THIS ARCHIVED VERSION OF THE PROCUREMENT JOURNEY IS APPLICABLE ONLY TO PROCUREMENTS WHICH COMMENCED ON APRIL 17TH 2016 OR EARLIER.
Procurement JourneyRoute 2
Contents – Please click on the name of the chapter
Route 2 - Start 2
Route 2 - Develop Strategy 3
Route 2 - Develop Documents 4
Route 2 - Develop Documents - Specification 5
Route 2 - Develop Documents - Selection, Award and Exclusion Criteria 10
Route 2 - Develop Documents - European Single Procurement Document ESPD (Scotland) 16
Route 2 - Develop Documents - Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) 20
Route 2 - Develop Documents - Invitation to Tender (ITT) 22
Route 2 - Develop Documents - Contract Notice and Advertising 24
Route 2 - Supplier Selection 24
Route 2 - Supplier Selection - Publicising the Contract 25
Route 2 - Supplier Selection - Issuing Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) 26
Route 2 - Supplier Selection - Assessing Responses 26
Route 2 - Supplier Selection - Limiting number of potential suppliers 27
Route 2 - Issue ITT 28
Route 2 - ITT Administration 28
Route 2 - Issue ITT - Open Suppliers' Meeting 29
Route 2 - Issue ITT - Questions from Suppliers 30
Route 2 - Open & Evaluate Tender 30
Route 2 - Open & Evaluate Tender - Receipt of Tenders 31
Route 2 - Open & Evaluate Tender - Opening of Tenders 32
Route 2 - Open & Evaluate Tender - Technical Evaluation 33
Route 2 - Open & Evaluate Tender - Price evaluation 34
Route 2 - Open & Evaluate Tender - Presentation/Site Visits 35
Route 2 - Open & Evaluate Tender - Evaluation Tools 36
Route 2 - Post Tender Clarification 36
Route 2 - Post Tender Clarification - Tender Clarifications 37
Route 2 - Post Tender Clarification - Post Tender Negotiation 38
Route 2 - Contract Award 39
Route 2 - Contract Award - Remedies Directive 40
Route 2 - Contract Award - Notification of Contract Award Decision 41
Route 2 - Contract Award - Standstill 41
Route 2 - Contract Award - Debriefing 42
Route 2 - Contract Award - Challenges During Standstill 43
Route 2 - Contract Award - Award 44
Route 2 - Contract Award - Contract Award Notice 44
Route 2 - Contract Award - Points to Remember 45
Route 2 - Contract Implementation 46
Route 2 - Contract Implementation - Communication 47
Route 2 - Contract Implementation - Post Award Supplier Meeting 48
Route 2 - Contract Implementation - Content Management 49
Route 2 - Contract Implementation - Buyer/End User Information Packs 49
Route 2 - Contract Implementation - Supplier/Buyer Events 50
Route 2 - Contract & Supplier Management 50
Route 2 - Contract & Supplier Management - Overview 50
Route2 - Contract & Supplier Management - Planning & Governance 53
Route 2 - Contract & Supplier Management - Managing & Improving Performance 62
Route 2 - Contract & Supplier Management - Admin & Tools 69
Route 2 - Contract & Supplier Management - Exit Strategy 74
Route 2
Introduction
This Route of the Procurement Journey provides guidance for moderate value and risk procurements as determined by the Decision Matrix.
Route 2 is designed for use by Procurement Officers, if this does not apply to you please contact your Procurement Functionor Centre of Expertise.
Route 2 is not intended to replace training and it is assumed that individuals will have been trained in EU regulations, the procurement cycle and any applicable local procurement policies, guidelines and governance arrangements.
The main objectives of the toolkit are:
· To provide a step-by-step guide to conducting a procurement exercise of moderate criticality and risk
· To provide a set of guides and templates that can be used to collate and analyse the data required when conducting the procurement exercise
· To standardise the public sector procurement process across organisations
· To highlight the minimum legal and policy obligations involved at each stage of the process
In any procurement process, the key roles of budget holder and Procurement Officer should not be performed by the same individual. For more information please see theScottish Procurement Policy Handbook.
Considerationmustbe given toPlanningandRisk Managementthroughout the Journey and records should be kept for audit purposes. It should be noted that purchases of goods and services are routinely the subject ofFreedom of Informationrequests.
Please ensure the guidance is used in conjunction with the internal governance and procedures for your organisation. Please be aware that where the term 'commodity' is used, this can equally refer to services.
Now you are ready to beginRoute 2 of the Procurement Journey.
Route 2 - Start
In these unprecedented economic times, good procurement is obviously not just about buying well but it's about buying less or, indeed,not buying at all.
Depending on the specifics of the procurement exercise, the types of question you might ask of your stakeholders prior to commencing the procurement could include the following (these should already have been answered in the Decision Matrix prior to commencing the Journey):
· Have alternatives to procuring being considered and discounted and do you have a budget?
· Is there a robust documented business case supporting this procurement?
· Will this expenditure stand up to public scrutiny?
· HasProcurement been involved in the development of the business case to help cost options, enable flexibility, minimise risk and/or inform decisions regarding the wayforward?
· Are you aware of opportunities to buy your specific requirement through existing collaborative contracts and do you know how to access them?
Consideration must also be given toPlanningandRisk Managementthroughout the Journey.
There are natural break points within the Procurement Journey that can be used as review points for sign off and approval to proceed to the next stage of the process.
Suggested review and sign off points are:
· At Project Initiation
· After Initial Opportunity Assessment
· For approval of Strategy including budget
· For approval of Contract Notice, PQQ and/or ITT
· At Contract Award stage
· At Implementation stage
Throughout the Journey you will see reference to these sign off points at the relevant sections. Any review and agreement to the project plan should be subject to your Organisation's governance arrangements.
Route 2 Strategy Development is a much lighter version than the Route 3 Strategy Development. The Strategy Development stationis therefore displayed as a 'linked station' on the main route map. You can however supplement the Route 2 documentation with any guidance or documentation from Route 3.
You should use lessons learned from previous contracts/procurement exercises to inform your new strategy. As you progress through the Journey you should constantly re-inform your strategy with any new information.
Route 2 - Develop Strategy
This part of the Procurement Journey is to assist Procurement Officers in the Scottish public sector to develop an abridged version of a commodity strategy for Route 2.
The word document and PowerPoint presentations below hold the same information and you can complete whichever version you prefer. You can also link to further guidance and templates from Route 3 where required when completing your strategy. Once you have completed either version of the strategy you should continue your Journey to the next station, Develop Documents.
Consideration must also be given toPlanningandRisk Managementthroughout the Journey.
If utilising PCS-Tender, the Procurement Officer should upload the appropriate slides to the appropriate task within the Procurement Journey workflow in PCS-Tender.
Any documents you need are listed below:
Route 2 Strategy Development - Wordpack (file type: doc)
Route 2 Strategy Development - PPT (file type: ppt)
- See more at: https://www.procurementjourney.scot/route-2/route-2-develop-strategy#sthash.m55xgObm.dpuf
Route 2 - Develop Documents
This section of the Procurement Journey provides the Procurement Officer with guidance on the following:
· Specification
· Selection and award criteria
· Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ)
· Invitation to Tender (ITT)- including Terms and Conditions
It is best practice to have all of the above documentation created on PCS-Tender before preparing the Contract Notice and advertising the requirement on PCS-Advertising. If that is not possible and, for example, the Notice is published before the ITT is finalised, care must be taken to ensure consistency between the ITT and the Contract Notice (if, when preparing the ITT you decide that it will need to differ from the Contract Notice you will usually need to cancel the existing Notice and republish, which could result in new suppliers coming forward).
Consideration must also be given toPlanningandRisk Managementthroughout this stage of the Journey.
- See more at: https://www.procurementjourney.scot/route-2/route-2-develop-documents#sthash.CNAtltXQ.dpuf
Route 2 - Develop Documents - Specification
When developing your specification it is important to engage as early as possible with the supply base. This is important in terms of identifying the desired outcomes, risks and issues, as it permits suppliers to provide feedback on how the outcomes might be achieved, the risks and issues as they see them, along with feedback on timescales, feasibility and affordability. It is also best practice to ensure that suppliers are contractually required to provide line item spend details as part of the contract support.
The specification must:
· Clearly describe what is required
· Focus on outputs required without being prescriptive as to the method the supplier should use to provide it (output specification)
· Be sufficiently tight so that the product or service fits the user's needs, but not so explicit that it discourages the supplier from proposing innovative solutions that optimise Value For Money (VFM)
· Include performance targets or include criteria for acceptance of the products or services
· Include service levels and a process for measuring ongoing performance
· Avoid over-specification of performance (more than "Fit for Purpose" or than is actually required) to ensure procurement at the optimum cost
· Take account of any e-Commerce requirements
· Take account of sustainability policies where appropriate
· Take into account suitability of design for all users
· Take account of relevant legislation e.g. health and safety and equality
· Take account of relevant policies e.g. is the requirement one that would be suited for the inclusion of a Community Benefits clause?
· Take account of all licensing requirements that a supplier must have in order to operate in a particular industry/sector and which are relevant to the performance of the contract e.g. A supplier of water and waste water services must hold a current retail license for the provision of water and wastewater services in Scotland under the Water Services (Scotland) Act 2005, including signing up to the accompanying market code (including the code subsidiary documents) and operations code
· Not refer to brands or trade names but refer to the characteristics of the product e.g. it is not permissible to specify a particular product brand
· Ensure that any requirements for limits, tolerances, deliverables timescales etc are practical and realistic
· Consider commercial and ongoing performance management aspects of the contract throughout the supply chain e.g. payment terms including those to sub-contractors (SPPN 08/2009)
· Support a structured method of tender evaluation
· Be able to form the major part of the formal contract between the purchaser and the contractor
If the specification is wrong it may result in:
· Failure by the organisation to meet their objectives
· Wasted money
· Unsuitable tenderers
· Unsuitable bids
· Mis-interpretation of requirements
· Major difficulties in evaluating the bids
· Wrong or unsuitable products/services supplied
· Claims of unfair treatment being made by tenderers
The award criteria must be linked to the specification. The award criteria must be relevant to the subject matter of the contract and not discriminatory.
Once a contract is awarded the scope to make changes to the specification (e.g. asking the contractor to deliver more, or less of something that was not was specified at the time of tendering) is limited and any such changes may be challenged in the Courts. If it is not possible for the supplier to deliver the contract as originally intended as a result of omissions or errors in the specification, the contract may have to be terminated and a new procurement undertaken.
Variants
If you intend to award a contract on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender you may consider variants on the requirements as long as it has been specified in the contract notice. The minimum requirements to be met by the variant and how the variant will be evaluated must also be stated in the contract documentation.
Who provides the specification?
The User Information Group (UIG) are responsible for developing the specification, but should ensure that other end-users, stakeholders and technical specialists are consulted where appropriate. Part of the role of the UIG is to challenge accepted thinking. At the specification stage the UIG should explore opportunities to incorporate economic development andsustainability considerations.
The foundation of a good specification is laid in the planning and research undertaken before writing begins. Allow sufficient time to create the specification.
There is often merit in discussing the specification with a broad range of potential tenderers. This must be done in a fair and transparent manner to avoid distorting competition and/or giving any potential tenderer an advantage. Care must be exercised to avoid not only genuine unfairness, but also the impression of unfairness to some tenderers. Under no circumstances should any commitments be made during this process.
Following discussions with the marketplace, care must be taken to ensure that innovative ideas and approaches which provide a supplier(s) with a competitive edge are not disclosed in the development of the specification e.g. inclusion of proprietary methods or Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
Purchasers can also use their commercial influence to help improve the competitiveness of suppliers by encouraging them to produce innovative goods and services which will assist the public body to deliver evolving policies and strategies e.g. with regards to sustainability low carbon products.
Suppliers should not be put to unnecessary cost through casual enquiries for bids. Everyone is responsible for ensuring that best VFM is achieved through the procurement process.