Content

Salford City Council – Record of
Decision
 
I Councillor Youd, Lead Member
for Finance and Support Services and chairman of the Procurement
Board, in exercise of the powers contained within the
Council Constitution
do hereby:
 
·     
approve the award of Contract forGov Tech’s
web Capture Service and e-Capture (with UCDS), as detailed in the
table below:
 

Detail required

Answers

Contract
Reference

Title/Description of Contracted
Service/Supply/Project

Gov Tech Web Capture & E Capture
(with UCDS)

Name
of Contractor

GovTech Solutions Limited

Type of
organisation
(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Public Limited
Company

Status of
Organisation
(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

SME

Value of Contract Extension
(£)

£         
£129,125 per annum ( rpi
applicable during extension period)

Existing Contract
Term

01/07/2024 to 30/06/2027

Extension
Period

01/07/2027 to 30/06/2028

Contact Officer (Name &
number)

Nick Wright (Tel 0161 793
2891)

Lead Service
Group

Service Reform &
Development

Funding
Source

Revenue Budget

Ethical Contractor (EC):
Mayor’s Employment Charter

EC: Committed to sign the
Charter

EC: Accredited Living Wage
Employer

 
The reasons are:
The solution provides the
equivalent of 9 FTE’s of efficiency via web CAPTURE/
e-CAPTURE (with UCSD) service. Not procuring the service would
increase the demands on the CTAX/ NNDR and Benefits
teams.
 
The solution allows the teams
to focus on other strategic priorities.
 
We have been in a relationship
with GovTech since 2017 for web Capture
and e Capture (with UCDS). The price of the solution is due to
increase significantly. To lock the cheaper price in, it would be
advantageous to go with a new contract for as long as
possible.
 
Options considered and rejected were:
An inhouse development would be
to expensive
and resources are already working on other strategic
priorities.
 
An in-house solution would not
have performed the pre-assessment checks, data quality/ improvement
checks that Gov Tech provides.
 
Assessment of risk:
WebCAPTURE
and e-CAPTURE are
fundamental to the successful implementation of the Customer
Business model and as such any delay in procurement has the
potential to lead to non-delivery of savings that have already been
identified in this area.
 
In addition to having financial
implication any delay has the potential to negatively impact on the
operational performance of the revenues service both in terms of
transactional processing times and income collection.
 
The service has already seen
significant reductions in headcount because of a requirement to
deliver previous efficiency savings as well as experiencing ongoing
growth in customer demand. Both solutions play a crucial part in
the service ability to be able to meet the growing demand with what
will inevitably be a reduced number of resources.
 
It is established that the Gov
Tech solution/ service provides the equivalent benefit of 9
FTE’s p/a via is Data quality - pre assessment , matching ,
cleansing/ filtering techniques.
 
Salford has been in a
relationship with GovTech since 2017.
Any delay in procurement will necessitate and increase in the
demand upon the CTAX/ NNDR and benefit teams.
 
As stated earlier,  the pre checking that the GovTech service provides allows staff to focus on
other priorities such as collection rates and debt
recovery.
 
The source of funding is: Revenue Budget.
 
Legal advice obtained:
LEGAL IMPLICATIONS: Supplied by: The Shared Legal
Service
When commissioning contracts for
the procurement of goods, services or the execution of works, the
Council must comply with the requirements of the Public Contracts 6
Regulations 2015 (PCR) and its own Contractual Standing Orders
(CSO’s) failing which the decision may be subject to legal
challenge from an aggrieved provider. CSO’s stipulate that
where a suitable framework exists, this must be used unless there
is an auditable reason not to do so.
 
The proposed award of the contract
follows an award (call off) under the relevant CCS G Cloud
Framework Agreement. The Framework is compliant with public
procurement legislation and has been procured for the Council and
other public sector organisations to use. Each framework is an
overarching agreement through which those named organisations can
select a service from a range of providers by undertaking an
exercise to call off the services and enter into an individual
contract/agreement with that provider, according to the terms of
the framework agreement. A contract will then be formed between the
Council and the chosen provider/s.
 
The Council will need to have
followed the procedure for direct award to Govtech set out under the terms of the framework
agreement to ensure the procurement process is compliant to
mitigate against any risk of challenge from another software
provider.
 
Financial advice obtained: FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: Submitted by: Jo Garvin
Ext 2873
After undertaking a
zero based budget exercise to refresh all the budget areas within
Resources & Transformation, the planned IT budget ask for The
IT systems revenue budget is £535,000 for 2024/25. The
£129,125 costs set out in this report has been included in
the planned £535,000 budget (Expenditure Code:
C1033 5740).
 
Procurement advice obtained: Supplied by:  Emma Heyes, Category Manager, Date Provided.
23.05.24 
Salford City Council’s 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. Crown Commercial
Services G-Cloud-13 framework is available to all public sector
organisations. Call-Off contracts can be made by direct award
subject to the criteria specified in the User Guide, which advises
that the customer must conduct an evaluation of all service offers,
following a selection process via the G-Cloud Contract Award
Service online platform’s search functionality, using
keywords from the list of requirements
entered as search terms when filtering suppliers on
CAS.  
 
Following review of the service offers available, customers
should complete the Framework Schedule 6 Call-Off Order Form to
form the contract between the parties. 
 
HR advice obtained: N/A
 
Climate change implications obtained: N/A
 
Contact Officer: Nick Wright
Telephone number: 0161 793 2891
 
 

Signed:    Cllr J
Youd          Dated:
   12 June
2024.
           
   Lead Member
 

FOR DEMOCRATIC SERVICES USE
ONLY
 
*          
This decision was published on 12 June 2024
*          
This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 19 June 2024
unless it is called-in in
accordance with the Decision Making
Process Rules.