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How the council buys goods and services
The council spends more than £100million each year on a wide range of goods and services.
The council must ensure that the money it receives from general taxpayers and council taxpayers is used as carefully as possible and that it achieves the best value for money. A significant proportion of the council’s spending is therefore under contracts which have been subject to reasonable competition.
The council is a member of the Kent Buying Consortium and when appropriate, joins with other authorities in Kent to undertake joint contracting. The council also makes use of contracts awarded by other bodies on behalf of public authorities, such as the Central Buying Consortium (www.cbconline.org.uk/index.htm), Office of Government Commerce (OGC) Buying Solutions (http://online.ogcbuyingsolutions.gov.uk/news/index.html), Laser, etc.
The thresholds set out below apply to requirements for the external supply of goods, services or works.
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Less than £15,000
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a single quotation
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£15,001 to £100,000
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a minimum of three quotations
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£100,001 to £156,442
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a minimum of three formal tenders
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More than £156,442 (for goods or services) or more than £3,927,260 (for works)
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formal tendering in line with regulations implementing European Union legislation
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Medway-based companies
The links above outline how businesses can take advantage of opportunities to work with the council to provide essential goods and services to aid its work. However, many of the contracts the council lets are subject to competition from within and outside Medway. For most of these, the council is not allowed to give preferential treatment to local businesses. Even when it is able to do so, normal requirements to meet best value for money still apply. Merely complying with the information requested by the council on this site and elsewhere does not, of itself, guarantee the award of any contract.
Page last updated on 1 March 2010.
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