Understanding the tender process

What is it all about?

According to EU legislation, all contracts from the public sector, which are valued above a certain threshold, must be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU, formally the OJEC).

The legislation covers organisations and projects, which receive public money. Local authorities, NHS trusts, Central Government Departments etc are all covered by the legislation and must advertise in OJEU if their contract is covered.

Around 2500 new notices are advertised every week - invitations to tender, pre information notices, qualification systems and contract award notices from over 80 countries world-wide. Around 10% - 15% of these are from the UK and Northern Ireland.

What Tender Procedure is used?

The public authority can elect, subject to the regulations, to follow one of three procedures when issuing a notice. These procedures are:

Deadlines

The timescale from publishing a notice to deadline for tenders can be relatively short - for an open procedure, the authority must allow at least 52 days between sending the contract to OJEU and deadline for tenders. However it can take up to 12 days before the notice appears in OJEU, leaving the supplier only 40 days to respond.

Restricted and negotiated procedures have shorter deadlines, which can be reduced further if the contract is urgent.

What Criteria are used to Evaluate Tenders?

Information used to appraise suppliers includes:

How do we make Contact?

Many local authorities use approved or preferred supplier lists for their smaller contracts and requests for quotes. Suppliers have to qualify to be on these lists. Being on a list does not guarantee you will be awarded a contract, but this will put you in a better position than someone not on the list - the buyer already knows you.

Many local authorities have Centralised Purchasing Units. While the unit may not be responsible for all contracts, they will be able to put you in touch with the right person in the organisation for you to talk to.

Local Authority and Council websites will usually have a procurement section, or section headed “Doing business with the Authority”

Is my Company fit to tender?

Before responding to an OJEU notice – quickly complete the following checklist, Answering a pre-qualification questionnaire can be very time consuming, if you don’t qualify you won’t even get to the full tender stage.

What information will I be required to produce?

Standard documents required for most bids -