CATERING AND FUNCTIONS COMMITTEE MINUTES OF THE EIGHTH MEETING

16 December 1999

HELD ON THURSDAY 16 DECEMBER 1999
AT 12.30 PM IN ROOM 106

Present: Mr P Berry
Mr PJ Bradley
Ms M Gildernew
Sir John Gorman

In the Chair: Sir John Gorman

In attendance: Mr T Evans
Mr J Floyd
Mr P Waddell
Ms S Harrison (Refreshment Dept, House of Commons) 
Mr T Gilgunn (Government Purchasing Agency
Mr D Gilmour (Government Purchasing Agency)

Apologies: Mr C Wilson

1. PURPOSE OF MEETING

The purpose of the meeting was to evaluate the tender submitted by Deloitte and Touche for the Prior Options Study.

2. EVALUATION OF TENDER

Members agreed that the tender was reasonable but that the following issues needed to be addressed before a contract could be awarded.

· The review of existing facilities needs to take place earlier in the process;

· the project scoping should include visits to Westminster, the Dail and the Scottish Assembly as well as Northern Ireland best practice visits.

· a detailed option analysis to be completed as part of the project scoping stage;

· the customer needs assessment must identify customer priority requirements;

· a service as opposed to an output specification is required;

· some reservations were expressed about the 'skills mix' of the team;

· effective project controls and regular feedback to the Committee need to be built into the project plan; and

· the above points to be accommodated within the existing tender price.

3. NEXT STEPS

It was agreed that Assembly officials and GPA should have an early meeting with Deloitte and Touche to resolve the outstanding issues.