Oxford DPS and Framework Issues Flashcards
What makes a contract a concession (in simplest terms)
If you want us to take on revenue risk for delivering a service, then that is a concession.
“It is the nature of how you are remunerated that makes it a concession”
What is the first question we should be asking when talking about risk, contract terms, partnership?
How are we getting paid?
Why is our approach to revenue risky?
We have to guess the revenue that can be generated from our service over the next 15 years.
Why would the procurement of goods and services create more risk for the council than a concession?
The risks around how successful the charging infrastructure is would blow back onto the council instead of the CPO.
What type of procurement is governed by the PCR 2015 procurement regulations?
(Public Contract Regulations 2015)
It is for when you are just buying a product - transactional payment
What does the threshold of £5.3 million represent for procurement?
It represents the threshold for when the regulations become serious - essentially, every LEVI project will be above £5.3m throughout its duration.
It is imposed by central government.
What happens when the contract goes over the £5.3m threshold?
You must go through a public procurement exercise
RFI
RFP
How does using frameworks / DPS “fast track” the procurement process for councils?
Public procurement exercises through a PCR is heavily regulated in terms of how councils can engage the market.
Frameworks or DPSs are meant to streamline the process of procurement
- Select number of competitors
- Pre agree terms and conditions
Allows councils to run a mini competition really quickly
Why do concession contracts require compromise?
The market has seen an opportunity to deliver a service that makes money. Best case scenario, they are given land and can do what they want with the sites. (DC model)
Councils have a strict set of outcomes that they must deliver on with their EV charging network.
Reaching a compromise must involve:
- Council outcomes are being delivered on
- An attractive enough case for CPOs to invest and take on the risk of generating revenue.
Why do we want in person meetings?
For concession contracts to work,
They must be pointed towards making sure councils have a viable contract that people can bid on.
the process of this is viable concessionaires and the authority having a discussion to agree a set of terms about where the risks and choices get pulled to.
What happens if councils go down the route of frameworks and oxford dps for a concession contract?
- They are breaking CCR Regulations
- They are trying to push the contract through a set of regulations that don’t apply
- So, your procurement can now get challenged by people who can claim it was an unfair procurement.
- The likely result would be that the contract gets cancelled.
- So all the time and money you’ve dedicated would be wasted.
How has this problem even happened?
- A local authority realised it was about to go to procurement through a concession, and saw the problem with going through DPS.
- They alerted OZEV
- The procurement regulations have been published, and they only really define the old rules in a clear way:
“You cannot buy concessions through a DPS / Framework”
What is an example of a correctly procured PCR Contract?
Lambeth Council’s Framework
3 Lots:
- Payment for providing equipment
- Payment for installation and maintenance
- Payment for running back office
Questions you can ask to test whether the council’s thinking on partner CPO’s is robust enough?
- What is the financial stability of the companies you are working with? (what private backing do you have?)
- How are the companies you’re working with predict their forward revenue curve? (have they done this scale of rollout before?)
- Is the company able to spread their investment? (they might be backed for a single deal, but can they do multiple in different parts of the country?)
Why is private backing through the CIIF fund so important?
As much as councils need to adhere to procurement regulations, ZOUK are bound by the same rules that manage the public CIIF fund.
This is to protect public money.
This stops us being pushed over our credit line.
“strong governance that is exactly aligned to the same outputs as the councils”
