Agenda and minutes

OVER £50,000 DEBT WRITE OFFS/ELECTORAL SERVICES PRINT CONTRACT, Cabinet Member Signing
Wednesday, 18th January, 2023 11.30 am

Contact: Felicity Foley, Committees Manager 2919, Email: felicity.foley@haringey.gov.uk

Items
No.	Item
5.	Apologies for absence To receive any apologies for absence. Minutes: There were no apologies for absence.
6.	Declarations of interest A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered: (i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and (ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room. A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure. Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct Minutes: None.
7.	Over £50,000 debt write offs PDF 210 KB Minutes: The Cabinet Member for Finance and Local Investment considered the report which sought write off approval for two Business Rate debts in excess of £50,000. The request had been made following the exhaustion of debt recovery procedures and where there was no further recourse to recovery. In August 2019 the Council received information of occupancy by Company X which had been operating the retail business since June 2018 to October 2019. The company was dissolved in November 2020 so no longer exists. There are no assets/resources for it. In January 2021, the Council received evidence about the occupation by Company Y. The agreement was effective from September 2019 and the company went into liquidation as of February 2020, whereby it’s assets were used to pay off it’s debts. The liquidators report concluded that there would be no dividend payable to any creditors. RESOLVED to 1. Agree to write off Business Rates debt of c.£91K owed by Company X. 1. Agree to write off Business Rates debt of c.£61K owed Company Y. Reasons for decision The Council is unable to take any further action to recover the debts. Alternative options considered Do nothing: This would mean the debts remain on the Council’s system and appear as collectable. This would provide a false sense of debt levels.
8.	Electoral Services Print Contract PDF 224 KB Minutes: The Cabinet Member for Finance and Local Investment considered the report which sought approval to award a contract for the provision of elections print and post services for a period of five years plus one year for a maximum contract sum of £1,000,000. RESOLVED Pursuant to Council’s Contract Standing Order 9.07.01d and Contract Standing Order 16.02, to approve the award of a contract for the provision of elections print and post services to Supplier C (named in the exempt part of the report) for a period of five years plus one year for a maximum contract sum of £1,000,000. It is envisaged the contract will start in early January 2023 until January 2028 (with the option to extend further to January 2029). Reasons for decision Both the Electoral Registration Officer and the Returning Officer require a specialist print supplies to deliver elections and electoral registration services for Haringey Council. A competitive procurement exercise was carried out under an Open tender process. The procurement launched on 8 September 2022 and closed on 6 October 2022 Three bids were submitted and were evaluated against price and quality. Following evaluation, Supplier C is the winning bidder. Elections team members have previously worked with all three companies that submitted bids, so the bids submitted were highly competitive. The selection of Supplier C will allow the council to work with a highly reputable specialist print company who has a record of quality delivery. Alternative options considered Do nothing. This was not an option as the delivery of electoral services relies heavily on specialist print and postage services. The council does not have the resources, expertise or the print machinery to deliver in-house. Having a contract in place is essential to ensure delivery of print of the standard required for ballot papers and postal packs plus all the other print required to ensure that elections and electoral registration services. There is not an election print framework, so a full procurement process was required.
9.	Exclusion of the Press and Public Items 6 and 7 likely to be subject to a motion to exclude the press and public be from the meeting as they contain exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985); paras 3, namely information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information). Minutes: RESOLVED that the press and public be excluded for the consideration of items 6 and 7 as they contain exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985); para 3, namely information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).
10.	EXEMPT - Over £50,000 debt write offs View the reasons why item 10. is restricted Additional documents: Restricted enclosure 6 View the reasons why document 10./2 is restricted Minutes: The exempt information was considered.
11.	EXEMPT - Electoral Services Print Contract View the reasons why item 11. is restricted Minutes: The resolutions in the exempt report were approved.