Councillor Muldowney introduced the report and explained that it relates to the contract for a critical system that deals with the collection of council tax and business rates and the distribution of benefits. A direct award to NEC is recommended to provide service continuity, cost savings and reduce unnecessary risk. Councillor Muldowney confirmed that commissioners had made the following comments on the report “An appropriate risk based decision process has been followed to achieve best value for Thurrock whilst seeking to address the prospects of Local Government Reorganisation.

Councillor Morris-Cook queried whether Local Government Reorganisation could impact the contract and expressed concern about overpaying.

The Executive Director of Corporate Services and Monitoring Officer stated that there is risk with any contract. The provider is the market leader and a termination clause will be negotiated. The risk matrix notes that one supplier would not engage with us and the other could not meet the contract requirements. The council is likely to receive a fair amount of notice as to when Thurrock Council will cease to exist.

Councillor Worrall commented that although Thurrock Council wont exist in the future, services will still be needed. The procurement team is working tirelessly on this.

RESOLVED:

2.1 Cabinet approved the award of a contract for the provision of a core Revenues and Benefits processing system to NEC Software Services (UK) Ltd using the CCS Frameworks Vertical Applications Solutions (RM6259), for a period of five years (with an option to extend for a further two periods of twelve (12) months each) with a total contract value of £1.63 million, commencing December 2025.

2.2 Cabinet agreed to delegate the award of the contract to the Executive Director of Corporate Services in consultation with the portfolio holder for Resources.

Reason for the decision: as outlined in the report

This decision is subject to call-in