The groundbreaking Waste Management Services Contract, which has a potential value of 1.7 billion, is being developed by Improvement and Efficiency South East (iESE) and the London Waste and Recycling Board on behalf of 141 local authorities. It will enable councils to choose from a list of approved suppliers, without having to carry out a full procurement process.
The search for framework contractors began in May when a procurement notice was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (see letsrecycle.com story) and yesterday (November 17) iESE said that 24 were now being invited to tender. iESE said it was unable to name them at present but would be releasing these details at some stage during the invitation to tender phase.
Councillor Paul Bettison, chairman of iESE, said: With waste management accounting for over 3 billion of public sector spend annually, the framework will start to leverage savings for both councils and contractors in the procurement process, and ultimately lead to more effective services.
Services
The range of services to be offered by the Framework fall under four different categories: recycling and waste collection; street cleansing; ground maintenance; and, bulky waste collection. The Framework will have seven lots which will enable local authorities to call off the combination of services they require from these categories.
David Greenfield, from iESE, said that councils would still need to carry out a mini procurement process but that a lot of the paperwork would be standardised and there would be no need for them to publish a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).
Councils will be able to pick from number of contractors, although iESE was unable to reveal how many they would be able to choose from under the framework.
An iESE spokeswoman said: This is dependent on the number of contractors satisfying and meeting the award criteria, however it is anticipated that there will be a range of number of suppliers per lot.
The framework has been designed to enable major suppliers, SMEs and the 3rd sector to bid and be appointed to various numbers of lots, providing a range of services. Additionally, lots are both geographically focussed as well as financially focussed, she added.
Contracts
Once in place, councils involved with the framework will be able to use it for four years from April 2012 to procure contracts individually or in partnership, appointing a single contractor for up to 10 years.
iESE is working with early adopter authorities and partners to get reader for going to mini-competition in May 2012.
Mr Greenfield explained that standardly, it took around 12-18 months to procure a waste collection contract but that iESE was hoping to cut that time in half.
He said: We are producing standardised documentation, performance mechanisms and pricing structures. It will make the procurement process much simpler.
James Cleverly, chairman of the London Waste and Recycling Board, said: With waste management being one of the four highest spend areas for local government, in the current financial climate it is becoming more important to make savings wherever possible, whilst maintaining a high level of service. This Framework provides transparency of contract costs for local authorities, making it easier for benchmarking purposes. It will allow boroughs to realise real financial and time saving benefits from the process of procuring waste related services whilst also delivering reduced service costs.
iESE and the LWaRB are receiving support in developing the framework from the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), West Midlands IEP and Keep Britain Tidy (KBT).
Subscribe for free