Having provided declarations in respect of this item, Councillors Angela Davies and Jeff Green left the room whilst the matter was discussed and voted upon.

Mark Niblock, Chief Internal Auditor, introduced a report of the Head of Procurement that informed the Audit and Risk Management Committee of the range and number of contracts awarded which had been subject to Contracts Procedure Rules (“CPRs”) Rule12 Extension/Variation; Rule 11 Waiving the Rules, as required under the CPRs.

The Report Appendix detailed the contracts subject to the Extension/Variation or Waiver rules for the period 1 October 2017 to 31 March 2018 which under Contracts Procedure Rule 16 required that all contracts which met the following criteria were reported to Audit and Risk Management Committee, with updates provided to Committee on a six monthly basis, i.e.

a)  A contract awarded where the total value of which exceeds £500,000.

b)  A variation or extension to a contract approved by the Director of Finance and Investment (S151 Officer) and by others as per the Appendix.

c)  A waiver or breach of the Contract Procedure Rules in relation to a contract which exceeds £50,000 in value.

Members questioned the Chief Internal Auditor on a number items listed within the report appendix. A Member expressed concern that the I.T. contract spend of £2.6m (annual spend over two years of £1.3m) for Surface Pro bundles was excessive. The Chief Internal Auditor informed that this particular project also included upgrades to the Council I.T. Servers from windows 8 to 12 and the re-positioning of laptop equipment. The actual spend on Surface Pros amounted to £300k, and agreed that the report appendix narrative for this project could have been clearer.

Members questioned the inclusion of completed project items prior to March 2018, and whether efficiencies could be found by negotiating bigger contracts over longer periods e.g. Housing Associations and other bodies, currently tendering in batches for redesign and restructure.

Members also requested information on the use of temporary Council Tax and Housing Benefit processing agents employed through another agency than that usually employed for the purpose.

Shaer Halewood, Director of Finance and Investment (S151) informed that the retrospective report covered a rolling 6 month period Oct 2017 to Mar 2018 and included both ongoing and closed projects for completeness. In respect of the use of a second agency, the director informed that when the Council’s primary agency (a group of agencies, rather than a single company) could not provide sufficiently qualified staff, other agencies would be used. No fees would be paid unless successful appointments were made.

Members expressed a view that the Audit and Risk Management Committee would benefit from oversight of the Council’s Transformation Services actions in respect of the current required £40m budget savings, and sought assurance that all project risk assessments should include: what was spent, what cost benefits would be achieved, and lessons learnt.

The Director of Finance and Investment (S151) and the Senior Risk and Insurance Officer were in agreement that this reporting approach would be helpful to Members.

Resolved – That

(1)  the report be noted; and

(2)  information regarding the Council’s Transformation Programme be provided to Members of the Audit and Risk Management Committee.