Contract Procedure Rules

Clear and modern Contract Procedure Rules is one of the keys to adopting best practice, encouraging innovation and achieving greater efficiency when procuring goods works or services.

The issue of the Byatt Report (Delivering Better Services for Citizens), and the subsequent National Procurement Strategy for Local Government highlighted the need for authorities to take a corporate view of procurement issues. The best authorities recognise the critical contribution that procurement makes to the quality of front line services delivered to their communities and that effective procurement is measured as much by the social outcomes and community benefits that result, as the financial gains that are achieved. Most authorities have now produced corporate procurement strategies which set out their approach for identifying opportunities for partnering and collaboration, letting council-wide contracts and framework agreements and exploring various e-procurement initiatives. However, it is important to ensure the delivery of these strategies is facilitated by Contract Procedure Rules which encourage the adoption of current initiatives and modern best practice.

On behalf of the CIPFA, Ken Odgers has been working with the Local Government Task Force and in November 2006 CIPFA produced updated example Contract Procedure Rules that accommodates current procurement initiatives. The example Rules require minimal ‘tailoring’ to suit local requirements (e.g. setting financial thresholds and naming designated officers) and can therefore be adopted by an authority with little effort. While not intended to be a ‘model’, they illustrate how such Rules may be written in order to accommodate the principles of the National Procurement Strategy and the ‘Egan’ Rethinking Construction agenda.

CIPFA and the Local Government Task Force strongly encourage local authorities to use the example as the platform for undertaking reviews of their current Contract Procedure Rules.