On the 22nd November 2012, the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and the Chief Constable were each established as their own corporation sole.
To minimise duplication and bureaucracy, it was agreed that a Shared Internal Audit Service would cover both bodies.
The 2014 process using the Crown Commercial Services Framework did not provide sufficient competition as only one provider bid for the work, the contract established for Internal Audit is due to expire on 31st March 2017.
As a result of the lack of competition in 2014 via the Crown Commercial Services Framework a decision was made to carry out a local procurement to open the contract up to the wider market.
Prior to starting the procurement exercise, a review of the specification was carried out.
This was make sure that the specification continues to meet the needs of both the PCC and Force. Also, that it will offer value for money.
Decision 27255. Internal Audit contract (application, 331kB)
A decision was made to tender for a 3 year contract with an option of two further 12 month extensions. The current contract value is £46,233 per annum. Therefore, based on a potential five-year contract, the total value is £231,164.
The EU tender threshold is £164,176 therefore an EU tender exercise was conducted.
Tender process
An open tender was carried out using EU Supply as the tender portal, advertising the contract in Contract Finder and OJEU as per the Public Procurement Regulations 2015.
An open tender is a competitive exercise, in which a tender is advertised. All bidders, who express an interest, can access tender documentation and submit a bid.
Ten suppliers expressed an interest in the tender. However, only four suppliers submitted a response by the closing date.
One supplier made contact following the closing date. The supplier wanted to clarify the closing date as there was a discrepancy on the tender documentation whereby the date on one questionnaire differed from the system.
On review the EU Supply system clearly showed a response was in progress from this supplier. A message to all suppliers who had expressed an interest was sent advising that the discrepancy should have been clarified, however that bids submitted via a message on EU supply would be accepted up until 4pm on the closing date. One further response was received within this timescale.
The evaluation team, evaluated the five bids in line with the evaluation criteria, as per below:
Bidder 1 – 75.40% Bidder 2 – 76.08%
Bidder 3 – 66.27% Bidder 4 – 74.36%
Bidder 5 – 78.00%