Contract Information System - Notice from Leeds City Council

We have received the email below from Leeds City Council regarding the Contract Information System (CIS).

From the 1st April we will start to remove the references on this site to CIS

Contracts Information System (CIS) - Important 

I am contacting you as a user of the CIS to inform you that the system will not be in use after 31st March 2011.

As you will be aware the council is having to consider its expenditure much more carefully and the decision has been made that no budget will be allocated to pay for this externally purchased service from April 2011.  This was previously funded by the regional improvement and efficiency partnership (RIEP).   

A number of factors were considered when making this decision including the usage of the system. I can however inform you that alternative arrangements are being made through making improvements to our internal financial management system (FMS).  It is our view that the changes to FMS will replace the need for CIS.  These changes are currently in progress and it is anticipated these will be in place early in the new financial year.

I would re-iterate that the procurement unit, along with all service areas, have had to review its expenditure and we hope you can understand the decision we have had to make, and that we are working to provide you with the most suitable alternative arrangements. 

Thank you

At this moment I am not aware of how Leeds City Council intends to replace CIS other than the information contained in the email but what I will do in the short term is extract any information that is relevant to schools and post it on our website under the contractual information section.

http://www.leedsadviceforschools.com/procurementguidance.htm (About half way down the page)

Thanks