The search has begun today (May 18) for contractors to join a new framework agreement which could save councils a collective 85 million on the cost of procuring and running their waste and recycling services.
A procurement notice has been issued in the Official Journal of the European Union inviting companies to bid to join the Waste Management Services Framework. Councils can then choose to purchase waste services from the companies and organisations which successfully join it as a supplier.
More than 100 councils in London, the South East, South West and the West Midlands have signed up to take advantage of the framework, which is being jointly-developed by the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWaRB) and council support body Improvement and Efficiency South East (iESE). It is being formally procured by Tanbridge district council.
LWaRB and iESE claim councils using this new arrangement will be able make significant cost and time savings when procuring contracts as well as reducing service costs. This is because framework agreements set out the parameters for how services work, for example in terms of payment and profit mechanisms.
“First of its kind”
Described as the first of its kind in the UK by its developers, suppliers which are part of the framework agreement can be approached by the councils at any point between 2012 and 2016 when they want to procure a range of services.
These include recycling and waste collection, bulky waste collection, street cleansing and ground maintenances, although the use of seven different lots will allow councils to call off a combination of services from those categories using a mini-procurement process.
The focus of the agreement is on councils procuring new contracts, but it also expected to benefit those outsourcing services, working in partnerships with other councils and procuring smaller collection services such as bulky waste.
Cllr Paul Bettison, chairman of iESE said Public services are facing unprecedented levels of spending cuts, increasing demands for better services and a new legislative environment which will give individuals and communities greater say in running services.
The Waste Management Services Framework will enable public services to move away from the traditional models of delivery and implement new, improved, efficient and creative ways of meeting the needs of the people they serve within the resources theyve got.
Call-off contracts
While the main framework agreement between Tanbridge district council and the chosen framework suppliers can be used by councils at any point between 2012 and 2016, the call-off contracts represent a separate mini-competition process which can also be used by councils.
This involves them inviting framework contractors to provide a quote for a particular service without needed to go through the full OJEU procurement process and providing what LWaRB and the iESE termed a degree of certainty about price and service provision.
The successful c contractor and council can then sign a contract for up to 10 years, with iESE managing the process.
Specification
The final specification for the framework contract will be developed by the councils involved, along with partners such as the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP).
It will be agreed and made available when Defras waste policy review is published next month.
Plans for an iESE-led framework agreement first emerged in January 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).
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