Decision details

That the Measured Term Contract for Building & Engineering Maintenance and Repairs due to commence on 1 December 2015 be awarded to Tenderer B.

To ensure that the Council has an effective and reliable contractor in place to deal with any ‘reactive’ maintenance issues that may arise. 

Failure to do so could result in costly implications for the Council, and could also impact on the services we are able to offer individuals within the Borough. A large number of schools have bought into the services provided by Construction and Maintenance and therefore benefit from the reactive maintenance service arising from this award.  This links to Priority Four of the Council’s Medium Term objectives which seeks to ensure that the people within the Borough are safe at all times.

The current operational model has been reviewed as part of the Facilities Category Strategy. 

One alternative option considered was a contractor framework for reactive maintenance consisting of local small to medium sized building contractors. However it became apparent, while investigating the feasibility of the contractor framework, that the creation of such a framework (i.e. marking and ranking the suppliers fairly and transparently as the Council is obliged to do under the Public Contracts Regulations) proved to be impractical in terms of supplier management for a contract of this nature which requires a quick response, often out of hours.

As set out in the agreed Procurement Plan, it was considered prudent to procure a

full reactive maintenance term contract as it ensures that the Council complies with

the Public Contracts Regulations and has the necessary level of emergency cover in

place. It was however considered important that the problems encountered with the

current contract, (mainly associated with central office functions including failure to  supply management reports and inefficient invoice processes), are addressed going forward as far as possible. The intention is to place greater emphasis on contract management and reporting and, to ensure greater flexibility, some specialist works have been removed from the new contract and are being tendered separately. These are as follows:-

 1) PAT testing

 2) Fixed electrical and emergency lighting testing

 3) Fire alarm testing

 This action has the added benefit of offering opportunities to the local business 

 community to tender for these areas each of which is likely to appeal to a different

 list of specialist suppliers.

The project team also evaluated the possibility of using an existing framework       agreement, however no suitable framework agreements were identified.

In addition, the Council is seeking to create ‘a mini’ contractor framework for specific   small planned works with approved contractors who generally already undertake work for the authority.  This is to address the need for a more responsive, flexible and cost-effective means for dealing with day to day minor repairs and maintenance, work is in hand to establish a framework with a limited number of suppliers covering this area which will be the subject of a separate procurement exercise. This, again, will afford opportunities for local businesses whilst supporting the principles of the Facilities Category Strategy. Contracts awarded will cover both civic and schools’ buildings.

None.