Should potential expenditure of a project be recorded on agenda?

Question

My council at its next meeting will receive reports from two committees that will involve recommending improvements to the local playground - costing about £50k and production of a community news letter with costs of about £1k

The agenda which has already been issued does not mention the improvement work at the park and I suspect this will come up under the generic "Park Report" agenda item - they have not even mentioned that this is coming up.

Unfortunately I'm getting the reputation of being a troublemaker as I dare to question how the council is run so just want to know if this is something that should be on the agenda (would it make any difference if the money was coming from Section 106 rather than precept?)

 

Answer 1

If the committee are recommending at this meeting that the contract be awarded for £50k, then they have missed a number of legal steps.

1.  Contracts over £25000 are subject to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 which include a requirement to advertise the contract on the governments Contracts Finder website and must involve a tendering process.  Has this taken place?

2.  To approve the awarding of the contract a specific resolution on the agenda is required to award the contract to a specified company for a specified price.  You can't make a decision on something that is not clearly included on the agenda (Local Government Act 1972, Schedule 12)

It may well be that the report to the council from the committee is for information sharing only and to advise the council on the commencement of the tendering process and the above procedures.  Also, do they have allocated budget for this work? If not, then they are going to have to start applying for grants and funding...

As for the newsletter, for £1000, that is cheap and within the powers of the parish council.  Again, though, there should be a budget for this and if they are having to reallocate funds from another budget heading, there needs to be a resolution to that effect.  But you might find that the terms of reference for that committee, allows for spending under £5000 to be kept within the committee and this may have already been done.

Overall, from what you have said, the council cannot make any decisions on either of these two items at the meeting.  As for the s106 question, the tendering process for the £50k contract would still have to take place.

Hope this helps

Comments

Thank you,
None of the committees have ever had formal terms of reference, they are being developed (after I asked for them) so no commiittee has ever been given any power to spend money.

I believe that at the meeting a recommendation will be made to go with the one company which has provided the estimate - to clarify two playground equipment companies were approached and only one provided an estimate and design. (The clerk states that as he got the details of the company from the local authority and they would have checked that the tenders were okay) I know this is incorrect but I'm ignored by both the clerk and fellow councillors.

I did however think that the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 applied to contracts worth a lot more than £50k. I have since coming home checked the Financial Regulations which the council adopted and for a "contract of less than [£60,000] in value for the supply of goods or materials or for the execution of works or specialist services other than such goods, materials, works or specialist services as are excepted as set out in paragraph (a) the Clerk or RFO shall obtain 3 quotations (priced descriptions of the proposed supply); where the value is below £3,000 and above £100 the Clerk or RFO shall strive to obtain 3 estimates. Otherwise, Regulation 10 (3) above shall apply."

No mention of any pricing or that the work is beiing considered is mentioned on the agenda.

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Hi White Knight
That conduct is nonsense and completely out of date.
The Public Contracts Regulations is included in the NALC model financial regulations and was last updated in 2016 and specifically states:
b.Where the council intends to procure or award a public supply contract, public service contract or public works contract as defined by The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (“the Regulations”) which is valued at £25,000 or more, the council shall comply with the relevant requirements of the Regulations .
c.The full requirements of The Regulations, as applicable, shall be followed in respect of the tendering and award of a public supply contract, public service contract or public works contract which exceed thresholds in The Regulations set by the Public Contracts Directive 2014/24/EU (which may change from time to time) .

so who knows how old the financial regulations are for the council in question!

Even so, they have still not obtained 3 quotations and have no resolution to approve the appointment of the contractor.  Clearly the Clerk and Councillors have not got a clue as to the correct legal procedure for running the council.

As for the clerk saying it is OK as the Local Authority has checked the tenders (whatever that means, as every tender is different and should be treated separately) is ridiculous and putting the profession of Parish Clerking in a bad light.

I would suggest following their complaints procedure (if they have one) and speaking to the monitoring officer at your Local Authority as they are acting ultra vires.

Best of luck dealing with this shambles.