30 am (Item 7a)

Minutes:

The Committee:

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

· approved the award of STAs in line with Standing Order 55 exceptions as detailed in Table 2 below;

· approved the modification of the contract as per Standing Order 37a detailed in Table 3 below; and

· noted the award of retrospective Single Tender Actions in line with Standing Order 55 exceptions as detailed in Table 4 below:

Table 1: Competitive Tenders

Title of Tender	Proposed Contract Duration	Est. Max Contract Value	SRO	Short description of goods / services
Investigation Support for Security Incidents	Up to 3 years	£60,000	P Gribben	Break fix support on security appliances. Specialist support for security related projects.
Daisy Mitel Systems & Support	Up to 2 years	£196,500	S McNicholl	Corporate telephony solution to include Mitel Systems, Redbox Recording and CRM Connector + SMS functionality with ongoing maintenance, support and software assurance
Coach Hire Services	Up to 4 years	£400,000	D Sales	The service shall be used by various Council departments to provide a transport service including for seasonal activities within the Community such as Summer Schemes, Halloween, Christmas and Easter time.
Catering Services at Belfast Zoo.	Up to 5 years	£900,000	D Martin	Catering service provider to manage the catering outlets at Belfast Zoo
Framework for Goods For Resale at Belfast Zoo	Up to 4 years	£520,000	D Martin	Supply of a range of goods (i.e. toys, souvenirs etc) to sell in shops at Belfast Zoo.
Maintenance of Containers and Compactors	Up to 4 years	£330,000	D Sales	This service ensures that skip containers and compactors are maintained and working properly to enable recycling centres to manage the waste received from householders.
Supply of Park and Memorial Benches	Up to 5 years	£200,000	D Sales	Tender required for the supply of park and memorial seats/ benches. Majority of seats/benches are re-sold to customers at the Crematorium/ Cemeteries.
IT Technical Research and Guidance	Up to 2 years	£45,400	P Gribben	Gartner for IT Leaders provides in-depth technical research and guidance to help Digital Services advance the initiatives/projects that support execution of the IT strategy.
Electric City Centre Power Washer Vehicle	One off purchase	£50,000 (fully funded by DfC)	D Sales	Provision of electric vehicle fitted with hot & cold power washer to be used around the city centre as part of the Cleansing Fleet Enhancement Project.
Christmas Lights	Up to 5 years	£2m	D Martin	The Council wishes to refresh it’s Christmas lighting display to animate the city over the festive period and attract additional visitors to the city. A Contractor will be procured to support the delivery.

Table 2: Single Tender Actions

Title	Duration	Est. Max Contract Value	SRO	Description	Supplier	STA Reason
Maintenance & Support for SAP, SRM & VIM	Up to 1 year	£77,700	P Gribben	Ongoing maintenance & support is required until a replacement Financial System project is complete. Go Live of new system is scheduled in Q1 of FY24/25.	HCL Technologies Ltd	11
City Matters Distribution - Royal Mail	Up to 2 years	£100,000	E McConville	Distribution of City Matters Magazine as required to all residents within the Belfast City Council electoral area. This requirement was recently tendered via open competition, but no bids were received.	Royal Mail Door to Door	1
NIHE (Support and Maintenance) Licenses	Up to 3 years	£1,100,000	S McNicholl	Continued maintenance & support required for NI Housing Executive’s ‘NIHE’ Housing Benefit system which is hosted by BCC but recharged to NIHE (fully funded). NEC are the only available service provider for maintenance and support services of this system.	NEC Software Solutions	3

Table 3: Modification to Contract

Title of Contract	Original Contract Duration	Modification required	SRO	Description	Supplier
Provision of young tree maintenance, tree planting and minor horticultural works	Up to 5 years	Additional 3 months and £80,000	D Sales	A further 3-month extension is required to facilitate a re-tendering exercise. Tender documents being finalised and should be advertised to market in Feb 24. Delays experienced due to resourcing issues in the Department and additional work required to review and re-draft tender documents to incorporate new service requirements. Note - a previous a contract modification for a 4-month extension was previously approved by Committee in October 23.	Clive Richardson Ltd.
Collection and Recycling of Scrap Metal	Up to 4 years	Additional 4 months. Income based contract. Projected £65k income over 4 months.	D Sales	A 4-month extension is required to facilitate a re-tendering exercise. Tender documents being finalised and should be advertised to market in March 24. Delays experienced due to heavy workload within the Department at this time.	Avenue Recycling Ltd
Procurement of Public Bike Share Scheme. LOT 1: Design supply maintenance & operation of the scheme	Up to 9 years	Additional 9 months and £391,000	J Greer	Extension of current operator contract for a maximum of nine months to allow further work to be undertaken to define specification for tender competition for new operator contract. Given the expansion of the network, the potential to have social enterprise/co-operative involvement in the operation and the potential for the inclusion of e-bikes and accessible bikes a significantly different specification is required. It has been agreed to hold a Members Workshop to inform this. Note - this was submitted to Committee in January 24 but was not approved at the time. Re-submitted for approval.	NSL Service Group

Table 4: Retrospective STAs

Title

Duration

Est. Max Contract Value

SRO

Description

Supplier

STA Reason

Provision of an accurate digital 3D model of the Belfast City

Up to 3 years

(Contract award date of 17th May 23)

Up to £33,600

P Gribben

There is no other supplier that can offer this solution without significant duplication of resources, costs and time to build the Belfast data layers. VU.CITY already has a significant portion of city mapped, including 262,835 trees, accurate to height & canopy as well as 55,594 buildings.

VU.CITY

STA/ Direct Award Reasons

Reason Code	Reasons in line with Public Contact Regulations
1	No response following advertised procurement exercise
2	Creation or acquisition of a unique work of art or artistic performance
3	Competition is absent for technical reasons (no reasonable substitute exists)
4	The protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights
5	Extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by BCC, the time limits for a procurement cannot be complied with.
6	Products manufactured purely for the purpose of research, experimentation, study or development
7	Additional deliveries which are intended either as a partial or extended replacement of supplies or installations where a change of supplier would result in supplies of different technical characteristics causing incompatibility or disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and maintenance
8	Supplies quoted and purchased on a commodity market
9	Supplies or services on particularly time-limited advantageous terms e.g. supplier winding up its business activities
10	New works and services consisting of the repetition of similar works or services, provided that the possibility of a direct award is disclosed during the original tender process
11	Other – Reason not in line with Public Contract Regulations (PCR 2015)

Supporting documents: