Appointment of UK company to manage lottery proceeds

WQ.349/2019

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE

MINISTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, TOURISM, SPORT AND CULTURE BY THE DEPUTY OF ST. JOHN

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 10th SEPTEMBER 2019

Question

In light of the decision to outsource the administration of the proceeds of the Channel Islands Lottery to a U.K. charity, will the Minister –

1. explain how the tender process ensured fairness between applications from Jersey bodies and U.K. ones, given the potential disparity in overheads between such bodies; and
2. agree to nullify the three-year contract that has been agreed, in order to engage a local entity to administer the distribution of Lottery proceeds?

Answer

1. Income from the lottery has risen significantly from £700,000 in 2014 to £2.1 million in 2018. The Government recognised that the distribution of this larger sum presented workload issues and also required improved governance and procedures. The increase in available funds also provided an opportunity to spread support more widely so that more islanders from all parts of the community can benefit, including in areas such as the arts, culture, sport and the third sector.

To achieve these aims, a public procurement exercise was undertaken in accordance with the Government's approved Procurement Strategy. This course of action was fully supported by the Association of Jersey Charities (AJC), which currently distributes lottery funds.

An Expression of Interest (EOI) exercise took place first to raise awareness of the forthcoming tender, to gather information about the capabilities of interested parties and to help the project team design an achievable specification for the new service. After an advertisement appeared on the Channel Islands Procurement Portal e-tendering system in May 2019, meetings were held with four local organisations in order to respond to their queries.

Once this was completed, an Invitation to Tender (ITT) was advertised on the e-tendering portal, as an open tender, opening on 28 May 2019. Interested parties were invited to submit a tender by 21 June. Applicants had an opportunity to request clarification meetings and two local organisations were provided with advice. Five companies submitted a tender, four of them from Jersey.

All tenders submitted were treated equally. Tender acceptance was decided using an industry standard system known as Most Economically Advantageous Tender. An Evaluation Panel used pre-determined criteria, which ensured consistent and objective evaluation. The procurement exercise undertaken fully complied with the Government of Jersey's Procurement Strategy and was carried out in a robust and diligent manner.

Grantscape was chosen by the Evaluation Panel as the preferred tenderer because it has a proven track record of effectively and efficiently distributing funding to the voluntary and community sector in the UK and demonstrated that it is qualified to provide the scope set out within the procurement specification.

GrantScape are a registered UK charity running a number of grant schemes across the UK. The response to the procurement exercise outlined how GrantScape design, administer and manage community funding programmes using four key principles:

1. Provide a simple, non-bureaucratic process, accessible to all
2. Effective and inclusive promotion and support to groups seeking funding
3. Effective Decision Making Panels (collaboration with Key Stakeholders)
4. Monitoring, Reporting and Reviewing

The response offered numerous significant benefits not included in any of the other submissions, including a proven online application system and a proven structure already in place. The annual running cost reflected the economies of scale available to Grantscape. It provided the best value for money of all the submissions and would have resulted in the highest sum being delivered to local recipients. It would not require set-up costs to be borne by the Lottery. As well as administration, the Grantscape submission included the creation of local Decision Making Panels made up of existing community organisations such as the AJC, Jersey Sport, and local arts, culture, and heritage organisations.

2. This has been overtaken by events as P.87/2019 has been withdrawn. No contract has been signed in relation to this tender.