Decision details

The contract for the Council’s Corporate Payment and Income Management system was due to expire on 31.03.22. The recommendation was to award a three-year contract to supply the system to the incumbent supplier, Civica UK Limited. The new arrangement will see a hosted, cloud-based solution rather than the current hybrid arrangement which will improve resilience and reduce long term cost of IT infrastructure. This will support the Council’s move to a cashless council.

A direct award was approved as a full procurement process would result in the Council not having a fully supported and compliant system in place for 31.03.2022. Residents would be left with limited payment options available to them to pay for council services, which would be likely to result in a drop in collection rates for the Council.

The Director approved the award of a new three-year contract to Civica UK Limited for its Payment and Income Management System from 01.04.22 – 31.03.25 via the government crown commercial framework. Approval was also given for the commencement of a new procurement process for a replacement system with a report on the plan for this reported to Cabinet in 2022/23.

Competitive Procurement. There was insufficient time to progress a tender process for this contract. A timetable would need to be built in to take account of implementation time due to the need for full data migration to a new platform. This was not completed due to workload pressures, lack of staff and uncertainly around the Council’s restructure.

Short term contract. The option for either a one or two-year contract was discussed with the incumbent supplier. However, Civica were not able to offer a short-term contract due to their onward contractual obligations with their third-party supplier chain requiring a minimum contract term of three years e.g., Mastercard.

Direct award. The only viable option available to the Council to ensure continuity of service was the direct award of a three-year contract to the incumbent supplier, Civica UK Limited via a government framework. This ensured the Council has continued access to its Payment and Income Management System including all the multiple payment channels currently available to residents.