Central Bedfordshire Council (21 013 547)
Category : Other Categories > Commercial and contracts
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 13 Apr 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Councils decision to award contacts to the complainants’ competitors. It would have been reasonable for Mr X to take legal action if he felt the Council had not conducted the tender properly.
The complaint
- The complainant, I shall call Mr X, says the Council has treated his company unfairly in response to its tenders for contracts. He says by declining to accept the most competitive tenders which his company submitted, the Council has deprived the taxpayer of the capacity to achieve best value from the procurement process.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X tendered for two contracts advertised by the Council in January 2020 and more recently. The Council awarded the contracts to other companies.
- Mr X complains the Council is biased against him because of an previous adjudication case he took against the Council which he won. He wants the Council to refund him for the costs of preparing the bids.
- The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint further. Tenders for contracts above a certain size fall under the Public Contracts Regulations (PCR) 2015. The contracts that Mr X placed bids for fell under the regulations.
- Where tenders are subject to these regulations, companies have the right to challenge the outcome in court. This process covers the concerns Mr X had with the process in this case. Due to the value of the contracts it would have been reasonable for Mr X to take legal action if he felt the Council had not conducted the tender properly.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it would have been reasonable for Mr X to take legal action.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman