To provide an update on the number of exemptions (waivers) to Contact Procedure Rules (CPRs) which have been granted for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 and provide a baseline for future monitoring.

To provide assurance to Audit & Governance Committee that Contracts are awarded in line with CPRs wherever possible, and exemptions are only granted where there is a sound rationale for approval.

The Director of Finance (DOF) introduced the report which presented the exemptions to the Council's contract procedure rules (CPR) for the financial year ended 31st of March 2025.

The following principal points were noted:

• The report had been introduced following an improvement recommendation from external auditors, Grant Thornton, and with Committees’ agreement, in September 2024.
• For an exemption to be granted, a request had to be made in writing to the section 151 officer by the relevant director, service director or the chief executive.
• Once an exemption has been granted, a record is maintained by the Commercial Services team.
• There were five instances where exemptions to the CPR were granted, against a total number of 417 contracts which commenced during that period. That highlighted and provided assurance that the ability to grant an exemption Is taken only in exceptional circumstances and the controls in place through the CPR are effective. It was recommended on that basis that an annual report was satisfactory moving forward. unless monitoring in year of the frequency of exemptions started to increase.

In response to committee questions, it was noted.

1. The DOF confirmed that the value of the five exemption contracts in proportion to the value of all contracts during that period only equated to around 1%.
2. It was explained that the role of commercial services was to explore other options, ensuring that the exemption route was the last resort.
3. Exemptions are only granted as a last resort and as a practical measure for example, repair works to a school where there should not be any hold up from delivering on what is required to benefit residents and communities because of a procurement timeline that does not support the urgency involved.
4. The DOF explained that there is a good control framework in place which is tested through internal and external audit and that if there were any unknown circumstances where waivers were in use that this would be evidenced through budget monitoring as generally doing emergency procurement did not achieve best value for money.
5. The Head of Legal services provided further assurance that when contracts are executed, legal services ensure the proper governance is in place and that officers have followed the correct decision-making route whilst consulting the constitution to ensure that they also have the powers. It was also noted that the constitution only allowed seven types of exemptions in seven circumstances, and which are all legally permissible.

RESOLVED

The committee noted the report and agreed the annual reporting frequency going forward.