OJEU Best Practice Guidance Note Our experience and improvement ideas 1.
General
1.1
Clear instructions are needed from the beginning (from the OJEU published notice until the very end).
1.2 Make sure that the tender is required and can deliver reasonable expectations for those applying. Cancellation or delay of a tender is frustrating, time consuming and expensive (50 companies x approx. £10,000 = £500,000), especially if they have turned down another opportunity to prioritise one. 1.3
E-tendering is in theory the best option due to environmental and ease factors, however, can fall down on the following points:
Asking for hard copies anyway.
Using a system that is bulky and difficult to use.
Experiencing technical issues. Not receiving a confirmation email after uploading or the portal server being down can create challenges.
1.4
An e-tendering portal will reduce the number of non-compliant tenders or tender responses missing information, using required/compulsory fields that need to be completed before submission. Text boxes, dropdown menus, etc. will also reduce the variance of information you receive for standard or pass/fail questions and can be used as a quick way to evaluate or disqualify tenderers who do not meet the criteria.
1.5
Provide tender documents in usable formats - sending a PQQ or ITT in PDF means tenderers will come back and ask for it in Word to be able to complete it.
1.6
Ensure the tender documents don’t contain spelling mistakes, inconsistent formatting, contradictions, doubling of requests for information, non-applicable information etc. This will increase the number of queries received from tenderers.
1.7
Ensure that the scope of services for each procurement type is clear for each RIBA stage to ensure robustly priced returns.
1.8
A realistic timescale should be set for returning the documents (4 weeks from the date the notice is published, is the minimum).
1.9 Set an appropriate return deadline - for example, Wednesday before 12pm. A deadline such as ‘Monday before 9am’ is pointless as what you are really saying is close of play the Friday before, which then raises the question ‘when does the office close on the Friday’? This can lead to confusion and ambiguity. 1.10
Clarifications should be clear, concise and not contradictory. Where the same question is asked on more than one occasion, refer to the previous response provided in the clarification log instead of answering again to avoid confusion. The log can be posted on the portal with a notification sent to all those who have registered their interest or have reached the next stage.
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