Content

Salford City Council – Record of
Decision
 
I
Councillor Youd, Lead
Member for Finance, Support Services and Industrial
Relations and chairman of the Procurement Board, in
exercise of the powers contained within the Council
Constitution,
do hereby:
 
·     
Approval to Award the Contract for Electronic
Payment Services via PayPoint and Post Office Counters Ltd (POCL),
as detailed in the table below:
 

Detail required

Title/Description of Contracted
Service/Supply/Project

Electronic Payment Services via PayPoint and Post
Office Counters Ltd (POCL)

Name of Successful
Contractor

Allpay Ltd

Supplier Registration Number

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

02933191

Type of organisation

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Private Limited Company

Status of Organisation

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Non-SME

Contract Value

£58,000

Per annum

Contract Duration

48 months

Contract Start Date

01/08/2024

Contract End Date

31/07/2026

Optional Extension Period 1

24 months

Optional Extension Period 2

months

Who will approve each Extension
Period?

Strategic Director (extension <
£150k)

Contact Officer (Name &
number)

Tony Thompstone 2016

Lead Service Group

Finance & Corporate Business

How the contract was procured?

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Framework Call-off (Direct)

Framework Details (where
applicable)

(Procurement Body, Framework Reference
& Title, Start/End Dates, Hyperlink, etc.)

Northern Housing Consortiumfor the provision of
Electronic Payments

Funding Source

Revenue Budget

 
Procuring a contract from the Northern
Housing Consortium framework agreement
provides for a process compliant with Public Contracts
Regulations.
 
It
is essential that the City Council continues to offer a range of
electronic payment services as well as accepting payments via
credit and debit cards, to receive income from bill payers.
Removing these options would mean considerable risk of loss of
income if the services were removed.
 
Legal Advice obtained: Tony Hatton, Principal Solicitor, tel. 219
6323

When
commissioning contracts for the provision of goods, services or the
execution of works, the Council must comply with the provisions of
the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (the Regulations) which
require that contracting authorities treat candidates equally and
in a non-discriminatory way and act in a transparent manner. In
addition, the Council is required to comply with the requirements
of its own Contractual Standing Orders (CSO’s), failing which
the award of a contract may be subject to legal challenge.
CSO’s stipulate that where a suitable framework agreement
exists, this must be used unless there is an auditable reason not
to.
 
The
Council can comply with the requirements of the Regulations by
carrying out its own procurement exercise or relying upon another
contracting authority's compliant procurement exercise. In that
regard, contracting authorities may procure goods, works or
services through a ‘central purchasing body’ (and are
deemed to have complied with the Regulations to the extent that the
central purchasing body has). The definition of ‘central
purchasing body’ includes an authority that concludes
framework agreements for works, goods or services intended for one
or more contracting authorities.
 
The
purpose of a framework agreement is to select through a
procurement/evaluation process a number of providers who can meet
the service requirements of the Council, as and when those services
are required. If they are required, then the Council can call off
the goods/services from one or more of the providers who have been
selected to be on the Framework and this may be through any number
of ways (usually by way of mini-competition as here) depending on
the circumstances. A contract will then be formed between the
Council and the chosen provider/s. The Council will need to have
followed the procedure set out in the Framework Agreement to ensure
the procurement process for direct award is compliant, and assuming
that the be the case, the procurement procedures set out therefore
appear robust and compliant with the requirements of CSO’s
and public procurement legislation.
 
The
proposed award of the contract follows a direct award in accordance
with the Consortium Procurement framework for Electronic Payment
Services, for a four-year period. The Consortium Procurement
framework is a fully compliant framework from a legislative
perspective available for the Council (and other local authorities)
to use.
 

 
Financial Advice obtained.
Tony
Thompstone, Strategic Finance Manager, Tel No. 793-2016
The
costs will be met from existing revenue budgets.
 
Procurement Advice Submitted by: 
Emma Heyes, Category Manager x 6243
Contractual Standing Orders states that where there is a
suitable framework, this must be used unless there is an auditable
reason not to do so.
 
Consortium Procurement awarded an Electronic Payment Services
framework following a robust open tendering process compliant with
Public Contracts Regulations.  This
commenced in August 2023 for a period of four years.
 
The
framework is awarded to two suppliers and allpay is the only
supplier able to supply the full range of services the Council
requires. The framework has provision to allow call-off contracts
to be awarded via direct award.
 
The following documents have
been used to assist the decision process:
·     
Report to procurement board 8 May 2024.
 
Contact Officer: Tony Thompstone, Tel No 793 2016
 
·     
This decision is not subject to consideration by
another Lead Member.
·     
The appropriate scrutiny committee to call-in the
decision is the Overview and Scrutiny Board.
 
 

Signed:   Cllr J
Youd           Dated: 8 May
2024
           
  Lead Member
 

FOR DEMOCRATIC SERVICES USE
ONLY
 
*          
This decision was published on 9 May 2024
*          
This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 16 May 2024
unless it is called-in in
accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules.