The Director of Highways and Transport will give a verbal update outlining the Cabinet Member’s proposed way forward on a procurement process for the New Highways Maintenance Contract – No background papers.
Minutes:
37.1 Matt Davy, Director of Highways and Transport gave a verbal update outlining the Cabinet Member’s proposed way forward on a procurement process for the new Highways Maintenance Contract. Key points were:
· The previous procurement process had been halted by an ongoing legal challenge, but in the interim, a new contract had been created with current provider Balfour Beatty whose original contract term ended in June 2018. This new contract started in July 2018 with an initial term due to expire in March 2019. There was an option to extend this to June 2019, although a further extension of this until March 2020 was also under consideration.
· There had been slight proposed changes to the governance surrounding the new procurement process which included a dedicated ‘non highways’ Project Manager and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)working groups. The project board consisting of senior officers, the Director of Highways and Transport and the Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure would also continue.
· An options appraisal, which included the work of an independent consultant, had been commissioned in August 2018 to look at how best to deliver the service going forward. The draft report received in October 2018 was currently under consideration and would be key in the model used going forward.
· The next steps involved two key decisions by the Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure by December, followed by market/bidder engagement in March/June, tender submissions in June /July and tender evaluations in August to October. The Committee would be given further opportunity for scrutiny as things were progressed and major milestones reached.
37.2 The Committee made comments including those that follow. It:
· Supported the improved governance but queried whether it was adequate enough and whether lessons had been learnt from the first procurement. The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure advised there was now a more robust way forward and the outcome of the legal challenge was not yet known to determine the full lessons. Mr Davy added that the new governance structure showed a scrutiny role for the Committee and agreed the work programme should include a regular update. The Chairman agreed that at the next meeting of the Business Planning Group (BPG) on 20th December the process could be looked at.
· Raised concerns that as the County Council was making further financial cuts, the costs of the procurement continued to spiral and questioned who was ultimately responsible and what the costs were, requesting that when information on the previous procurement was ready that it be made publically available.
· Queried whether an in-house option for service provision had now been dismissed. Mr Davey advised that all options were being considered, including in-house and would be shared once the options appraisal had been completed. The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure advised that this could be December or January.
37.3 Resolved – That the Committee:
1) Requests that when information becomes available on the previous procurement it be made publically available.
2) Requests scrutiny of the options appraisal report
3) Agreed to work with Highways senior officers to develop a scrutiny programme for the new procurement.