For lower value/low risk procurement exercises under the current thresholds, the procurement officer may elect to run a quotation or a tender.
For higher value regulated procurements public sector procurement officers must choose to tender using six main procurement procedures. Some procurement officers may choose to follow one of these procedures even if the contract is estimated to be lower than the thresholds.
The most commonly used procedures are the Open Procedure and the Restricted Procedure, which both use the SPD to ask selection questions.
An Open Procedure is where the procurement exercise is open to all suppliers. This means that any interested supplier can bid, within the tender timescales, and the procurement officer cannot limit the number of bids it receives.
This is normally used by public sector procurement officers where there is likely to be limited interest in an opportunity, to ensure maximum competition (and therefore value for money for the taxpayer). This procurement procedure is a one stage process i.e. all selection and award criteria are evaluated in one stage
The main points in the Open Procedure are:
The closing date for the receipt of open procedure bids is generally no less than 35 days from the day after the date the contract notice is automatically sent to the Find a Tender Service (FTS) via Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) for UK-wide publication. This timescale can be reduced if a Prior Information Notice was issued or where bids will be accepted electronically.
The procurement officer will detail all of the tender timelines in the tender documents. You should ensure you read and understand these.
If there is a justifiable reason to change the tender closing date, the new date will be notified to all bidders. If you have already submitted a tender then you should be given the opportunity to withdraw your original bid and submit a revised one.
It is the responsibility of all suppliers to ensure that their bid is submitted in accordance with the rules of the competition and before the specified deadline. Non-conformant bids will be disqualified from the competition.
The Restricted Procedure is used where there are likely to be many suppliers interested in the opportunity. This is because procurement officers using the Restricted Procedure can limit the number of bidders to invite to tender to those with the best capacity and capability to meet the contract requirements, meaning bidders not meeting this criteria do not waste time and resources completing a full tender response.
This procedure has two distinct stages:
The first stage is where interested suppliers need to complete a Single Procurement Document (SPD). The procurement officer will publish a Contract Notice which will include details of how to access the SPD i.e. via a Word document, the online SPD Module in Public Contracts Scotland or via PCS-Tender. Interested bidders will then have a minimum of 30 days to respond.
The SPD is a list of relevant questions that suppliers need to answer about their past situation e.g. their capability and experience. Examples of the questions asked include:
Completing the SPD allows bidders to confirm (or self-declare) that they meet the relevant selection and exclusion criteria to the procurement officer i.e. that the responses given meet the procurement officers requirements and there is no reason for you to be excluded from the pocurement exercise.
The procurement officer will then shortlist the bidders who meet the criteria to proceed onto the next stage.
Suppliers who are shortlisted may be asked to provide evidence and supporting documents that they meet the relevant exclusion and selection criteria as declared in their SPD response. This will normally be done when the procurement officer has selected their preferred supplier and is about to award the contract, but could be asked for earlier in the process.
NOTE: The Selection Stage does not ask how you would plan to deliver the specific contract.
Suppliers shortlisted at the selection stage will all be issued with the procurement documents.
There will be a minimum of 5 companies invited to tender (where there are at least 5 suitably qualified or experienced companies).
Bidders should follow the instructions included in the tender documents, and prepare and submit their bid as they would with an Open Procedure.
It is during this Award Stage that you will be asked questions about how you will meet the award criteria for a specific tender i.e. the future. Examples of questions are:
Bidders will normally be given a minimum of 30 days to submit their bid (or 25 days if the procurement officer will accept electronic bids). These timings can also be reduced further due to other factors e.g. extreme urgency, but the procurement officer will specify the timings involved in their tender documents.
For Stage 1 Selection, you will be given a minimum of 30 days to respond from the day the Contract Notice is sent for publication.
For Stage 2 Award, you will be given a minimum of 30 days to respond to the tender. This timescale can be reduced if a Prior Information Notice was issued or where bids will be accepted electronically.
The procurement officer will detail all of the tender timelines in the tender documents. You should ensure you read and understand these.
If there is a justifiable reason to change the tender closing date, the new date will be notified to all bidders. If you have already submitted a tender then you should be given the opportunity to withdraw your original bid and submit a revised one.
It is the responsibility of all suppliers to ensure that their bid is submitted in accordance with the rules of the competition and before the specified deadline. Non-conformant bids will be disqualified from the competition.
The Competitive Dialogue procedure can be used by a procurement officer where the contract cannot be awarded without prior negotiation because of the nature or complexity of the suppliers or services required.
This tends to be because:
Under this procedure:
A record of clear reasons for selecting this approach is required and commercial confidentiality is of key importance in employing this procedure.
Details of the procedure can be found in The Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.
You will normally be given a minimum of 30 days to respond from the day the Contract Notice is sent for publication to submit your selection stage documents.
The invitation to Submit a Final Tender will not be made available at the same time as the Contract Notice, as dialogue needs to occur and be finalised beforehand.
For the Award stage you will normally be given a minimum of 30 days to respond to the tender. This timescale can be amended depending on whether a Prior Information Notice was issued (and how it is used) or where bids will be accepted electronically.
The procurement officer will detail all of the tender timelines in the tender documents. You should ensure you read and understand these.
If there is a justifiable reason to change the tender closing date, the new date will be notified to all bidders. If you have already submitted a tender then you should be given the opportunity to withdraw your original bid and submit a revised one.
It is the responsibility of all suppliers to ensure that their bid is submitted in accordance with the rules of the competition and before the specified deadline. Non-conformant bids will be disqualified from the competition.
The Competitive Procedure with Negotiation can be used by a procurement officer where the contract cannot be awarded without prior negotiation because of the nature or complexity of the goods or services required.
This tends to be because:
Under this procedure:
You will normally be given a minimum of 30 days to respond from the day the Contract Notice is sent for publication to submit your selection stage documents.
For the award stage you will normally be given a minimum of 30 days to respond to the tender. This timescale can be amended depending on whether a Prior Information Notice was issued (and how it is used) or where bids will be accepted electronically.
The procurement officer will detail all of the tender timelines in the tender documents. You should ensure you read and understand these.
If there is a justifiable reason to change the tender closing date, the new date will be notified to all bidders. If you have already submitted a tender then you should be given the opportunity to withdraw your original bid and submit a revised one.
It is the responsibility of all suppliers to ensure that their bid is submitted in accordance with the rules of the competition and before the specified deadline. Non-conformant bids will be disqualified from the competition.
Innovation Partnerships can be used where there is no existing product or solution currently available on the market. This procedure is used to stimulate innovation.
Under this procedure:
Commercial confidentiality is of key importance when using this procedure.
This procedure can only be used in narrowly defined, exceptional circumstances, e.g.:
In these exceptional circumstances the procurement officer will approach one (or more) suppliers seeking to negotiate the terms of the contract.