Keith Patterson, Head of Commercial Procurement introduced his report that informed the Audit and Risk Management Committee of the range and number of contracts awarded which have been subject to Contracts Procedure Rules (CPR’s) Rule 12 - Waiving the Rules and Rule 13 – Extension/Variation.

The report appendix detailed the contracts subject to the Extension/Variation or Waiver rules for the period 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2020, which under Contracts Procedure Rule 17 required that all contracts which met the following three criteria are reported to Audit and Risk Management Committee on a six monthly basis. The details were presented as a full 12-month period in the report as this had been the first committee meeting since pandemic controls were applied. The three criteria referenced were:

a)  Contract is awarded, the total value of which exceeds £500k

b)  Variation or extension to a contract approved by The Director of Resources

c)  Waiver of the Contract Procedure Rules in relation to a contract which exceeds £50k in value

The Head of Commercial Procurement referenced a summary of all approved documents, as follows:

• Exceptions  60
• Extensions  4
• Variations  33
• Awards  9
• Total  106

The Mr Patterson’s report also included a summary of a number of key areas, namely:

No PO No Pay policy progress.

Electronic Transactions - accounted for more than 50% of all transaction volumes and increases in both value and volumes.

Departmental Analysis of ‘Free Standing’ Invoices 2019/20 i.e. which services had been operating with transactions which had not been subject to a purchase order and in % terms to each service.

Retrospective Purchase Orders - transactions that occurred when a purchase order had been raised after the invoice had been received - three departments representing 79% of the overall total.

Members questioned the Head of Commercial Procurement on his report, and Mr Patterson responded accordingly.

RESOLVED – That the Procurement Update Report be noted.