Decision Details

The Council uses Civica Pay as its Income management system for processing all income due to the Council, including card payments and bank statement reconciliation. 

The current contract with Civica expires on 30 September 2021 but there are provisions for continuation in the current contract.  The current system is on outdated servers and the upgraded system will comply with Accessibility regulations for web payments and help the Council comply with payment card industry data security standards.

Therefore, in order to achieve continuation of service and to avoid the need to change systems, which will be resource and financially intensive, it is proposed that a new contract be directly awarded with Civica, using the provisions of the DAS Framework, effective from 1 October 2021 for a period of 3-years.  This will allow the Council to effectively take payments until 2024, at which time consideration around systems will be a decision for the new Unitary authority.

By not awarding the contract to Civica, the Council would be in the position where it may not have a fully working income management system with which to process payments and income it receives.  There would be additional capital costs involved in procuring through a tender exercise and a risk of loss of service to the Council.

The contract can be contained within current budgetary provisions.

SMT considered all options for the provision of income management and payment services on 21 September and agreed that the best course of action would be to award a new contract to Civica. 

By not awarding the contract to Civica, the Council would be in the position where it may not have a fully working income management system with which to process payments and income it receives.  There would be additional capital costs involved in procuring through a tender exercise and a risk of loss of service to the Council.

SMT Report – Civica Payments System – 21 September 2021 – Not for publication by virtue of Paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A to the Local  Government Act 1972, as it contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)