ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: March 19, 1996
TO: Vancouver City Council
FROM: General Manager of Corporate Services
SUBJECT: Tender for Travel Agency Services
RECOMMENDATION
A. THAT Council instruct the General Manager of Corporate
Services to initiate a Request for Proposal ("RFP") for the
City's business travel requirements to the travel agencies
doing business in the Lower Mainland, along the lines
described in this report.
B. THAT the results of the RFP process, along with staff
recommendations, be reported back to Council for
consideration and approval.
COUNCIL POLICY
On June 23, 1992, City Council instructed the Director of Finance to
tender the City's business travel requirements on a formal basis.
Council also directed that the selected travel agency be appointed for
a term of three years and that the appointment be reflected in an
agreement with normal safeguards for early termination.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to recommend that the City's business
travel arrangements again be tendered in the form of a Request for
Proposal. The results of that process will be reported to Council for
review and approval.
BACKGROUND
In 1992, City Council engaged the accounting firm of KPMG Peat Marwick
Thorne ("PMT") to review the City's travel policies and practices.
PMT recommended the appointment of one travel agency to handle all
City business travel, in order to achieve economies of scale, to
assist with policy enforcement, and to simplify the processing of
travel claims generally. - 2 -
After an extensive Expression of Interest solicitation and a Request
for Proposal ("RFP") process, Council appointed Atlas Worldwide Travel
Management as the City's travel agency for a period of three years,
commencing on April 20, 1993.
DISCUSSION
The three-year term for Atlas Travel will expire in April of this
year. Following Council's policy of encouraging competitive bidding
for acquisition of goods and services, it would be appropriate to
again tender the City's business travel requirements. The tender
process would be conducted along the following lines:
- the City would issue a formal RFP to the travel agencies doing
business in the Lower Mainland and advertise the tender in the
appropriate manner;
- an RFP review group comprised of the travel arrangers from City
departments and boards having significant business travel needs
(Engineering, Park Board, Police, City Clerk and Corporate
Services) would be formed to review the submission material and
recommend a travel agency to Council;
- the travel agency recommended by the review group would be
appointed by Council for a three-year term covered by an agreement
with normal safeguards for early termination; and,
- the City's business travel requirements would be subject to re-
tender after three years.
Given that the recommended RFP process may not be completed on or
before the expiry of the City's present travel agreement with Atlas
Travel, there will likely be a requirement to hold over that agreement
on a month-to-month basis pending the selection of a replacement
travel agency.
CONCLUSION
The tender process conducted in 1993 to acquire the services of a
travel agency for the City's business travel requirements was a
challenging and useful exercise. The tender generated a good deal of
interest in the travel community and fostered a healthy competition
among the travel agencies that chose to bid. We expect the same
conditions to apply this time around.
I should note, however, that Atlas Travel has responded to the City's
needs over the last three years in a competent, professional manner.
The excellent relationship that has developed between our
organizations is a compliment to the people involved on both sides of
the travel service.
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