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20 January 2012 | Adam Leach

Westminster City Council has published a tender to set up a framework agreement enabling it and 19 other London authorities to buy procurement and other back office technology and services.

The contract is estimated to reach a value of between £800 million and £1.19 billion (£1.4 billion including VAT) when completed. The tender, published yesterday, will enable participating authorities to buy a range of services, seperated into four lots.

The four lots are; finance and procurement and human resources and payroll; e-sourcing; property asset data management; and business intelligence. Through the framework, councils will be able to leverage their buying power to drive down costs.

Westminster is acting as the contracting authority on behalf of 19 other London based local authorities including Islington Council, the London Borough of Hackney, Kingston Council and Camden Council.

The decision to submit the collaborative tender is part of the London Athena Programme, which aims to ensure that the benefits of bulk buying are explored across London through joint purchasing.

The tender explained the services purchased by participating authorities will vary: “The requirements of each of the Council and the other participating authorities under the framework may vary. Some may issue call-off contracts under each lot and some may not.”

“Interested service providers should note that it is intended that within a lot, the participating authorities will select which services they require and that in respect of each lot not all services may be required by the Council or any other participating authority.”

In 2010 Westminster City Council, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea announced they planned to make savings of around £100 million a year through merging the procurement of services.