Public Procurement

What is Public Sector?

The Public Sector is made up of the following organisations:

How Does the Public Sector Purchase? (Food)
Public Sector organisations will have their own Financial Standing Orders for purchasing goods and services and there to ensure no discrimination and fair competition for all.
Most public sector bodies have responsibility for their own purchasing and will advertise tenders on their own websites and in the local press.
Many public sector bodies are now using e-tendering or on-line procurement portal where you can register and sign up for alerts.

Low-value Contracts (under £140,000)    
If the total value of a contract is under £140,000, it is not required to be advertised nationally or across the EU. However, many public bodies are now choosing to use the government portal, www.supply2.gov.uk , which will send you daily alerts about contracts in your specified area.

 

High-value Contracts (over £140,000)
In January each year the EU sets the threshold at which tenders for goods and services have to be advertised and tendered through the OJEU. At present this is £144,371.  The online portal which lists those contracts is called Tenders Electronic Daily or TED for short (www.ted.europa.eu ).

The OJEU website can be confusing so consequently, there are a number of companies which will offer to search on your behalf for relevant contracts for a fee. The TED website has recently set up an automatic pre-screened feed which can display Food & Agriculture tender opportunities in your internet web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer). It updates itself every 24 hours and is easy to set up.

Food Northwest provides a filtering service to distributors/wholesalers, food manufacturers/processors, framers and producers and SME’s by providing the list of food tenders advertised from the Office of the Journal of the European Union (OJEU) on a weekly basis of both the opportunities nationally in the UK and Europe for export opportunities. When tenders are advertised in the Northwest region or nearby these tenders are available as a downloadable document.

 

NHS Contracts
The NHS has its own dedicated purchasing and supply agency called NHS Supply Chain which offers a good on-line guide to opportunities and associated standards for supplying the NHS (www.supplychain.nhs.uk )
It also has its own procurement portal where you can search for contract opportunities (www.pasa.bravosolution.com ).
If you are intending to submit an Expression of Interest for an NHS contract, please leave yourself plenty of time as you will also need to set up your profile on their Supplier Information Database or SID.

 

EU Tender Procedures
Under the EU regulations there are four types of tender procedure available to buyers.

Open Procedure
This particular procedure allows companies to apply without prior selection. The timescale for the open procedure is that companies have 52 days to return tenders. See Open Procedure flowchart for further information.

 

Restricted Procedure
This particular procedure is a two/three stage process. Companies will be shortlisted to receive tenders once they have passed certain pre-selection criteria.
The timescales for the restricted procedure are 37 days for companies to register an interest and 40 days from despatch of tender to return. See Restricted Procedure flowchart for further information.

 

Negotiated procedure
The Negotiated Procedure should only be used in exceptional circumstances and contracting authorities should consider use of the Open, Restricted or Competitive Dialogue procedures in the first instance.

 

The Competitive Dialogue Procedure
The Competitive Dialogue Procedure was introduced by the Public Sector Contracts Regulations 2006 .
Competitive Dialogue is available for complex procurements where it is considered that neither the Open or Restricted procedures will allow the award of the contract. It is unlikely that this procedure would be used for the tendering of the supply of goods.
The maximum duration of OJEU tenders is 4 years. 

 

Information required from suppliers
The contract notice or advertisement will invite companies to submit an expression of interest for a contract.
Once expressions of interest have been received companies may be required to submit supporting information either via a pre qualification questionnaire (PQQ) or within the invitation to tender (ITT) package.
It is important that suppliers provide all the information requested and respond by the due date otherwise they may be rejected from the process.
The type of information required may include all or some of the following:

The EU procurement laws are in place to ensure there is no discrimination, equal treatment of all potential bidders/suppliers, fair competition and all arrangements are open and transparent to inspection.

 

Tendering process
The next stage, after a company has replied to an OJEU notice or advertisement, is the supplier will either be sent a tender (If the open tender procedure has been used) or sent a pre-tender questionnaire.
The responses from the completed pre-tender questionnaire will be used to assess whether the company can meet the council’s requirements for that particular contract. If the company can meet the relevant requirements they will be shortlisted and will receive an invitation to tender package.
Within the invitation to tender package there will be as a minimum: 

It is essential tenders are returned on time and to the address detailed in the tender package. Any tenders received after the closing date and time will be disqualified.  
The returned tenders will all be opened at the same time and evaluated against the criteria detailed in the tender documentation.
Both the successful and unsuccessful suppliers will be notified in writing or by official electronic communication.  
All suppliers will be offered the opportunity to have a contract debrief meeting. The contract debrief is an opportunity for companies to find out why they were unsuccessful and where they need to improve to help make their bid more successful next time. 
Please note each contract is dealt with on an individual basis. Both successful and unsuccessful companies are not automatically considered for any other contract.