How To Tender to the Council - a procedural guide
How to be aware of Business
Opportunities
Newspapers
The Council is required under its
own Contract Procedure Rules to advertise contracts in at least one
local newspaper, ordinarily such papers would include The Liverpool
Echo and the Visitor Group.
Trade Journals
Where a contract is valued at in
excess of £100,000 the Council is also required to place a tender
advertisement in an appropriate 'trade' journal.
Sefton Council's Website
In striving to improve the
availability of information, tender advertisements will also be
published on this website under
Latest tender
invitations.
BIP Group
Tender advertisements are ordinarily
also placed in the BIP Group of publications, this group
incorporates Contrax Weekly and Government Opportunities.
Official Journal of the European Union
Where a contract is valued in excess
of the relevant EU Threshold, dependent upon whether the contract
is for Supplies, Services or Works, a Contract Notice will also be
placed in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).
This OJEU is available in CD-Rom
format and should you wish you can subscribe by telephoning The
Stationary Office (HMSO) customer services on 0870 242 2345. You
can also subscribe online through the
HMSO's website.
Alternatively contract notices are
also published in electronic format and may be accessed via an
electronic on-line service entitled
'Tenders Electronic Daily'
(TED).
Tendering for Council Contracts
Pre Qualification
Certain tendering procedures i.e.
the Restricted and the Negotiated procedures, enable the Council to
invite organisations to express interest in tendering for a
particular requirements for supplies, services or works.
Where one of these procedures is
used a Pre Qualification document will ordinarily be used. Such a
document will likely seek the following information:
Company Information
Basic details such as company name, address, telephone and fax
numbers, email address, contact personnel, company status (i.e.
sole trader, partnership, private limited company etc.), date of
registration.
Technical Information
Here the Council may seek information relating to previous
contract work asking, for instance, whether your organisation has
suffered deductions for liquidated damages, or whether a previous
contract has been terminated, or perhaps whether a contract renewal
has previously been refused.
Information may also be sought as to your organisations
breakdown of staffing compliment and any relevant qualifications
held. You may be asked to elaborate on any awards gained for
quality, and you may also be asked to give details of specialist
areas of support provided by your organisation.
Topics including Environmental standards and accreditations,
Insurance cover and Health and Safety are also likely to be
covered.
Relevant Experience
Here, the Council may be looking for you to elaborate on your
organisation's previous experience in relation to the provision of
supplies, services or works of a similar nature to that which the
council has the requirement for.
Officers will use the information gathered at this initial
stage to determine a shortlist of organisations that will be
invited to submit formal tenders.
Open Tender
Where the Council opts to tender by
Open Competition, or in EU terms use the Open Procedure, or
following the first Pre Qualification stage of a Restricted or
Negotiated procedure as outlined in 5.1 above, a formal tender
document pack will be issued.
This Tender Document Pack will
ordinarily consist of :
- A Covering Letter - this will outline the Tender
exercise, the period of contract for which the Council wants
to form the agreement, and what you need to do with the Tender
Document Pack i.e. what you need to complete, how you need to
submit, where you need to submit, and most importantly when
you need to submit.
In terms of when you need to
submit, enough emphasis cannot be placed upon the deadline for
receipt of tenders. A deadline is just that, it prescribes the
latest point in time by when bids may be submitted, you are
not prohibited from submitting your bid earlier. Often a deadline
of 12 Noon on a given day will be used for the submission of
tender bids. Bids delivered beyond the deadline will
not be accepted irrespective of the reason
for the delay. In an effort to avoid problems such as traffic hold
ups, parking problems or carriers failing to deliver on your
organisation's behalf, you are advised to submit
your bid as soon as you are happy with its content as opposed to
waiting until 'the eleventh hour' and potentially missing the
deadline.
- Instructions to tenderers following on from the covering
letter, specific instructions or information will be given to
enable a thorough bid to be prepared.
- Standard Terms & Conditions a model set of terms and
conditions that apply to every contract that the Council
enters into. Please select here for a copy of the
council's Standard Terms & Conditions.
- Special Terms & Conditions terms & conditions of
contract, in addition to the Council's standard terms &
conditions, but specifically related to the requirement in
question. This document may also request particular
submissions that should accompany your bid and these may include
Health & Safety related information, Customer and Bankers
Reference points for instance.
- Specification here is where the Council will tell you exactly
what the requirement is.
- Pricing schedule where you are required to provide details of
the costs that your organisation is proposing for the
Council's requirement
- Form of Tender A formal declaration of your organisation's
offer to the Council and intention to enter into a contract
should your bid be successful.
- Environmental Questionnaire - An opportunity for the
Council to gain information relating to your organisations
environmental considerations.
- A Return Envelope a plain envelope addressed to the Council's
Legal Director, stating the tender exercise to which it
relates and the closing date & time. This envelope must not
bear any mark identifying your organisation as the sender,
including for instance a postal franking bearing
your organisation's logo.
Receipt of Tenders
In accordance with the Council's
Contracts Procedure Rules all submissions relating to a particular
tender exercise will be opened on a given day at a given time in
the presence of two members of staff, one representing The
Council's Legal Director and the other representing to directorate
co-ordinating the tender exercise.
Evaluation of Tenders
Tender bids will be evaluated
against a range of pre-determined criteria . Evaluation will focus
on examining how the bids aim to deliver the supplies, services or
works (quality), and the associated cost (price). The Council will
aim to award the contract with the principal of 'Best Value' at the
forefront of its actions. From April 2000, Best Value replaced
Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT). The Government White Paper;
Modern Local Government - In Touch with the People, states
that Best Value will be a duty to deliver services to clear
standards - covering both cost and quality - by the most effective,
economic and efficient means available.
Whereas CCT applied to certain
defined services, Best Value applies to all functions of a Council.
All local authorities are required to secure Best Value in the way
they deliver their services. This means that Councils must ensure
continuous improvement in all functions and secure value for money
throughout the buying process. It also means that Councils are
accountable to local people in their business dealings, which must
be open, fair, transparent and auditable.
Contract Award
Should you be successful in your
tender bid written notification will be provided to your
organisation. Where the value of a contract exceeds £100,000 the
Council's Legal Director will undertake to seal the contract with
the Council's seal.
Last Updated on 6/24/2010