If ECDC accepts an Expression of Interest it will carry out a procurement exercise for the service. This exercise will have regard to the value and nature of the contract that may be awarded. ECDC will need to comply with procurement law and the exercise will be carried out in accordance with Part 4, Section 5 of the Council's Constitution Contract Procedure Rules.
The procurement process resulting from the acceptance of any Expression of Interest will start no sooner than three months and no later than six months following acceptance of the Expression of Interest. The length of this period reflects the varying nature, scale and complexity of the services that may be procured and aims to allow relevant bodies the time they need to prepare to compete in the procurement exercise.
An Expression of Interest for services already the subject of a procurement exercise can be refused.
An Expression of Interest will be considered where ECDC already has a contract with a third party to provide that service. However, it should be noted that the Council has an obligation to consider whether it would be 'best value' to re-tender for a service that is mid-way through a contract. This is because ending the contract early is likely to incur financial penalties in addition to the considerable resource required to run a tender exercise.
The economic benefits of re-tendering a service or going out to tender for the first time must be considered by ECDC. The Council has an obligation to consider whether both Expressions of Interest and procurement exercises would promote or improve the economic, social or environmental well-being of the District.
ECDC will seek to assess this through specific questions within the Expression of Interest form and may also include social clauses in contracts, provided they comply with the law applying to the awarding of contracts.
ECDC publishes details of all upcoming tenders and contracts awarded on its website. This will include all of those procurement exercises carried out as a result of an Expression of Interest being accepted.
ECDC will follow the Contract Procedure Rules set out in Part 4, Section 5 of the Council's Constitution in regard to advertising for tenders and quotations. Where the law allows, the tender and contract details will be circulated to the voluntary and community sector so that they are aware of the opportunities to participate in the procurement process.