Agenda item

            The Sub-Committee was advised that each year the Council’s requirements for stationery and paper amounted to an estimated £120,000 and £50,000 respectively. The actual take-up depended on a wide spectrum of factors many of which could not be reliably predicted. For these reasons the Council had over the years entered into a framework (or call off) contract with a supplier under which the Council could order a range of supplies at prices fixed throughout the contract. Potentially there could be separate suppliers for paper and for stationery. The contracts had usually been for a period of between one and two years. The contract was not an exclusive agreement so the Council could order elsewhere if it chooses and there was no commitment that the Council would place any minimum order or indeed any order at all under the contract. Suppliers tendering for these contracts every one to two years tendered on the basis of previous years’ volumes of purchases.

            The Sub-Committee noted that tenders had been invited in the normal way for stationery for the period 1st September 2006 to 31st August 2008. As a result 5 tenders had been received and had been appraised against the declared criteria of a blend of price and quality. Office Depot had been identified as the preferred supplier.

            Following the tender process it had become clear that if the Council were to extend the contract to cover a much wider spectrum of stationery items further savings in the sum of £48,000 may be achieved if volumes of purchasing, in particular items and supplies over the next two years reached fixed levels. This had been brought to the Council’s attention through contact with OGC, the Government Purchasing Agency.

            Although the Council had not tested the market for this wider range of items and supplies through a tendering process; it was understood that OGC had carried out price comparisons with two of the Council’s three shortlisted suppliers: Office Depot and Banner. Both provided framework prices to OGC and of the two Office Depot was the most competitive. The third supplier could not be involved in this process as they were not part of the OGC framework.

            The Sub-Committee considered the following three options:

-           accept the Office Depot stationery tender for the range of items for which the market had been tested;

-           discard the tenders received and accept the OGC arrangement subject    to waiver of Standing Orders on the grounds of loss of clear    commercial or financial detriment; and

-           discard the tenders received, go out to tender again on a much wider    basis joining a much wider range of stationery items with all the    Council’s non-schools paper requirements.

            The Sub-Committee was advised that options 1 and 2 both offered similar levels of savings on the basket of 250 items used traditionally to assess tenders of this nature. Option 2, however, offered further potential savings due to its much broader coverage of items. For this reason it was recommended that Option 2 be preferred over Option 1 in this instance and that the relevant Procurement Standing Orders be suspended to allow this.

            Arising from the discussion, it was suggested that a monitoring report be submitted after a period of six months.

            RESOLVED: That

(1)       the Sub-Committee agrees to proceed as outlined in Option 2 and that                  Procurement Standing Orders 1.12, 3.1 – 3.7 are waived in accordance                with Standing Order 1.6 in light of the potential savings that Option 2                      offers; and

(2)       a monitoring report be submitted following a period of six months.