12. Evaluation of Quotes and Tenders

CSO 12.1

1

The Council is under a general obligation to ensure that it is open and transparent about its purchasing procedures.  This includes how you select the best tender or quote.  This general obligation under the EC Treaty Principles applies to all purchasing and contracts – both those subject to the EU Rules and those not caught by those EU Rules.

2

“Evaluation criteria” are the criteria which you will use to assess a quote or tender in order to come to a decision on which quote or tender best meets the Council’s requirements and so who should be awarded a contract.  It is important that you are clear and open with tenderers about what criteria you will use and that both they and you know, in advance, how the Council will assess/mark against the criteria.  Where the EU Rules apply to the contract, then you are obliged by law to disclose the tender evaluation criteria in advance (see CSO 12.2).

3

This means that for all purchasing, the evaluation criteria must be set out in advance and be provided to the tenderers together with any scoring or assessment scheme which will be used. The criteria and scoring or assessment scheme cannot be changed after they have been provided to the tenderers, so you must be certain that the criteria are robust and the scoring or assessment scheme is appropriate for the particular contract and purchasing process.

4

Notification of the criteria and scoring or assessment scheme can be done in a number of ways – depending upon the type of process which you are using.  For simple quotes, the evaluation could just be set out in a list in the letter inviting contractors to quote. For more formal processes, it would generally be more appropriate to include this information in the Invitation to Tender document and this may involve a more complex presentation style.

5

Specific provisions relating to tender evaluation criteria apply to contracts which are subject to the EU Rules (see commentary on CSO 12.2).

CSO 12.2

6

The EU Rules have specific provisions applying to tender evaluation criteria.  The main legal provisions are at Regulation 30.  This section now goes on to explain some of the key provisions of Regulation 30.

7

The Council is required to award contracts on the basis of an offer which is either (1) the lowest price or (2) the “most economically advantageous” – which means that other factors, in addition to price, can be taken into account such as quality, timing and delivery.  In practice, the Council is extremely unlikely to opt to award a contract on the basis of lowest price only and CSO 12.3 reflects this.

8

Regulation 30 provides examples of the sort of evaluation criteria which can be used to assess what amounts to the “most economically advantageous tender”.  This includes factors such as quality, price, technical merit and after sales service. The list is not exhaustive and so other evaluation criteria can be used.  All evaluation criteria used by the Council in evaluating a tender must be linked to the subject matter of the contract. This means that the criteria must be related to the works, supplies or services which are actually being purchased.  We have given two examples of evaluation criteria below.  There is more guidance in the Office of Government Commerce papers “Social Issues in Purchasing” and “Fair and Ethical Trading”.

9

The evaluation criteria which the Council will use must be stated in advance either in the OJ advertisement or in the tender documents. (The Regulations refer to the “contract documents” but in this context this means the Invitation to Tender (or equivalent documents if the open or restricted procedures are not being used).

10

In addition to setting out in advance what the evaluation criteria are, the Council is also required to state what “weighting” will be applied to assessing each of the criteria.  The weightings must be listed together with the criteria – either in the OJ notice or in the tender documents. This requires the Council to give careful thought well in advance as to how tenders will be evaluated.  Either the Procurement and Contracts unit or a specialist consultant should be able to give you advice on formulating evaluation matrices.

11

It is only in very exceptional circumstances, that the Council will be able to avoid the requirement to list the weightings in advance. You should start with the assumption that weightings must be provided. If you consider that it is not possible to do this, then you must discuss this with Legal Services.  If weightings cannot be provided, then Council is still required to list the criteria and must list them in descending order of importance.

Next page: Waivers

Previous page: Submission and Opening of tenders

• Introduction – Purpose of the Contract Standing Orders (CSOs)

• General Principles – Application and Compliance with Contract Standing Orders

• General Principles Applying to All Contracts

• Regulatory context

• Responsibilities of Directors, Service Managers and Responsible Officers

• Scheme of Delegation

• Financial Thresholds and Procedures

• Financial Thresholds and Processes Applying to Approval and Execution of Contracts

• Calculating the contract Value

• Principles Underlying Tendering Processes and Tender Evaluation

• Submission and Opening of tenders

• Evaluation of Quotes and Tenders

• Waivers

• Extensions to Existing Contracts

• Purchasing Schemes

• Review and Changes to these Contract Standing Orders

• Standard Clauses

• Appendix 1 - Risk Matrix

• Attachment 1 - Risk Assessment

Procurement

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