Decision details

The Council has undertaken a review of all its payment services and channels and Cabinet approval to re-procure these services was given in October 2018. A procurement process is underway to tender for a new contract for provision of these services. However complexity of the system architecture of this service and related systems mean additional work was undertaken to clarify the requirements of a new service. The tender documentation is currently being drafted and contract award is anticipated in the next six months.
The continuation of the current agreement will allow time for new contracts to be procured in line with the decision taken by Cabinet in October 2018.

Extension of the current agreement with CIPFA for income receipting systems up to March 2021, this includes ability to receive online payments, telephone payments and processing direct debits.
The contract covers an annual license fee and a transaction fee based on a percentage of value of payments taken, in 2018/19 the total value of this contract was £359k.
Bristol City Council have a rolling agreement recently updated in 2017 with Capita for the provision of these services which requires 6 months’ notice for termination – given the critical nature of these service until we have a replacement in place it is high risk to terminate this arrangement.

Termination of this contract would remove a range of payment methods for citizens and businesses to pay income due having a significant impact on processing income to the organisation in the short term until a compliant system was procured. This would also have short term cash flow implications for the authority.