Purpose

The award of the contracts for
coroner’s body removals following receipt and evaluation of
tenders.
 

Content

The Corporate Director
of Sustainable Communities, Regeneration &
Economic Recovery AGREED to:
 

Award as set out in
this report for Lot 1 West - Croydon and Sutton- for the provision
of services in relation to coroner’s body removals for
5-years to Bidder A for the value set out in the Part B
report.

 

Award as set out in
this report for Lot 2 East – Bexley and Bromley and for the
provision of services in relation to coroner’s body removals
for 5-years to Bidder A for the value set out in the Part B
report.

 

Reasons for the decision

Having assessed all the
options, the recommendation to award the contracts to the suppliers
is recommended because the preferred tenders
were compliant were high quality and offers value for money for the
Council.
 
The procurement process
followed the agreed procurement strategy via an open procedure
under the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 23). It was designed to ensure
value for money, compliance with national procurement rules, and
the selection of supplier(s) capable of delivering these
services.
 
The recommendations
meets the Mayors Business plan to engage
local suppliers and economy, to ensure efficient, value for money
services and deliver projects within budget.
 

Alternative options considered

Commissioning options were set
out in the Procurement strategy report. At this stage in the
process the two options are to award some or all of the contracts in line with the
recommendations or to not award some of all
of the contracts; and abandon the procurement process. In
the event of non award the Council
could either stop carrying out the service which is not viable or
re-procure the services again.
 
Given the procurement has
provided the Council with bids that deemed high quality and offer
value for money there is no deemed advantage of re-procuring the
services. Indeed re-procuring the
services would lead to a gap in service provision that would need
managing. Finally the market might be
more reluctant to re-bid if the Council abandons the procurement
without due cause. Therefore the
recommended option is to award the contracts as set out in this
report.