A report by the Deputy Chief Executive/Director of Finance informed Members of a variation to the contract with Vodafone for the provision of mobile telephones and data services. It was explained that this variation was accepted under delegated authority and would realise a saving to the Council of £67,500 per annum.

The contract with Vodafone was provided via the Government Procurement Service (GPS) framework contract for the provision of mobile communications to the UK public sector.  These frameworks had been subject to competition within the European Union and as such complied with the requirements of European procurement law for public services.  The Government Procurement Service had been established from the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), with the objective of reducing the cost of goods and services across the UK public sector by aggregating requirements and increasing buying power.

Members were informed that Vodafone had recently reduced its tariffs within the GPS framework and it was this variation to contract that had been accepted under delegation.  Wirral currently had 2,100 active connections, which comprised a mix of mobile telephones, mobile telephones with e-mail provision, mobile broadband devices and data only connections.  The current total annual cost was £218,500, which would reduce to £151,000 under the revised terms.

Work continued on revising the mobile telephone policy and centralising some of the administrative processes, which included the electronic processing of invoices and automatic allocation of costs for each connection to the appropriate cost centre.  The Deputy Chief Executive/Director of Finance informed that a further report would be submitted to the Cabinet once these changes had been finalised.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  a two year extension to the Vodafone contract making associated savings of £67, 500 per year be agreed; and

(2)  the Officer Team that reviewed the Mobile Telecommunications Contract be thanked for their hard work.