To agree the procurement and appointment of a contractor to construct a new livestock market and to approve the anticipated expenditure.  (Report to follow).

Reconvened Cabinet Meeting 1 October 2009.

This item was deferred to enable the Cabinet to receive advice from the Monitoring Officer.

Cabinet Members Present:     AJM Blackshaw, H Bramer, JP French, JA Hyde, JG Jarvis, RJ Phillips, PD Price, DB Wilcox.

Apologies received from Councillor LO Barnett Cabinet Member Social Care Adults.

The Leader of the Council reminded Cabinet of the reasons for the adjournment of the meeting on 24 September, which related to the recent guidance received from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and to receive advice from the Monitoring Officer in relation to the guidance.  A copy of the Monitoring Officer’s advice is attached at Appendix 1 to the minutes.

The Monitoring Officer reminded Cabinet of the two decisions they were being required to take, namely:

·         To approve the allocation of funding for the construction of the new livestock market and associated transport improvements; and

·         To delegate authority to the Director of Regeneration to proceed with the procurement and appointment of a contractor to develop the new livestock market.

The Monitoring Officer reported to Cabinet on the guidance from the OFT stating that Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd had been one of the companies that had been fined by the OFT and the guidance had stated that contractors should not be automatically precluded from the tendering processes as a result of being fined, for the reasons set out in her advice note.

The Director of Resources explained the decisions that the Cabinet were asked to consider, the nature of the SCAPE framework contract and the advantages to the Council of using that framework to enter into a contract with the preferred contractor, Willmott Dixon Construction Limited.   The Director of Resources also explained that this provided some assurance that local sub-contractors would be used on the contract and that undertaking a full tender process instead of using the established SCAPE framework contract would not secure such reassurance.

The Monitoring Officer made it clear that if the Council chose to utilise the SCAPE framework contract that it was not possible to preclude Willmott Dixon Construction Limited from putting forward a proposal for this work because it was an established contract.

The Monitoring Officer went on to advise Cabinet that even if the Council chose to undertake a full tender exercise instead of using the SCAPE contract it would not be prudent to exclude Willmott Dixon Construction Limited from any tender exercise on the grounds of the OFT fines and in the light of the OFT advice.  She added that:

·         some companies similar to Willmott Dixon had participated in the OFT leniency programme;

·         the levels of fines imposed did not necessarily reflect the level of inappropriate activity by companies;

·         Willmott Dixon press release advises of the remedial steps put in place to prevent further occurrences in the future;

·         to exclude those companies fined from the procurement process would remove a lot of the market that would normally compete and might effect the quality of the response; and

·         companies might seek to take action if excluded for this reason.

The Monitoring Officer went on to state that there was nothing in the OFT report that should stop Cabinet from going ahead with the proposals outlined in the livestock market report and using the SCAPE framework contract. 

The Cabinet Member Resources reiterated the significance of the livestock market project to the Council and the county livestock sector and emphasised the contract was designed to control costs and time management of the project.  The Cabinet Member went on to emphasis the wish of the authority to use local sub-contractors as part of the overall project.  He added that there would be close monitoring of the costs and that under the SCAPE framework agreement the level of additional cost to be met by the Council is “capped” should any overspend arise.   A Ward Member raised a question on funding and requested that funds were ringfenced for the development of the infrastructure.

RESOLVED

                        THAT:

                        (a)        the allocation of funding for the construction of a new livestock market and associated transportation improvements be approved; and,

(b)       delegated authority to the Director of Regeneration to proceed with the procurement and appointment of a contractor to develop the new livestock market be approved.