There was submitted a report by the Director of Scotland Excel relative to the award of a renewal framework agreement for the supply and delivery of trade materials which would be effective from 17 February 2018 to 16 February 2021, with an option to extend to 16 February 2022. 

The report intimated that the framework would provide councils and other participating bodies with a mechanism to procure a broad range of trade materials for council stores, schools, work depots and other facilities, as well as for collection from supplier trade counters.

The framework had been divided into four lots as detailed in table 1 of the report.  Appendix 1 to the report detailed the participation, spend and savings summary of all 32 councils participating in the framework.  It was noted that the Scottish Prison Service, NHS Scotland, Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges and the Wheatley Group would also be participating in the framework. 

The total framework spend was an estimated value of £32m over the term of the contract, however, to accommodate the likely growth from associate members the framework had been advertised at an overall value of £40m.  Tender responses had been received from 29 suppliers.  A summary of offers received, including those suppliers deemed to be non-compliant, was provided in Appendix 2 to the report. 

It was noted that the majority of tenderers for lot 1 offered the same products across the three product quality levels which was contrary to the requirements set out in the tender.  It had not been possible to make a recommendation that would deliver the necessary geographical coverage and competition and following endorsement from the User Intelligence Group it was recommended that this lot be not awarded.  Scotland Excel would separately tender for power tools only in February 2018 and would extend the life of the power tools lot on the current framework until the new framework was in place.

It was further noted that lot 3 received bids with less than the required product coverage.  Full product and geographical coverage had been ensured by slightly reducing the threshold to 65%.  All bids with product coverage below this threshold were deemed as non-compliant and were not evaluated further.

Based on the criteria and scoring methodology set out within the tender document, a full evaluation of the remaining compliant offers had been completed and Appendix 3 to the report detailed the scoring achieved by each bidder.  

Based on the evaluation undertaken and to secure best value, capacity and coverage it was recommended that a multi-supplier framework agreement be awarded to 17 suppliers across the three lots as detailed in Appendix 3 to the report. 

DECIDED: 

(a) That the award of the framework agreement, as detailed in Appendix 3 to the report, be approved; and

(b) That the recommendation not to award lot 1 and the extension of the current arrangements for power tools only be approved; and

(c) That it be noted that a separate tender exercise would be carried out to ensure sufficient product coverage.