Angus Council is hoping sheriff officers will force its debtors to pay back £12 million.
It reckons it will be owed that sum in unpaid council tax, rates and rent and overpaid housing benefit over the next six years.
Hiring a professional debt recovery service should allow it to get that money back although it expects to pay the sheriff officers almost £1 million over the length of the contract.
Councillors will be asked next week to put the contract out to tender.
Graham Ritchie, the council’s manager of revenues and benefits, said: “The provision of high quality debt recovery and sheriff officer services is an essential requirement for the good management of the council’s income, and specifically to meet the requirements and indicators for council tax and non-domestic rates recovery.
“The supply market has been analysed and only sheriff officers (who are appointed by Scotland’s sheriff court to formally enforce court orders) are qualified to provide this service.”
Whichever of the 27 possible bidders gets the contract will be expected to staff an office in Angus, as the present service provider does. The contract will begin in April 2015 and will be for four years initially, with an option for two more years.
The sheriff officers will be tasked with recovering debts from council tax including water and wastewater charge, non-domestic rates, housing benefit overpayments and rent arrears.
They will also serve debtors with statutory notices, court documents and warrants and carry out evictions.
Mr Ritchie said: “The estimated cost for the maximum six years’ duration of the tender is £900,000. The actual costs incurred will be dependent upon the collection levels that prevail over the contract term and volume of statutory notices issued by legal services.
“To put this into context it is estimated that over £12 million will be collected by the contractor for the council … during the contract period.”
During 2013-14, Angus Council collected 97.6% of the council tax it was owed. The Scottish average was 95.2%.