Internal Audit recently identified two examples of contracts which were awarded directly, rather than having gone through an appropriate procurement process and without having first obtained the approval of Nick Gray in his capacity as s151 Officer. A contract can be a simple one-off transaction and often just takes the form of a purchase order (and reflects our standard terms and conditions) – it doesn’t only involve lengthy legal documents and relationships which last months or years.
The procurement process varies according to the value of the contract and you can find out what the required process is on Molly at the following page Procurement thresholds and process to follow.
If you consider there are valid grounds for not following the specified process, you must seek prior approval from Nick Gray, or in his absence, Danae Fiedler before the contract is entered into. More information on those grounds is also on Molly at this page Exemptions to the Procurement Thresholds – but it is a high threshold and generally very few are approved in any one year.
Further information on procurement at MVDC is available on via the Molly landing page at https://stagingmolly.molevalley.gov.uk/procurement-2/ (or type procurement in the search function on the Molly home page and it will pop up)
We hope to be able to roll out some procurement training later this (financial) year – in the meantime if you have any questions or are unsure please talk to your BMT or EHOS or the Procurement team (procurement@horsham.gov.uk).