Agenda item

Contracts Update

Meeting of Strategic Policy and Resources Committee, Friday, 24th May, 2024 9.30 am (Item 6a)

Minutes:

The Committee:

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

· approve 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);

· approved the modification of the contract as per Standing Order 37a detailed in Appendix 1 (Table 4); and

· approved the public advertisement of tenders (Peaceplus) as per Standing Order 37a detailed in Appendix 1 (Table 5) noting current conditions set out in Section 6 of the report.

It was agreed that an update on the use of consultants be submitted to a future meeting.

Table 1: Competitive Tenders

Title of Tender	Proposed Contract Duration	Est. Max Contract Value	SRO	Short description of goods / services
Gartner for Technical Professionals	Up to 2 years	£91,200	P Gribben	Provides in-depth technical research and guidance to help Digital Services advance the initiatives/projects that support execution of the Digital strategy
Delivery of Customer Focus Programme	Up to 2 years	£61,200	J Tully	To provide tailored access to research and insights, access to analyst review of strategy and approach, diagnostics and toolkits to support the delivery of Customer Focus Programme.
A Bolder Vision for Belfast Strategy and Implementation Framework	Up to 1 year	£70,000	C Reynolds	Commission of consulting services to finalise A Bolder Vision Strategy and Implementation Framework to include update of draft strategy.

Table 2: Single Tender Actions

Title	Duration	Est. Max Contract Value	SRO	Description	Supplier	STA Reason Code
Elephant Transfer Service	Up to 3 months	£65,000	D Martin	Service required for the relocation of two elderly female Asian elephants, Dhunja and Yhetto, that currently reside in Belfast Zoo, while work continues on a long-term development plan for the zoo and its animal collection. Approval was granted in August 2023 by CG&R Committee to transfer the elephants to Burgers Zoo in the Netherlands. The transfer is due to take place in July 2024. The supplier is considered the only current suitable supplier to ensure the safe and secure transfer of the two elephants.	Global Elephant Care	3

Table 3: Retrospective Single Tender Actions

Title of Contract

Duration

Est. Max Contract Value

SRO

Description

Supplier

STA Reason Code

Interpreting Services

(Partly funded)

3 years

£45,000

S Toland

A team member is registered as deaf and is supported via the Access to Work (NI) programme for Support Worker funding from DFC which permits BCC to claim 50% of expenditure relating to interpreter services. This provides continuity of existing support.

Heather Martin

Table 4: Modification to Contract

Title of Contract

Original Contract Duration

Modification

SRO

Description

Supplier

T2135b Continuation of Consultancy Services for City Centre Residential Development

Contract modification being reported retrospectively

2 years

Additional £164,390

C Reynolds

Additional fees required due to delay in commencement of procurement and greater input required for commercial advisory work under the existing contract specification.

Cushman & Wakefield

T2422 Provision of catering for services (retail and small to medium signed events) at Malone House

This is a concession contract with estimated annual gross revenue of £435,000 for the contractor (based pre-Covid figures). Of which a minimum 5% commission will be payable to BCC.

1 year

Additional 6 months

D Martin

Six-month extension of contract period to facilitate market exercise for the future operation of Malone House.

This contract is a below threshold requirement under the Concession Regs and, given history of low interest in the local market to provide this service, this extension is considered a low risk.

Café Nosh

Table 5: Peace Plus Tenders

Title of Tender	SRO	Proposed contract duration	Est. Max Contract Value
Annadale Open Space - ANIMATION	Jim Girvan	Up to 2 years	£86,000.00
Distillery Street Open Space - ANIMATION	Jim Girvan	Up to 2 years	£85,900.00
Access to the Hills - ANIMATION	Jim Girvan	Up to 2 years	£85,600.00
Sanctuary Theatre ANIMATION	Jim Girvan	Up to 2 years	£85,100.00
Capacity Building - Community Empowerment Programme	D Sales	Up to 2 years	£903,577.68
Health & Wellbeing Programme	D Sales	Up to 2 years	£853,000.00
Youth - Inspiring Future Belfast	D Sales	Up to 2 years	£970,861.00
Sports for Peace	D Sales	Up to 2 years	£711,646.00
Employability - Language Up	D Sales	Up to 2 years	£447,513.00
Arts in communities	D Sales	Up to 2 years	£695,744.00
Interfaith and Belief Programme	D Sales	Up to 2 years	£304,564.00
Community Connections - Ethnic Minorities	D Sales	Up to 2 years	£638,135.00
LGBTQIA+ - Community Engagement Programme	D Sales	Up to 2 years	£391,672.00
Community Empowerment Ex Politically Motivated Prisoners	D Sales	Up to 2 years	£493,006.00
From Multiculturalism to Interculturalism (possible broken into lots)	D Sales	Up to 2 years	£949,140.00

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: