Procurement Procedures

The North East Combined Authority uses Service Level Agreements with other local authorities to undertake work/activities on the NECA’s behalf. The Procurement procedure of each local authority is followed and NECA primarily works with Durham County Council for procurement exercises.

The North East Combined Authority is commited to using open and transparent procedures when buying goods or services or commissioning works. NECAs procurement procedures are carried out in line with financial regulations set out in Part 5 of the NECA Constitution, the current version of which can be accessed here.

NECA’s operations are supported by Officers working in a number of North East Local Authorities and financial regulations permit the relevant local authorities procurement processes to be followed when a project is being led by an Officer of that authority. In addition some procurement processes will be led centrally from the Monitoring Officer’s department.

The North East Combined Authority contracts for the supply of goods and services on standard terms and conditions. A copy of the Authority’s terms and conditions can be found here. Suppliers to the Authority must not begin work until they have a contract, signed by the Monitoring Officer, and a valid purchase order. Work undertaken before these documents are in place is carried out entirely at the suppliers own risk and NECA may be unable to pay for such services.

North East Combined Authority adopts a range of procurement processes. The choice of process under the European Procurement threshold will be determined by NECA’s Central Procurement Policy or, when carried out on NECA’s behalf by a Constituent Authority, the relevant authority’s procurement policy. All contracts with a value above the current OJEC procurement thresholds will follow a prescribed procurement process and will additionally be advertised in the official Journal of the European Community.

The current thresholds (which apply from 1 January 2018 and are expressed net of VAT) are:

Supplies, Services and Design Contracts: 221,000 Euros (£181,302)
Works Contracts: 5,548,000 Euros (£4,551,413)
Social and other specific services : 750,000 Euros (£615,278)

Small Lots:
Supplies, Services and Design Contracts: 80,000 Euros (£65,630)
Works Contracts: 1,000,000 Euros (£820,370)