Council services
Procurement Process and Strategy
Procurement is the process of acquiring goods works and services and in the context of a procurement process obtaining 'best value for money' means choosing the bid that offers the optimum combination of 'whole life costs and benefits to meet the customer’s requirements.'
This is not necessarily the lowest initial price option as assessment of the ongoing revenue/resource costs as well as initial capital investment, if applicable, shall be considered.
Our requirement may include social, environmental and other strategic objectives and this will be defined at the earliest stage of the procurement cycle. The principal is for best value for money at the award stage to select the bid that best meets the requirement.
The procurement strategy incorporates the following:
- To ensure value for money is achieved within a competitive environment from tendering for the Council’s requirements for goods, works, services
- To ensure that rules, regulations and proper practices are in place to safeguard the Council from maladministration in the letting of contracts
- To ensure due consideration is given to equality and diversity standards and objectives in that all products and services purchased meet the relevant statutory regulations and locally set standards
- To ensure due consideration is given to meet health and safety in that all products and services purchased meet the relevant safety regulations and standards
- To ensure that the Corporate Head of Service has regard for issues of sustainability to the extent that it is permissible to do so and
- To ensure value for money at the least possible cost to the environment and wherever practicable, to focus on:
- Specifying less environmentally damaging products
- Promoting greater use of renewable sources
- Encouraging suppliers to use environmentally friendly packages throughout the production process
