INTRODUCTION

PROCUREMENT CODE FRAMEWORK

Approved in accordance with Standing Order 4 April 2010

Procurement Code Framework LDALIVE#


CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................3

2. DEVELOP PHASE...........................................................................................................42.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................42.2 Budgetary constraints/approvals..............................................................................42.3 Strategies and procurement routes..........................................................................42.4 Procurement routes.................................................................................................62.5 Aggregation.............................................................................................................72.6 Exemptions..............................................................................................................82.7 Commitments in writing............................................................................................92.8 Payment terms.........................................................................................................92.9 Records management..............................................................................................9

3. PROCURE PHASE........................................................................................................113.1 Introduction............................................................................................................113.2 Preparation Stage..................................................................................................11

3.2.1 Conditions of contract....................................................................................113.2.2 Statement of requirement (specification).......................................................123.2.3 Approaches to specifying..............................................................................123.2.4 Performance standards.................................................................................133.2.5 Attributes of a good statement of requirement..............................................133.2.6 Getting it wrong.............................................................................................143.2.7 Evaluation criteria..........................................................................................14

3.3 Procurement Stage................................................................................................173.3.1 LDA procurement approaches and supplier sourcing....................................173.3.2 Corporate purchasing arrangements.............................................................193.3.3 LDA panels....................................................................................................193.3.4 LDA quotation process..................................................................................203.3.5 LDA tender process.......................................................................................223.3.6 EU tender processes.....................................................................................273.3.7 Late quotations and tenders..........................................................................323.3.8 Summary of tender periods for LDA tenders and EU tenders.......................343.3.9 Continual improvement.................................................................................34

4. DELIVER PHASE...........................................................................................................354.1 Introduction............................................................................................................354.2 Entering into a contract..........................................................................................354.3 Managing the contract...........................................................................................36

5. TABLE OF APPENDICES..............................................................................................37

©London Development Agency of 37 10/04/2023


1. INTRODUCTION

This document is the LDA's Procurement Code Framework and supplements Appendix 10 of the Procurement Code. This framework sets out procurement at the LDA and covers the approval for and responsibilities for the purchase of goods, works and services. It replaces the LDA’s previous Procurement Code Framework, published in 2008.

The Procurement Code Framework (Revised 2010) covers each relevant phase of the commissioning framework life cycle and identifies the considerations that help to achieve wider social, economic and environmental objectives of the LDA and ensure that the LDA’s procurement activities have a positive impact on Greater London’s economic development.

This framework is a generic document that should be used for all procurements, including those involving third sector organisations and grant partners. It specifically excludes individual employment contracts because these should be handled by the human resources team. Contracts with employment agencies, however, fall within the scope of this code; managers should seek advice from the procurement team and/or the legal team on how to procure these types of contract. The Single Programme Guide procedure is to be followed for all non-competitive grants.

All changes to this Procurement Code Framework must be approved in accordance with the LDA's Standing Orders and in particular, Standing Order 4.

Please note that should you have any queries about this Procurement Code, including who is responsible for what, then contact the LDA’s procurement team.



2. DEVELOP PHASE

2.1 Introduction

This section describes the activity required before the procurement process starts (see Diagram 2.1 below). It also highlights the need for the procurement strategy to be embedded within the business case for each project.

Diagram 2.1: Commissioning Framework Process – Develop Phase

A B C D E

DeliverProcureDevelopProcess Phase

Investment Gateway

Procurement Activity

Workshops InitiationKnowledgeGeneration

Data Analysis &Review

Strategic Options

Development

Strategic OptionsEvaluation

Develop Procurement& Contracting Approach

Contract Monitoring

& mgt

Supplier Relationship

mgt

Evaluation / Lessonlearned

Following the development of the Investment Gateway A Concept Proposal, the key procurement objectives from this phase to assist in the development of the Investment Gateway B Business Case include:

a. confirming budget availability/approval

b. consulting the procurement and legal teams about the project and agreeing the level of support to be provided by them

c. confirming a high level statement of requirements, as described in the Concept Proposal

d. identifying and quantifying project and procurement risks, including the application of state aid

e. confirming the health and safety requirements and competency required

f. confirming the procurement strategy/route to be used

g. confirming project timeline and key milestones

h. confirming the nature of contract to be used

i. Understand what drives suppliers, what kind of delivery model fits beneficiaries best and what a successful delivery model could look like

j. developing a communications strategy for the Procure phase

k. adding the contract opportunity to the LDA's contracts register (utilising the Contract Register Service)

A more comprehensive list of tasks/outputs comprising the procurement project lifecycle is set out in Appendix 2.

2.2 Budgetary constraints/approvalsNo procurement project should be started until the budget holder has confirmed the funding for the project and the availability of funds within the approved budget and any other required LDA approval is secured. This approval should be in writing (for example, email), along with written confirmation that the budget holder has enough authority to proceed. The approval must be kept in the project file. If the subsequent prices quoted exceed the approved amount the procurement project should not proceed without further written approval.

2.3 Strategies and procurement routesThe Develop phase is where first thought should be given to how to achieve the project’s objectives. This thought process should drive the debate on whether to deliver the project directly using LDA staff and resources, or whether to buy in the necessary expertise from a third party; which would require a procurement strategy to be developed. The procurement strategy is therefore a key component of the business case. It should be noted that the



procurement strategy is not simply about the outcome of the procurement, but rather how the outcome can be achieved while ensuring that:

i. good procurement practice is exercised to ensure best value and the proper use of public funds

ii. every effort is made to work with local businesses, small enterprises, BAME enterprises and third sector organisations to help support equality of opportunity

iii. the process complies with the GLA’s Group Responsible Procurement Policy

The procurement strategy should be developed in consultation with the procurement team. These consultations would include a debate about the suitability of existing LDA framework agreements, corporate purchasing arrangements, other available frameworks, such as those managed by other GLA functional bodies, or the Office for Government Commerce Buying Solutions frameworks. The discussions could also include how the LDA should go about collecting restricted market intelligence from suppliers who may be interested in the work.1

The procurement strategy should:

i. give potential service providers a clear understanding of the standards expected of them and provide timely information at all relevant stages of the process

ii. provide all potential suppliers with the same information and ensure each is subject to the same demands in order to ensure fair competition and equal treatment

iii. work to avoid narrowing the view of how the service should be delivered as this may limit options and deter potential providers

iv. ensure that providers are fully aware of how they will be evaluated and that the entire procurement process can withstand formal audit (this will ensure that the LDA can demonstrate that the procurement process has been undertaken in an open and transparent manner)

v. further our statutory duty to promote equal opportunities

The procurement strategy must also describe the general approach to be taken to:

i. inviting tenders openly after a general invitation is issued

ii. inviting tenders from a restricted list of suppliers, such as from an LDA framework agreement or from another framework belonging to another government organisation

iii. inviting tenders after a ‘competitive dialogue’

iv. negotiating a single tender with a single supplier (only to be used in exceptional circumstances because it is more difficult to prove value for money and because such action may fall within the scope of the state aid rules and because it will be necessary to consider whether such course of action is justified under the EU Procurement Directives)

The strategy should also define milestones in the procurement process and describe how to evaluate each scheduled procurement outcome. The overall procurement approach should be based on the individual level of risk (high, medium, low, etc) to the LDA. The total risk associated with each project should be determined using LDA risk management tools (available on the LDA intranet). Examples of typical risks associated with procurement include:

i. failure to obtain appropriate expert advice

ii. damage to the LDA’s reputation should the project either fail, deliver an inappropriate result or have negative health and safety reports

1 On some occasions it may be useful to obtain a supplier’s perspective on the attractiveness of a procurement opportunity in order to ensure that the project it is structured properly and can therefore deliver positive results at the end of the procurement phase. This work may involve inviting suppliers to comment on the project structure and/or the procurement strategy. This input must be treated sensitively and tempered to ensure that it does not place other suppliers at a disadvantage by distorting the project and therefore the competition. If you intend to carry out any such market sounding, speak to the procurement team first to ensure that you do not mistakenly distort the procure phase of your project.



iii. not enough suppliers interested in competing for the work

iv. selecting suppliers that do not have the capability or capacity to do the work

v. vague specifications of the goods, works or services required leading to misunderstanding and poor delivery

vi. an inexperienced project team, or insufficient staff time, to manage the procurement process efficiently

vii. insufficient resources to cover costs

viii. poor quality of goods or services

ix. failure to meet our procurement objectives or corporate objectives

x. inability to meet health and safety competency criteria

As soon as particular risks are identified, action should be taken to assess and mitigate them, for example by:

i. identifying the budget from the start

ii. involving the procurement team and the legal team at the outset

iii. developing a clear and realistic timetable at the beginning of the project

iv. appointing a dedicated project team with relevant expertise

v. working to ensure that there is a good understanding of the potential supplier market, including extending invitations to tender to wider competition

vi. appointing technical experts (where appropriate)

vii. ensuring new and existing staff get relevant training

viii. developing a clear specification and pricing schedule

ix. undertaking legal, financial and health and safety checks on the preferred supplier(s)

2.4 Procurement routes

The choice of procurement route is primarily governed by the value of the contract .Table 2.1 sets out the minimum requirements for procurement projects that fall within certain financial thresholds. These thresholds exist to help deliver value for money and promote good procurement practice. They assess the value of each procurement project and relate to the estimated total lifetime cost of the procurement activity (excluding VAT). For example:

i. If it is estimated that the procurement involves paying a supplier £55,000 a year for three years, the total lifetime cost is greater than £156,442 and will therefore exceed the EU Procurement limit and a full EU procurement will be required.

ii. Oral quotations should be avoided whenever possible; however, for small value goods, services or works (for example, worth less than £5,000) some suppliers may not want to supply written quotations. Therefore, if there is no alternative to taking oral quotations, these must be fully documented.

iii. If the procurement involves an estimated purchase of £75,000 for a service, then written tenders should be obtained following a shortlisting exercise on CompeteFor – these should be based on a written statement of requirement that is issued to all suppliers at the same time and contains a clear deadline for providing a written response

In order to be confident of meeting the minimum number of quote/tender returns, you should consider requesting quotations from more organisations, depending on the likely level of interest.

If EU grant funding is involved, it is quite possible that the funding conditions may require a tendering procedure to be followed under the EU procurement directives regardless of the financial value of the project. Any EU grant funding conditions should therefore be checked very carefully.



Above EU thresholds2 EU tender procedure to be used

£70,001 to EU thresholdsMinimum of three formal tenders required from at least five organisations invited to tender using CompeteFor

£20,001 to £70,000 Three quotes required using CompeteFor

Up to and including £20,000One quotation – ensure value for money using CompeteFor registered suppliers

Table 2.1: Determining the most appropriate procurement route

2.5 Aggregation

EU procurement rules on aggregation must be applied to any purchase that is subject to the EU procurement directives. When determining whether the EU rules apply because a contract is over the relevant EU threshold, you must add together the value of all individual contracts anticipated for similar goods, services and/or works. Where the requirement is ongoing, then similar recurring contracts for the same goods, services and/or works must also be added together, irrespective of existing commitments. If the requirement is not ongoing, just add the value of the contracts being awarded at that point.

The value of a project should be determined by adding together all similar goods or services required by the LDA in that period (usually one year), irrespective of who is currently supplying them. This total should include all parts of the LDA using these goods or services. LDA managers are responsible for providing information on their projects to the procurement team at the start of each financial year.

For ongoing requirements, actual expenditure for the previous 12 months can be used to estimate requirements for the next 12 months. The LDA’s contracts register may also be useful. However, you should seek help on aggregation from the procurement team because the rules are complicated and they will have a better understanding of the bigger picture.

Under no circumstances should you separate purchases simply to avoid the application of the EU rules or LDA thresholds. Similarly, you should not add purchases together just to bring them within the scope of the rules.

Aggregation is compulsory for application of the EU thresholds. However, the rules do not mean that only one contract may be awarded for aggregated goods or services. Several contracts may be awarded as long as the rules are applied to each one individually. When deciding whether to award one or more contracts, you should consider how best to include SME and BAME businesses, businesses owned by people living with disabilities and other LDA target organisations, such as LGBT owned businesses and third sector organisations.

2.6 Exemptions

Single Tender Actions (STA), also known as an exemption from financial thresholds.

2 EU thresholds are currently set at €193,000/£156,442 (excl. VAT) for goods and services and €4,485,000/£3,927,260 (excl. VAT) for works; There are four EU procurement routes (approaches) that can be used: open procedure, restricted procedure, negotiated procedure and the competitive dialogue. The LDA’s preferred EU procurement route is the restricted procedure. The open procedure can be used but it is not recommended because it often requires increased administrative resources required to manage the processes compared with the other routes. The negotiated procedure and the competitive dialogue should only be used in exceptional circumstances.



There may be circumstances in which only one supplier can provide the LDA with the required goods or services. In these cases, seeking competitive quotes or tenders will add no value. Seeking a quote from a single supplier and awarding the contract without any competition, or without abiding by the LDA’s financial thresholds and minimum requirements set out above, is known as a single tender action. It is only allowed under rare and specified circumstances and for all instances consideration must be given as to whether such action is permissible under EU public procurement rules.

Applicable exemptions include:

a. An exceptional emergency not of LDA’s own making. This could be an unforeseen event likely to cause immediate danger to people or property, such as flooding. Urgent expert technical or legal support may be required for a Mayoral or government project. However, urgency caused by previous delays or poor planning should not trigger this exception.

b. Specialist services and/or supplies. Some goods or services may only be available from a single supplier or a specialist consultant, such as a single provider of stands at a conference, or use of specialist counsel. Appropriate evidence should be retained to support the lack of providers. Lack of knowledge about suppliers is not sufficient reason to use this exception, nor is appointing a supplier simply on the basis that they have worked for the LDA before. (The supplier must be a proven and unique expert.)

c. Compatibility with existing services or products. This would cover equipment that needs additional parts from the same manufacturer, or additional consultancy work which depends upon the results of a previous assignment and therefore could not be carried out by another organisation. You should be aware of potential aggregation difficulties that may arise with this exception and seek advice from the procurement team. This exception must not be used to extend existing contracts for mere convenience or to avoid the thresholds by splitting requirements.

It should also be noted that familiarity with the LDA and/or its projects is not a sufficient ‘compatibility’ reason for single tender action. A supplier who may have already completed a consultancy project may be well qualified to do any follow-on consultancy but their familiarity with the LDA and/or the project does not in itself give enough cause to re-appoint them in an STA. It should be noted, however, that the existing supplier may have an advantage over other suppliers because of its better understanding of the LDA’s requirements.

If it is impossible to secure enough quotations, or if fewer than three tenders are returned and you are able to evidence that every effort has been made to meet the minimum requirements, then an exemption is not required. For example, if the first six suppliers approached for quotations only yield two quotes, then you must discover why the others did not respond, provide your evidence to the LDA’s procurement team and gain their approval to proceed.

Where one exemption genuinely applies you should complete an ‘application for exemption from financial thresholds’ (Appendix 1) and obtain legal advice from the LDA’s legal team.

The above exemptions will not automatically apply to contracts over the EU value threshold. In such cases you should seek advice regarding the applicable exceptions under EU procurement rules from the LDA’s Procurement team.

Your application to the Procurement Team should include the case for exemption and evidence that the approval will not undermine the procurement code. You should also include data about the nature, value and duration of the contract, the proposed supplier, and how you have achieved value for money, along with any alternative procurement actions taken.

You need to ensure that your application falls within at least one of the exceptions described above. If this is not the case, you will be told so by the Procurement Team. You must then ensure that your completed application form is signed off by the relevant Project Officer, the Director of Procurement and your Group Director before the contract formally begins. Where contracts are worth more than £100,000, the application form must also be signed by the Chief Executive or Deputy Chief Executive.



You should then give a copy of this form to the legal team, along with the supporting documents and your completed pro-forma instruction form so that they can draft the contract or consultancy agreement. Keep the original exemption form and give it to the finance department when the agreements have been signed and you are ready to raise a purchase order.

Every STA or exemption from financial thresholds will be reported to the GMT by the risk and audit services team on a quarterly basis.

There are a few purchases that are deemed to be outside the scope of the procurement code and so do not need exemptions. These include:

i. temporary staff fees

ii. utility payments (where there is no choice over supplier: for example, water rates)

iii. rent

iv. subscriptions to trade and professional organisations/journals

v. statutory external audit fees

vi. individual professional training courses

vii. travel costs

2.7 Commitments in writing

All procurement must be authorised in writing by a suitable officer (please refer to the scheme of delegations set out in Standing Order 3 - Financial Regulations). In order to register the commitment with finance, you must always raise a purchase order through Athena Finance. These orders should be supported by a formal contract and confirmation letter, an appointment letter or by any other form of legally binding documentation.

You must also advise the supplier of the purchase order number and ask them to quote it on all claims for payment. An official order form will be generated by Finance once the purchase order has been authorised; if requested, this can be sent to the supplier but will otherwise be kept in Finance.

You should never authorise work to start without a completed contract. Any exception to this rule (which should be extremely rare) must first be obtained from the Director of Law and Governance.

2.8 Payment terms

The LDA’s policy is to pay in arrears once the relevant goods or services have been delivered to our satisfaction. We pay within 30 days after the Finance Department has received the invoice. Further details on making payments are covered in the Athena Finance Manual. The LDA’s payment terms should only be changed with the prior approval of the Group Director of Finance.

2.9 Records management

Successfully handing over the responsibilities of a project, and the satisfactory completion of the projects, requires good record and file keeping. It is important that you keep good records of your decisions and project activities, particularly given that all staff are responsible for managing information and controlling records in accordance with the LDA’s information and data management policy and procedures. The retention and disposal schedule requires that:

i. successful proposals and their respective Pre Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs) need to be retained together for the lifetime of the contract plus 7 years

ii. contracts are under seal they are to be retained together for the lifetime of the contract plus 12 years

iii. unsuccessful proposals and PQQs need to be retained for 2 years from award of contract



iv. exemption from Financial Thresholds Forms (STA) need to be retained for 2 years from the end of the contract period

2.10 EC Treaty requirements

In the case of every procurement by the LDA, due consideration will need to be given to the impact and requirements of the EC Treaty. The LDA procurement and legal teams should be consulted, as appropriate.

Essentially, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") and the European Commission have held that the award by a public body (such as the LDA) of a contract for the procurement of works, services and/or supplies is subject to the overriding EC Treaty obligations even if the contract in question is otherwise exempt from the EC Procurement Directives and Regulations by virtue of its being, for example, a below value threshold contract, a "Part B"/non-priority services contract, or a services concession contract. The EC Treaty obligations would only not apply in the event that the public body could demonstrate that the contract would have no relevance to the functioning of the EC Internal Market or, put another way, that there would be no potential providers in other Member States which might be interested in the relevant contract. This will not be easy to show and most contract awards would generally be considered to have a Community dimension and, as such, be subject to the EC Treaty requirements.

The EC Treaty imposes obligations on public bodies to act in accordance with fundamental principles of transparency, equal treatment, non-discrimination on grounds of nationality, proportionality, and mutual recognition. In broad terms, these principles have been interpreted by both the ECJ and the Commission as requiring prior advertisement of a proposed contract award and, in general, the subsequent holding of some form of open and non-discriminatory competition.

The contract advertisement need not necessarily be placed in the Official Journal of the European Union ("OJEU") but should be placed in a medium (or a combination of media) which will be accessible by potentially interested providers. Depending on the particular circumstances, this could include voluntary publication in the OJEU or advertisement on the LDA's eTendering system or other suitable websites, and/or advertisement in specialist trade publications.

Typically, some form of open, non-discriminatory and transparent competition should follow. For contracts exempt from the EC Procurement Directives (such as below threshold value contracts and Part B services contracts), the competition would not be subject to all the prescriptive requirements of the Directives but the nature of the competition should be proportionate to the nature and value of the contract in question.



3. PROCURE PHASE

3.1 Introduction

This section deals with the procure phase of the commissioning framework process (see Diagram 3.1 below) and will commence following an approved Business Case (Investment Gateway B). To aid the reader this section is split into preparation and procurement stages.

Diagram 3.1: Commissioning Framework Process – Procure Phase

A B C D E


Investment Gateway




Strategic Options

Development



Contract Monitoring

& mgt


mgt


3.2 Preparation Stage

The preparation stage will help you decide what type of contract you should use to manage the relationship between the LDA and its suppliers. It also describes how to develop the LDA’s detailed project specification, or ‘statement of requirement’. This describes what we are seeking to procure and involves resolving issues regarding the preparation of the evaluation criteria.

The key procurement activities for the preparation stage include:

i. agreeing evaluation criteria and weightings for pre-qualification questionnaires (PQQs)

ii. agreeing evaluation criteria for invitations to tender (ITTs) – including weightings

iii. preparing statement of requirements, terms and conditions of contract, ITTs and advertisements

iv. confirming procurement project responsibilities and contact details (for example, email addresses)

v. confirming deadlines for the return of the PQQ and tender documents

vi. placing advertisements – for example, on the OJEU website, LDA’s eTendering system or CompeteFor

vii. agreeing the process for evaluating the PQQ and ITT responses (for example, location and date)

viii. A more comprehensive list of tasks/outputs comprising the procurement project lifecycle is set out in Appendix 2.

3.2.1 Conditions of contract

The conditions of contract record the contractual relationship between the LDA and each supplier. The choice of contract is related to the procurement route.

For low value/low risk (less than £70,000) procurements the LDA generally relies on the standard terms and conditions produced by our legal team.

Medium/high risk projects and projects valued over £70,000 will generally use a long form standard contract selected from the LDA’s suite of standard contracts.

High risk projects will generally use the most comprehensive form of standard contract selected from the LDA's suite of standard contracts; alternatively, bespoke contracts may be specially drafted to suit the circumstances of particular projects.

The choice of contract will be determined by the LDA’s legal team after consulting with the relevant project manager and the procurement team. In all cases, instructions must be sent to



the legal team to prepare the appropriate contract. There are standard instruction sheet templates to be used by LDA project managers for this purpose. For low value/low risk procurements (less than £70,000), the project manager and procurement team may prepare the first draft of the details to be included on the front page of the purchase order. This is provided that, in all cases, this first draft must be attached to the instruction sheet sent to the legal team, who will complete the contract.

3.2.2 Statement of requirement (specification)

The ‘statement of requirement’ is the term we use for the project brief or specification. It describes what we require and/or what the successful supplier is expected to deliver. It should include performance targets and provides the basis of the tender evaluation criteria.

The statement of requirement is an essential and important part of the procurement cycle. It can determine how successful we are at obtaining goods or services on time, to standard and that represent value for money. It needs to provide enough information for suppliers to deliver what we need while remaining flexible enough to accommodate innovative solutions. It must be prepared using language that suppliers will understand.

The specification can vary in length from a few paragraphs to several pages, depending on the strategic importance, political impact, risk and complexity of the project. It can also depend upon the cost of the project. The more expensive or important a project is, the more likely it is to need an extensive specification. However, the more complex and risky the procurement, the more important it is that you get advice from the procurement team.

3.2.3 Approaches to specifying

Wherever possible, statements of requirement should be drafted in ‘output terms’ – what needs to be achieved rather than how it should be done. Any output-based performance specification needs to be clearly defined. This is to help the evaluation team assess the competing bids fairly and to ensure that suppliers understand fully what is expected of them. They will need to submit method statements within their tender submissions showing how they intend to achieve the outputs.

For example, the above types of specification would state the requirement was ‘furniture’ or ‘(x) number of trainees to be trained with 80% being placed in full time employment thereafter’. It would not set out how these targets should be achieved. This approach is very good for putting the burden of proof of expertise on the potential supplier, or where we want to assess new ways to deliver services.

Other approaches

Other forms of specification focus on input, rather than the output performance of the products and services.

i. Technical design specification. This defines the exact physical characteristics of the product; in the case of a service, it gives a detailed description of the execution of particular tasks. In the example above, a technical design specification would state the exact dimensions, materials and construction process for the furniture, or the exact type of training methodologies and work placement activities to be undertaken.

ii. Process specification. This is ‘process based’ and is commonly used for services that need to adopt (but not necessarily be prescribed) specific processes. This approach is important to public sector organisations whose methods are often under scrutiny. For example, if the LDA wants training delivered to young people in a local community, we might not prescribe the training content but might state within the specification that the training should be accessible to people with different language requirements or disabilities.

iii. Sample or product name. The specification reduces the amount of description required by referring to sample products or product names. In order for this to be fair, all suppliers need some knowledge of that product or must be told where they can find out about it. For example, this type of specification might be used in a catering contract to



ensure a specific brand of coffee is provided. This type of specification should usually be avoided because some suppliers can view it as being anti-competitive and because referring to particular makes/brands/manufacturers' products will usually be in breach of EU public procurement rules relating to non-discriminatory specifications. If it must be used, you should ask the procurement team for advice beforehand.

There are advantages and disadvantages to using the above approaches. Overall, however, they are not generally recommended because they can inhibit innovation. If you think that your statement of requirement should be anything but output-based, seek advice from the procurement team first.

Budget awareness

Depending on the nature of the procurement strategy, it may be inappropriate for potential suppliers to be told the budget for the project because this knowledge could encourage them to submit artificially high bids. By the same token, in other circumstances it may be appropriate to reveal the budget for the project. For instance, the tender may ask suppliers how they would make best use of the available budget.

Ask the procurement team for advice before any budget information is shared with potential suppliers.

3.2.4 Performance standards

Best value requires continuous improvement so there must be measurable performance standards in the LDA’s contracts, along with scope for setting higher targets each year. The performance standards in a statement of requirement should be designed with the specific contract in mind and should identify what will constitute enhanced service delivery.

Performance standards can apply to:

i. quality of service/product (for example, meets requirements, above requirements, below requirements)

ii. quantity produced (for example, for goods)

iii. response times (for example, the service shall be provided within specified maximum response times)

iv. accuracy levels

v. availability and capacity

As well as setting standards, the specification should require suppliers to demonstrate that they can achieve them. This can be done through method statements, site visits, presentations or demonstrations and can form part of the evaluation process. The specification must state clearly what suppliers must do to prove they can meet the required standards.

3.2.5 Attributes of a good statement of requirement

The key attributes of good statements of requirement are set out below. In summary, they should:

i. be written in plain English

ii. be concise and clear to enable suppliers to give a firm price

iii. have a logical structure, be indexed and have a definition section if necessary

iv. include any background information about the LDA or our requirements from this contract to help suppliers understand the operational environment in which they will be working

v. provide enough information and include any relevant data that will help suppliers understand the full scope and nature of the contract and any operational peculiarities



vi. set out any constraints that might affect the performance of the contract

vii. state both supplier and LDA responsibilities to prevent confusion

viii. avoid discrimination for or against particular suppliers

ix. set out how the supplier’s performance will be measured, monitored and continuously improved for best value

x. be clear about the evaluation and selection criteria

xi. link to the proposed evaluation criteria to enable a fair comparison to be made between tenders and services offered

xii. deliver value for money

xiii. provide a fair and equal chance for all potential suppliers to offer alternative solutions to the requirement

xiv. conform to legal standards and obligations

They should not:

i. over-specify the requirement and use terms such as ‘the highest quality’ unless this is essential: this will increase the price

ii. be vague: this could lead to disputes later

iii. be over-prescriptive: this could increase the price and stifle innovation

iv. be anti-competitive or discriminate for or against any potential supplier (whether on grounds of nationality or otherwise) - by way of example, conditions requiring the use of local labour should in general be avoided since such provisions could discriminate against providers from other EU Member States. The LDA legal and procurement teams should be consulted wherever an issue of potential discrimination could arise

v. contradict other tender documents, including the contract conditions

vi. specify brand names as this is only permissible in exceptional circumstances under the EU public procurement rules on non-discriminatory specifications

3.2.6 Getting it wrong

If the statement of requirements is wrong, inadequate or overtly explicit it may result in one or more problems, such as:

i. preventing a suitable tenderer from bidding

ii. wrong or inconsistent interpretation of the requirements

iii. unsatisfactory tender submissions

iv. difficulty in evaluating bids

v. incorrect or unsuitable goods and services

vi. failure to achieve value for money

vii. considerable costs and losses

viii. adverse publicity

ix. delay in, or non-delivery of, projects

3.2.7 Evaluation criteria

It is good practice to publicise, in general terms, how suppliers will be evaluated before inviting quotes, tenders or ‘expressions of interest’, or before asking potential suppliers to complete pre-qualification questionnaires.



It is necessary to include the weightings against these criteria and you should ask the procurement team for advice on this point. For example, if you are managing a low value tender with only two simple criteria of price and quality, weighted 70% for price and 30% for quality, then it would be perfectly acceptable to include the weightings in the documentation. However, for a more complicated tender, which has higher value and/or carries greater risk, the evaluation will include more criteria. In this case, the weightings should be published but the procurement team will need to review these before any documentation is issued.

It is also important to separate the pre-qualification process from the tender evaluation process. This is because bidders that have already pre-qualified should not be tested again using the same criteria unless something untoward is discovered. All other tests should relate to the substance of the suppliers’ tenders and should be based on the criteria agreed with the procurement team before the statement of requirement is issued. The evaluation criteria must be applied in a consistent manner throughout the procurement project.

If a project is tendered using an open competition and therefore does not restrict the number and types of organisation that can tender then suppliers should not be ignored simply because they have less experience than others. In these circumstances tenders should only be passed over if they do not offer best value according to the LDA’s evaluation criteria.

The effect of the above requirement is two-fold:

a. Pre-qualification criteria should focus on the ability of potential suppliers to deliver the LDA’s requirements

b. More specific criteria are needed to evaluate offers from suppliers invited to submit quotes/tenders.

Both sets of evaluation criteria should measure whether the suppliers have the capacity to fulfil the contract and how well their proposed solutions meet the LDA’s specification.

This means that the evaluation criteria should be developed alongside the specification. Both should be consistent with the aims and objectives of the LDA.

Appendices 17 and 24 provide further advice on developing and applying suitable evaluation criteria.

For procurements regulated by the EU Public Procurement Directives and Regulations, the following key overview points should be noted :

The legislation sets out detailed and prescriptive rules in respect of the criteria which a public body such as the LDA can take into account at both (a) the PQQ/qualification /selection and (b) the contract award stages of a tendering competition.

At the PQQ stage, the objective is to assess the competence of tenderers to perform a contract of the nature in hand. Tenders/proposals should neither be sought nor evaluated at this stage.

Instead, the PQQ evaluation criteria will cover certain matters (provided for in the legislation) relating to the position of tenderers in respect of :

o Both discretionary and mandatory grounds for exclusion;

o Economic and financial standing; and

o Technical or professional ability.

The PQQ evaluation may include the setting of minimum standards/threshold requirements (e.g. minimum level of financial turnover) provided that these minimum levels are related to and proportionate to the subject-matter of the proposed contract and are specified in the OJEU contract notice.

At the contract award stage, there are two permitted bases on which a contract may be awarded :



o Lowest price; and

o The most economically advantageous offer from the public body's point of view.

Where the latter basis is applied, the award criteria must be linked to the subject-matter of the proposed contract.

It is important not to mix the PQQ and the contract award criteria.

Recent case law has emphasised the importance of being transparent with bidders in respect of disclosure of the evaluation criteria (both at a main and, if applicable, sub-criteria level) and their relative weightings.

Further guidance should be sought from the LDA procurement and legal teams.



3.3 Procurement Stage

This section covers the procurement stage and describes the different ways in which the LDA procures goods, works and services. The value of the procurement and the perceived risk to the LDA should the project fail will help determine which procurement method to use.

The key procurement activities for this phase include:

i. confirming the composition of the evaluation panel

ii. confirming with the procurement team the arrangements for storing the returned tender documentation securely until they are ready for review (this would be automatically managed if using the eTendering system)

iii. confirming the details of at least one other member of staff who is independent from the project to be present at the opening (electronically if using the eTendering system) of the pre-qualification questionnaires (PQQs) and tenders

iv. issuing the PQQ and evaluating responses

v. summarising PQQ scores and sending them to the procurement team

vi. notifying PQQ applicants about the result of the short-listing process

vii. confirming the arrangements for dealing with questions and answers

viii. dispatching the invitation to tender (ITT) to short-listed bidders

ix. evaluating the ITT responses

x. clarifying any tender issues

xi. producing a table of scores, including strengths and weaknesses

xii. confirming the start of the 10 calendar day standstill period for EU procurements

xiii. arranging feedback and de-briefing sessions for the suppliers (if required)

xiv. informing the procurement and legal teams about the decision to contract.

xv. notifying the successful and unsuccessful suppliers

xvi. publicising the award of the contract and results, via OJEU, the eTendering system, CompeteFor and LDA websites

A more comprehensive list of tasks/outputs comprising for the whole procurement project lifecycle is set out in Appendix 2.

It should be noted that prior to entering into any agreements with the preferred bidder, no commitment shall be made until an Investment Gateway C Investment Decision has been sought and approval to proceed received. A project can still be stopped for any number of reasons; these might include insufficient budget, lack of market interest or a change of scope. Should your project be stopped for any reason (including a lack of approval from Gateway C) after the LDA has received expressions of interest, you should use the ‘Discontinuation of tender’ letter in Appendix 22 to inform the interested suppliers.

3.3.1 LDA procurement approaches and supplier sourcing

CompeteFor

Since September 2008 the LDA has introduced the use of CompeteFor to improve openness, transparency and efficiency of the sourcing process and therefore this should be used for all sub OJEU procurement where a Framework is not used. Any exemptions to this must be agreed by procurement and use an Exemption from Financial Thresholds (STA) where instructed.

CompeteFor should be used for producing a shortlist of suppliers. For requirements of £20,001 and over, this will involve publishing an opportunity and using the web-based tools to



evaluate supplier responses. For order under £20,001 then suppliers invited to quote should be selected from the suppliers who are listed in the CompeteFor supplier directory.

A summary of this overall process is shown in Diagram 3.2 below.

Invitation to quote(minimum 1)

Invitation to quote(minimum 3)

Invitation to tender

(minimum 5)

<£20,001

£20,001 - £70,000

£70,001 - OJEU

Diagram 3.2: Procurement routes - CompeteFor process and usage

Approaches to procurement

The LDA has five basic approaches to procurement:

1. LDA corporate purchasing arrangements

2. LDA Framework Agreements

3. LDA quotations

4. LDA tenders

5. EU tenders

A bespoke approach may be needed if a project does not fall within these five approaches; the procurement team must approve all bespoke approaches.

Each route uses a suitable LDA contract to confirm the business relationship and the responsibilities of each party. The LDA’s legal team decides which contract to use and should be consulted as soon as the project is approved.

The choice of procurement route dictates:

i. how opportunities to tender should be advertised

ii. the minimum number of organisations invited to tender

iii. the time advertisements must be left open to allow organisations to respond

iv. the time suppliers should be given to respond to tenders



Suppliers will generally be identified after each quote/tender opportunity has been publicised on the LDA’s eTendering system, LDA website, or the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), or periodicals and newspapers. On some occasions the LDA will choose suppliers from its select list of framework suppliers (see Appendix 3); these suppliers will be identified by the Framework manager in conjunction with the relevant LDA project managers so that all framework members get reasonably regular opportunities to tender for LDA work.

eTendering

From April 2010 the LDA introduced an eTendering system to automate much of the quotation/tendering process. Sitting beyond CompeteFor and providing electronic workflow from shortlist to contract award; the system provides:

i. Opportunity and automated OJEU notice posting

ii. The ability to upload PQQ, ITT, ITPD and ITQ documentation

iii. Free supplier registration / use

iv. Procurement process/workflow management including Q&A

v. An EU compliant secure tender documentation repository

vi. Collaborative evaluation of procurement documentation

vii. The issue of failure and award notices

If you require further guidance and/or training on how to use the LDA’s eTendering system, please contact the procurement team.

3.3.2 Corporate purchasing arrangements

Purchases made using the LDA’s corporate purchasing arrangements (CPAs) have already been established using the principles in this code. Therefore purchases can be made directly from the supplier without following the quotation, tender or single tender action processes. This is because these purchases are call-off arrangements from existing contracts that have been established using the principles in this code. The LDA has a range of CPAs in place, mainly covering the delivery of facilities management services and stationery, such as:

i. couriers

ii. IT equipment

iii. Cars (hire and pool vehicles)

iv. mobile phones

v. office supplies and stationery

vi. reprographics (printing and specialised copying)

vii. furniture and equipment

Please contact facilities management for details on how to access and use these contracts.

3.3.3 LDA Framework Agreements

A framework agreement is a list of pre-selected suppliers whose ability to supply the LDA has already been tested in a tendering process. They are similar to corporate purchasing arrangements in that they provide a framework by which the LDA can order goods, services and/or works as the need arises. Some of the LDA frameworks can also be used by the GLA’s other functional bodies, just as we can use some of the frameworks operated and managed by a number of other public sector bodies (where appropriate). Appendix 3 contains a complete list of LDA Framework Agreements, for other frameworks, including Office of Government Commerce, please contact procurement.

Frameworks can take up to a minimum of six months to create or renew as they are subject to EU tender rules and therefore may not always offer the best procurement route. In addition,



there is no guarantee that any particular framework supplier will receive an order during its membership.

It should be noted that frameworks should not be used for any single tender action without good cause (see Section 2.6). Instead, they should be used to identify an appropriate list of suppliers. These can then be invited to quote/tender for goods or services, based on the framework’s terms and conditions of contract and the tendered rates in the various contracts.

All requirements over £70,000 must be agreed with the Procurement team, Diagram 3.3 provides an overview of the Framework Process.

Undertake a panel mini competition

Single framework supplier?

N

Y

Are terms precise / suitable enough to select a supplier?

Y

Procurement agree?

Y

N

Contact Framework manager

Contract value below lower threshold?

N

Single written quote?

Y

Follow single written quote

process

Y

N

Contract value above OJEU

limit?N

Inform Procurement

Y

Procurement Provide advice

Call-off supplies / services or works

from chosen supplier

Use suppliers outside

Framework?N

Y

Follow relevant threshold

procurement route (ITQ, ITT or OJEU)

Framework outside of

LDA?N

Y

N

Diagram 3.3: LDA Framework Agreements Process

3.3.4 LDA Quotation Process

For procurements up to £20,000 you are required to obtain a single written quote and to ensure value for money, Diagram 3.4 (below) describes the single quotation process.

Search on CompeteFor and select a supplier

Request quotation from supplier with price breakdown

Receive quoteRespond to supplier

questions

Supplier raises question(s)

Supplier provides quotation

Compare price with; industry rates,

published catalogues, rates

from similar suppliers

VfM verified?Y

Additional quote?

Procure works / service / goods

NN

Y

If CompeteFor is not used to search for a supplier, the PM

must ensure they are registered before proceeding Inform Contracts law

team by completing / sending instruction

Pro Formas

L&G Prepare contract

L&G Issue contract

Request Contracts Law team to issue

contractRaise PO

Ensure quote and notes are

kept on the project file

Diagram 3.4: LDA Single Quotation Process

Diagram 3.5 (overleaf) describes how to secure quotations for projects valued below £70,001 and above £20,000. This process typically takes a minimum of five weeks to complete.

First, you should prepare a formal and affordable ‘statement of requirement’ (specification) and agree your evaluation criteria which must also be able to measure to what extent each bid can help the LDA fulfil its responsible procurement policy objectives. The statement of requirement will set out in full precisely what the LDA wants to procure and should include any constraints, such as no weekend working. The statement of requirement can be passed



to the procurement team for review/comment to help quality assure its content. If a suitable framework is available, then the suppliers will be chosen from that framework using a mini-competition of all relevant suppliers.

Where frameworks are not used, CompeteFor should be used to produce a supplier shortlist. It is possible that not every supplier will respond, so it may be worthwhile inviting more suppliers to quote so that you receive at least three quotations. Ask suppliers who did not submit quotations for feedback and keep this on record to build your knowledge of the market place and of the different suppliers. An opportunity will need to be created within CompeteFor and the eTendering system.

The short-listed suppliers should then be invited to submit quotations through the eTendering system. To do this, upload the invitation to quote template (see Appendix 4) and invite the shortlisted suppliers to respond. Any additional information required from the CompeteFor shortlisting should be requested and reviewed as required.

If CompeteFor or a framework is not used, approval is required from Procurement prior to shortlisting through the application of the eTendering system and a pre-qualification questionnaire approach (see Appendix 5 for a copy of the modular PQQ).

Prepare shortlisting

questionnaire

L&G Provide suitable terms &

conditions of contract

View supplier long list and shortlist

suppliers

ITQ pack ready?

Y

N

Contact suppliers not registered?

Contact suppliers and inform them of

opportunity and option to register

N

Y

Upload invitation to quote to

shortlist suppliers

Inform successful / unsuccessful

suppliers

Prepare ITQ pack (Letter,

Specification & T&Cs)

N

Receive quotes

Respond to supplier questions & circulate

responses to all bidders

At least 3 quotes

received?

Request feedback from suppliers

N

Confidentiality agreement required?

Scorer(s) to complete

confidentiality agreement

Y N

Y

A

Advertise opportunity on CompeteFor

Finalise ITQ pack


Supplier provides quotation with

additional requested documentation

Allow up to

15 days

Provide Contracts & Law team with

service requirements

Supplier complete shortlisting

questionnaire

No formal or simultaneous

opening is needed

L&G Finalise terms & conditions

Indicative draft?

Y

Allow at least 5

suppliers

Request Finance to undertake due

dilligence

Finance Undertake

financial due diligence

Evaluate quotes and determine

preferred bidder

Bidder agrees with standard

T&Cs?

L&G Assess implications of the

changes requested

N

Quoteexceeds

threshold?Y Y

Able to proceed?

NInform successful /

unsuccessful bidder(s)

L&G Prepare contract

Inform Contracts Law team by completing / sending instruction

Pro Formas

Issue contractRequest Contracts Law team to issue

contract

Raise PO when both parties have signed the contract (include

CompeteFor reference)

Publish award of the contract on CompeteFor

Negotiate price with bidder(s) and / or

remove requirements from the specification

Y

Apply for exemption?

Y

N

Price now below

threshold?

Y

NProceed with ITT

route

A

Select alternative bidder?

N

Collate evidence competition has

been sought

N

Y

At least 3 quotes

received?

Complete exemption from

financial thresholds form

Scorer(s) to declare any

conflicts of interest

Diagram 3.5: LDA Quotation Process

Some suppliers – such as SMEs and third sector organisations – may not be able to access the eTendering system or handle emails and/or any attachments, so you should check before any quotation documents are made available.

Quotations that meet your needs must be compared with the agreed list of evaluation criteria. It is important to be certain that the quotations received are not estimates as these are not binding in law. To avoid this problem, every quotation should be entitled ‘written quotation’ with the quotation clearly stated. If this wording is missing, write to confirm that what has been received is a formal quotation. Oral quotations should be avoided wherever possible; however, for small value goods, services or works (worth less than £20,000 for example,)



some suppliers may not want to supply written quotations. If there is no alternative to taking oral quotations, then you must document them in full.

Although some projects will make it difficult to secure a fixed price quotation, the quotation should at least provide a fixed schedule of day or hourly rates, or a schedule of component costs. This should help you assess the expected cost of the project regarding the delivery of the specified quantities of each product.

Both successful and unsuccessful suppliers should be given feedback on their quotations. This can be done in writing by setting out the strengths and weaknesses of their quotations. Unsuccessful tenderers often ask for further information. Rather than entering into a lengthy correspondence, it is often more convenient and appropriate to have a telephone conference call. A member of the procurement team should always be present during these calls and you should make a written record of each call and keep this on the project file. If you do have to enter into further communication then you should use the feedback letter set out in Appendix 13.

If the preferred option comes in above £70,000, you should consider ending the quotation process and starting a tender or secure an exemption from the financial threshold. If you receive fewer than three quotations and believe that your preferred supplier will deliver value for money, you will need to provide evidence that competition has been sought to secure the approval from the Head of Procurement. If you do not receive any quotations, you should rethink your procurement options.

3.3.5 LDA Tender Process

This process typically takes up to eight weeks3 to complete.

In common with the LDA’s process for obtaining quotations, you need to start the tender process by writing an affordable statement of requirements and agreeing your evaluation criteria (see Diagram 3.6 below) which must be able to measure the extent to which each bid can also help the LDA fulfil its responsible procurement policy objectives.

Each evaluation criterion should be weighted in order of importance. It is important to make sure that the statement of requirements includes all the information requirements to be compared with the agreed criteria. Please see Appendix 17 for further guidance on evaluation criteria and Appendix 18 for a pricing evaluation model.

Tenders take much longer than quotations and can be expensive for suppliers. Before inviting formal tenders, therefore, it is worth checking informally in the market place that the statement of requirements is attractive and affordable. The procurement team can help with this process.

The statement of requirements is then combined with a contract from the legal team. These documents comprise the main tender documentation.

Publicising the procurement project

The next stage is to publicise the tender. When using frameworks you do not need to publicise these opportunities outside the list of relevant framework members. All other tenders must be advertised using CompeteFor, the eTendering system and larger or more unusual projects may also need to be advertised in local or national newspapers, the appropriate professional journals and the SME, BAME and third sector press to maximise the chances of finding suitable suppliers. A sample advertisement is set out in Appendix 14.

When advertising, allow enough time for potential tenderers to register an interest. To do this they will need to complete the CompeteFor questionnaire to enable you to draw up a suitable short list of potential suppliers.

3 When using an LDA framework this time period is typically reduced by around 3 weeks.




questionnaire

L&G provide suitable terms &


View supplier long list and shortlist at least 5 suppliers

N




N

Y

Upload ITT pack to shortlist suppliers


suppliers

Prepare ITT pack (Letter,

Specification & T&Cs)

Receive tenders



A

Advertise opportunity on CompeteFor


Supplier provides tender with additional

requested documentation

Allow at least 31 calendar

days



Procurement Provide advice

L&G Provide legal advice

Meet with Procurement and Contract & Law teams for advice

Publish opportunity on eTendering

system

Procurement approve ITT letter and specification

At least 6 days before tender return

date

Supplier completes shortlisting

questionnaire

Indicative draft?

L&G finalise terms & conditions

Y

Finalise ITT pack

ITT pack ready?

N

Y

Open eTendering tenders vault

Other media adverts can

be used


dilligence

Finance undertake financial due

dilligence

Evaluate tenders and determine

preferred bidder


T&Cs?

L&G assess implications of the

changes requested

N

Quoteexceeds

threshold?

Y

Able to proceed?

NInform successful /

unsuccessful bidder(s)

L&G prepare contract


Pro Formas

Negotiate price with bidder(s) and / or

remove requirements from the specification

Y

Apply for exemption?

Y

N

Price now below

threshold?

Y

NProceed with OJEU route

A


N


been sought

Y

At least 3 tenders

received?


N





conflicts of interestY N

YAt least 3 scorers to use criteria

set out in ITT

At least 3 tenders

received?

N

Y

Complete exemption from

financial thresholds form

Y

L&G issue contract


contract


CompeteFor reference)


Diagram 3.6: LDA Tender Process

CompeteFor Shortlisting and PQQs

CompeteFor is a means of both widely advertising requirements and selecting a short-list of suppliers that can then be invited to tender. CompeteFor must be used for all tenders unless specifically agreed by the Procurement team, please see Appendix 21 for the CompeteFor shortlist questionnaires.

If CompeteFor is not used then the modular PQQ should be used (see Appendix 5). Any changes to these must be agreed beforehand by the procurement team.

In summary, CompeteFor / PQQs ask potential suppliers to show that they can meet the LDA’s requirements that may include the following areas:

i. Technical ability and capacity

ii. Skills and knowledge

iii. Track record and experience

iv. Financial standing

v. Health and safety

vi. Quality assurance

vii. Equalities policy and practice

viii. Employment practice and structure

Supplier Responses

CompeteFor and the LDA PQQ may gather other information on each supplier, such as details of ownership and workforce. Any non-commercial information of this nature should not form any part of the short listing process.



Potential suppliers should be given at least 21 days from the day after the advertisement is published to return their CompeteFor / PQQ responses. These should be only be opened once the deadline has expired.

In order to assess the responses fully you may need to obtain references from the referees identified by each potential supplier. In order to do this you should use the ‘Application for references’ letter in Appendix 20. However, please note that if the referees do not respond to this letter you may have to try and contact them by other means, such as email or telephone. Any non-written communications should be confirmed in writing by project managers. If it is not possible to obtain references, the relevant supplier should be given an opportunity to supply alternative referees; if this still does not deliver any references then that supplier should be given a score of zero in the reference section of the assessment or potentially excluded (the procurement team must be consulted before this can be undertaken). Once the supplier responses have been assessed, notify the short listed suppliers and invite them to tender through the eTendering system and using the ‘Invitation to tender’ form in Appendix 6. Short lists should include:

i. at least three suppliers for procurements valued under £70,000

ii. at least five suppliers for procurements valued at more than £70,000

If it is not possible to short list enough suppliers, you should consider advertising the tender again in different publications and media. However, if you do not think that this will help, then prepare the evidence that every effort had been made to seek competition and submit for approval to the Head of Procurement. This will enable you to proceed with a smaller short list. In any event, all unsuccessful applicants should be notified in writing (see Appendix 7). In both instances advice should be sought from the procurement team in order to agree the most appropriate route.

CompeteFor should be used for evaluating supplier responses. Where CompeteFor is not used the LDA’s pre-qualification evaluation form (see Appendix 15) should be used as a template for evaluating your PQQs.

An audit record documenting all work that relates to pre-qualification activities should be maintained on project file and through the eTendering system. This record should include:

i. the date of all requests made for PQQs

ii. information and contact details of all organisations requesting PQQs

iii. the date that PQQs are sent to applicants

iv. any enclosed supporting documentation (e.g. health and safety and equalities)

v. the date that completed PQQs are received from applicants

vi. any queries raised and answers issued by the LDA

vii. PQQ evaluation results

Despite not asking for proposals or prices at this stage, the PQQ return deadline should be treated as a hard deadline. As a result, any PQQs that are received after the deadline should be returned to sender using the ‘Un-assessed PQQ letter’ in Appendix 16.

Inviting tenders

The scope of the invitation to tender (ITT) depends upon the complexity of the procurement. You must use the LDA’s standard ITT documentation: this should meet most requirements, subject to minor amendments. For complex requirements, a bespoke ITT may be needed.

Ensure you give enough time to tenderers to prepare and submit their submissions: make sure the ITT clearly states how much time they have and the deadline. This should normally be 31 days (up to 40 days for EU tenders) from the day after the ITT has been issued.

i. The tender documentation normally comprises:

a. an invitation to tender letter



b. instructions for tenderers (including evaluation criteria and weightings)

c. a specification/brief

d. any accompanying documents, e.g. patterns or samples listed in any schedule of requirements

e. a form of tender

f. certificate of bona fide tendering

g. contract conditions

h. any supplementary or special conditions

i. health and safety related information/requirements

j. a pricing schedule

ii. It is important that the pricing schedule covers all aspects of the project being undertaken. It might therefore include:

a. design and development

b. equipment and materials cost

c. delivery and installation

d. maintenance and management

e. renewals and consumables

f. hourly/day rates

g. sub-contractors and associates

h. insurances

i. disposal or exit costs

j. fixed/variable costs

k. breakdown by skill mix (for staff-intensive contracts, rates by staff type should be given)

l. travel and expenses

m. any other area of potential cost relevant to the contract

In order to ensure that all prospective suppliers are treated equally, ITTs must be issued simultaneously and contain the same deadline. Try to ensure that there are no administrative oversights and double check that all those eligible to receive an ITT do so. All tender queries from the tenderers, and responses to these queries, should be handled centrally by the project manager, utilising the eTendering system.

The procurement team should also approve all tender documentation before it is sent out. The documents should be uploaded and issued via the eTendering system. Please note that some suppliers – such as SMEs and third sector organisations – may not be able to access the eTendering system, if they cannot, then choose a more appropriate method.

Bidders’ conferences can be of great value to both the LDA and its suppliers. If a conference is required, it should be held early on in the procurement process – ideally it should precede or accompany the issuance of the tender documents themselves. If you meet prospective tenderers individually then you must ensure that any new information you give to any one of them is also supplied promptly to the others.

Receipt and opening of tenders

Submitted tenders must be opened simultaneously to avoid accusations of unfairness or impropriety, as such the eTendering system provides an electronic vault that will only unlock once the deadline has passed.



Tender openings (unlocking the tender vault) should be carried out by at least two people; at least one of whom must be of manager grade in the LDA. In order to ensure fairness, one of those opening the tenders should have had no previous involvement in the process and everyone involved should witness the opening of every submission. Ask the procurement team for advice if you are unsure who should be part of the tender opening team.

If employing a manual tender process then you should give good notice to the LDA’s reception or post room that you are expecting submissions to arrive and let them know:

i. the tender title

ii. the tender reference

iii. the date and time of the submission deadline

iv. any changes to the deadline

v. the expected number of submissions

vi. the name of the LDA person in charge of the project

This should be done using the tender receipt form (see Appendix 8) and emailed to the post room and reception in Palestra at least one week before the tenders, quotations and/or expressions of interest are due back.

As soon as they are received, the post room should date and time stamp all submitted tenders and should record their arrival on the tender receipt form. This is important when determining whether or not a tender is late (although an estimated time is acceptable if it is not possible to be more precise). All tenders should be kept securely under lock and key until opening.

For manual tenders the tender opening form (see Appendix 9) should be completed with the names of every organisation that was invited to tender, including those that declined or did not reply. This form records precisely when the tenders were opened and the details of each one (including the price, if relevant). All those present should then sign the form as a true record. The original should be kept with the tenders and an electronic copy should be sent to the procurement team.

Insufficient number of returned tenders

There may be occasions when, despite your best efforts, you do not receive enough submissions. In these situations, you should ask the procurement team for advice and take the following steps:

i. Contact potential suppliers who received an invitation to tender but did not respond and ask them why they decided not to tender

ii. Examine the reasons given to see whether they were of the LDA’s making (For example, the deadline may have been unreasonably tight or the criteria too stringent – or whether they were outside the LDA’s control)

iii. If the reasons were due to circumstances outside the LDA’s control, prepare the evidence that every effort had been made to seek competition and provide to the Head of Procurement.

iv. If the reasons were of the LDA’s making, you need to restart the tender process, revising the documentation to address the reasons given and then reissue it to the same group of potential suppliers

v. You should consider whether the project is time critical, or whether you can secure better value for money and/or cost effectiveness by advertising again.

Evaluating the tenders

All credible (bona fide) tenders returned to the LDA within the prescribed tender period should be reviewed and compared with the evaluation criteria agreed at the start of the tender process (collaborative evaluation is provided through the eTendering system). This is to



determine the two tenders with the highest scores; in other words, the two that offer best value, please see Appendix 24 for a model tender scoring matrix. The highest scoring tender will become the LDA’s preferred supplier and the second will become the reserve supplier. Any tenders that are submitted after the deadline or are incomplete for any reason should be returned to sender using the ‘Non-compliant tender letter’ in Appendix 23.

Provided that the preferred supplier’s tender is still affordable, it should be given the contract. However, if both preferred and reserve tenders are unaffordable, then you have three choices:

i. negotiate the cost with the preferred supplier or reserve supplier

ii. terminate the project because it cannot be funded

iii. seek approval from the appropriate budget holder to increase the budget

Appointing the preferred supplier and giving feedback

Providing that the preferred tender is affordable and meets the LDA’s strategic and operational requirements then it can be awarded the contract using the standard letter set out in Appendix 10. The unsuccessful suppliers should be notified of the result at the same time using the LDA’s standard rejection letter (see Appendix 11).

The successful and unsuccessful tenderers should both be given feedback on their submissions. This should be done in writing and should set out the strengths and weaknesses of the tenders as assessed by the evaluation criteria. For large and complex tenders it may be appropriate to provide this feedback face-to-face. However, this should usually be avoided because such meetings are time consuming, require significant resources and do not generally provide more information than a written response.

Once they have received the written feedback, unsuccessful tenderers can ask for further information. Rather than entering into a lengthy correspondence, it is often more convenient and appropriate to have a telephone conference call. A member of the procurement team should always be present during these calls and you should make a written record of each call and keep this on the project file. If you do have to enter into further correspondence then you should use the feedback letter in Appendix 13.

If any of the unsuccessful tenderers object to the result, the procurement and legal teams should investigate the allegations and take one of the following courses of action:

i. confirm the appointment of the preferred supplier

ii. re-run the procurement process

iii. appoint a different supplier, if a genuine mistake resulted in another supplier having the highest score

iv. abandon the procurement project

3.3.6 EU Tender Processes EU procurement procedures must be used on all projects over the relevant EU thresholds. These thresholds are approximately £156,442 for goods and services and £3,927,260 for works. The LDA’s preferred EU procurement route (the restricted route) typically takes up to 26 weeks (six months) to complete.

Appendix 12 describes the different EU procurement procedures and indicative timescales. These procedures are set out below in increasing order of sophistication.

i. Open procedure

ii. Restricted procedure

iii. Negotiated procedure

iv. Competitive dialogue



The negotiated procedure and the competitive dialogue should only be used on high value / high risk projects, either when it is impossible to define your requirements at the start of the process, or when you need to consult potential suppliers to develop the specification fully. Both procedures can be complicated and resource-intensive, so must only be used with the agreement of the procurement team.

Most projects should not require anything more sophisticated than the open or restricted procedures. The LDA favours the restricted procedure for a number of reasons, including:

i. The open procedure can be cumbersome because there is no restriction on the number of organisations able to submit tenders to the LDA. Some projects can receive over a hundred submissions, all of which must be assessed

ii. The restricted procedure is easier on bidders because it includes opportunities for them to withdraw (or be removed) from bidding before they incur large costs

iii. The restricted procedure is less onerous for LDA project managers because the total number of tenders is limited

Because the restrictive procedure is the most common route, it is the only EU procedure described here.

EU restricted procedure

EU procurement procedures allow public bodies to publish advance notice of impending projects via a Prior Information Notice (PIN). It is good practice to publish these notices, if time allows. They should be placed soon after the beginning of the LDA’s financial year in order to alert the market and shorten the tender process. The notices are intended to provide an indication of future demand and must not be used as a replacement for OJEU tender notices. However, if a procurement project is approved and implemented after the main prior information notice is published, then it is acceptable to place another PIN.

The restricted procedure (see Diagram 3.7 overleaf) should ideally begin by completing a written specification and agreeing the evaluation criteria which must be able to measure to what extent each bid can also help the LDA fulfil its responsible procurement policy objectives. There is scope to commence the specification and supporting evaluation criteria following the issue of the PQQ, however this should be completed prior to the PQQ deadline; but as a minimum an outline specification is required at this stage.

Each evaluation criterion should be weighted in order of importance. It is important to make sure that the statement of requirements includes all the information to be compared with the agreed criteria. All evaluation criteria to be used must be clearly stated, further sub-criteria to help break down the main criteria can only be used if these are clearly identified in the tender documentation. Please see Appendix 17 for further guidance on evaluation criteria and Appendix 18 for a pricing evaluation model.

The specification should then be combined with a draft contract which is issued by the legal team, you will need to contact them for this. Together, they form the tender documentation. It is worth asking suppliers or the procurement team for informal feedback about the affordability of the project before it begins.

Publicising the project

As a minimum, the procurement team needs to place an advertisement in the OJEU (via the eTendering system) and on CompeteFor. The advertisement, inviting expressions of interest, must stay open for either 30 or 37 days, depending on whether it was placed electronically or manually. During this period the modular pre-qualification questionnaire must be completed by interested suppliers and returned to the LDA (in rare circumstances a CompeteFor questionnaire can be used, please contact the procurement team for advise and guidance).

In order to maximise the chances of finding suitable suppliers, you may want to consider advertising larger or more unusual projects more widely, for example, in professional journals or local and national newspapers (including SME and third sector press, as appropriate).



Other advertisements must, however, be published after they appear in the OJEU. See Appendix 14 for a sample advertisement.

Pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ)

For EU tenders the modular questionnaire must be used to short list suppliers. Potential suppliers are asked to show that they can meet the LDA’s requirements in a number of areas:

i. Technical ability and capacity

ii. Skills and knowledge

iii. Economic and financial standing

iv. Track record and experience

v. Business probity and compliance

A copy of the modular PQQ can be found in Appendix 5. Appendix 15 contains a template pre-qualification evaluation form which can be used to help evaluate the PQQ returns.


questionnaire

L&G provide suitable terms &


N




N

Y

Prepare ITT pack (description of

service, evaluation criteria etc.)

Work with procurement to

shortlist suppliers



A

Publish opportunity on

eTendering system


Complete Supplier shortlisting

questionnaire

Allow 37 clear days



Procurement provide advice

L&G provide advice

Meet with Procurement and Contract & Law teams for advice

Procurement draft & publish and OJEU contract

notice

Indicative draft?

Y

Send Specification to procurement

Publish opportunity on LDA website

Publish opportunity on other media publications if

required

B

Upload PQQ to suppliers


suppliers

Prepare PQQ Receive PQQs




Supplier provides completed PQQ

Allow at least 10 days or 37

days if not using

CompeteFor

Procurement will advise if the full CompeteFor process (as shown

by Yellow shading) should be applied to your requirement

Receive tenders



C


Supplier provides quotation

Allow 40 clear

days

At least 6 days before tender return date.

Ensure procurement agree with responses

Open eTendering tenders vault

B

Upload ITT pack to shortlist suppliers

Inform unsuccessful

suppliers

Procurement approve ITT letter and specification

L&G finalise terms & conditions

Finalise ITT pack

A

Shortlist at least 5 (restricted) or 3

suppliers (negotiated /

competitive dialogue)

Finance undertake financial due

diligence

Requires at least 3

evaluators

Enough suppliers?

Procurement provide advice

N

Contact procurement

Able to proceed?

Y

NEnact

procurement advice

Y


dilligence

At least 3 tenders

received?


N




Y N

Y

Evaluate tenders and determine

preferred bidder


T&Cs?

L&G assess implications of the

changes requested

N

Y

Able to proceed?


bidder(s)

L&G prepare contract


Pro Formas

C


N


been sought

Y

Y

At least 3 scorers to use criteria

set out in ITT

Request for information within

2 days?

Inform Procurement immediately

Y

NAt least 3 tenders

received?

N


conflicts of interest

L&G issue contract


contract


CompeteFor reference if used)


Allow 10 clear

days

Procurement publish award of the contract on

OJEU

Diagram 3.7: EU Restricted Procedure



In order to assess the supplier responses fully you will need to obtain references from the referees identified in each supplier response. In order to do this you should use the ‘Application for references’ letter in Appendix 20. If the referees do not respond to this letter you may have to try and contact them by other means, such as email or telephone. Any non-written communication should be confirmed in writing by project managers. If it is not possible to obtain references, the relevant supplier should be given an opportunity to supply alternative referees; if this still does not deliver any references then the relevant supplier should be given a score of zero in the reference section of the PQQ.

i. Despite not asking for proposals or prices at this stage, the supplier response deadline must be treated as a hard deadline. As a result, any responses that are received after this deadline should be returned to sender using the ‘Un-assessed PQQ letter’ in Appendix 16.

ii. If it is not possible to short list enough suppliers, you should consider advertising the tender again in different publications and media. However, if you do not think that this will help, then prepare the evidence that every effort had been made to seek competition and submit for approval to the Head of Procurement. This will enable you to proceed with a smaller short list. In any event, all unsuccessful applicants should also be notified in writing.

Inviting tenders

The scope of the invitation to tender (ITT) depends upon the complexity of the procurement. You must use the LDA’s standard ITT documentation: this should meet most requirements, subject to minor amendments. For complex requirements, a bespoke ITT may be needed; consult the procurement team beforehand.

Ensure you give enough time to tenderers to prepare and submit their submissions: make sure the ITT clearly states how much time they have and the deadline for submissions. This should normally be 40 days from the day after the ITT has been issued.

However, this period can be reduced if a prior information notice has been issued and/or the project is being managed electronically (e.g. through the application of the LDA’s eTendering system). The tender period can be reduced to 36 days if a prior information notice has been issued and, by issuing the ITTs electronically, you can reduce the tender period by five days, irrespective of whether or not a prior information notice has been issued. More details can be found in Appendix 12.

The tender documentation normally comprises:

i. invitation to tender letter

ii. instructions for tenderers,(including evaluation criteria)

iii. a specification/brief

iv. any accompanying documents, e.g. patterns or samples listed in any schedule of requirements

v. a form of tender

vi. certificate of bona fide tendering

vii. contract conditions

viii. any supplementary or special conditions

ix. health and safety related information/requirements

x. a pricing schedule

It is important that the pricing schedule covers all aspects of the project being undertaken. It might therefore include:

i. design and development

ii. equipment and materials cost



iii. delivery and installation

iv. maintenance and management

v. renewals and consumables

vi. hourly/day rates

vii. sub-contractors and associates

viii. insurances

ix. disposal or exit costs

x. fixed/variable costs

xi. breakdown by skill mix (for staff-intensive contracts, rates by staff type should be given)

xii. travel and expenses

xiii. any other area of potential cost relevant to the contract

The procurement team should also review all documentation before it is uploaded to the eTendering system.

In order to ensure that all prospective suppliers are treated equally, ITTs must be made available to all suppliers simultaneously, contain the same deadline, try to ensure that there are no administrative oversights and double check that all those eligible to receive an ITT do so.

All tender queries from the tenderers, and responses to these queries, should be handled centrally by the project manager, utilising the eTendering system. Any grounds for extending the submission deadline should be documented and the new deadline communicated to every tenderer at the same time.

Bidders’ conferences can be of great value to both the LDA and its suppliers. If a conference is required, it should be held early on in the procurement process – ideally it should precede or accompany the issuance of the tender documents themselves. If you meet prospective tenderers individually then you must ensure that any new information you give to any one of them is also supplied promptly to the others.

Receipt and opening of tenders

Submitted tenders must be opened simultaneously to avoid accusations of unfairness or impropriety as such the eTendering system provides an electronic vault that will only unlock once the deadline has passed.

Tender opening (unlocking the tender vault) should be carried out by at least two people, at least one of whom must be of LDA manager grade. In order to ensure fairness, one of those opening the tenders should have had no previous involvement in the process and everyone involved should witness the opening of every submission. Ask the procurement team for advice if you are unsure who should be part of the tender opening team.

If employing a manual tender process then you should give good notice to the LDA’s reception or post room that you are expecting submissions to arrive and let them know:

i. the tender reference

ii. the tender title

iii. the date and time of the submission deadline

iv. any changes to the deadline

v. the expected number of submissions

vi. the name of the LDA person in charge of the project



This task should be done using the tender receipt form (see Appendix 8) and emailed to the post room and reception at least one week before the tenders, quotations and/or expressions of interest are due back.

As soon as they are received, the post room should date and time stamp all submitted tenders and should record their arrival on the tender receipt form; this is important when determining whether or not a tender is late (although an estimated time is acceptable if it is not possible to be more precise). All tenders should be kept securely under lock and key until opening.

If using a manual process the tender opening form (see Appendix 9) should be completed with the names of every organisation that was invited to tender, including those that declined or did not reply. This form records precisely when the tenders were opened and the details of each one (including the price, if relevant). All those present should then sign the form as a true record. The original should be kept with the tenders and an electronic copy emailed to the procurement team.

EU directives require that suppliers participating in OJEU-advertised tenders can ask to be present (or have a representative or impartial witness present) at the opening of the submissions. This does not change the procedure and any questions or comments made by those invited for this reason should be recorded but not answered at that time.

Insufficient number of returned tenders

There may be occasions when, despite your best efforts and wide publicity, you do not receive enough submissions. In these situations, you should ask the procurement team for advice and take the following steps.

i. Contact potential suppliers who received an invitation to tender but did not respond and ask them why they decided not to tender

ii. Examine the reasons given to see whether they were of the LDA’s making – for example, the deadline may have been unreasonably tight or the criteria too stringent – or whether they were outside the LDA’s control

iii. If the reasons were due to circumstances outside the LDA’s control, prepare the evidence that every effort had been made to seek competition and provide to the Head of Procurement.

iv. If the reasons were of the LDA’s making, you need to restart the tender process, revise the documentation to address the reasons and then reissue it to the same group of potential suppliers as before.

3.3.7 Late quotations and tenders

Tenders returned after the stated deadline should usually be returned to the sender without being opened or assessed using the letter in Appendix 23. The Director of Procurement must give permission before any exceptions to this rule can be made. There are very few circumstances in which exceptions can be made:

i. If you have not received some tenders that you were expecting, investigate this before you open the others: there may be a good reason, such as a clerical error with the submission date or time

ii. If it can be proved that a tender was posted well before the deadline and therefore could reasonably have been expected to arrive on or before the deadline

iii. If the total number of tenders returned is less than the minimum requirement of three, you may want to consider accepting late tenders

iv. If the tenders are only a few minutes late for a good reason, such as technical issues with the e-Tendering system



Un-assessed tenders should be returned as soon as possible with a covering letter (see Appendix 23) explaining why they have been rejected. A copy of the envelope containing the late quotation or tender should be kept on file in case of a dispute.

If tenders are not received at all, keep a record and try and discover any reason why it was not submitted. Any reason given should also be recorded.

Evaluating the tenders

All tenders returned to the LDA within the prescribed tender period should be reviewed and compared with the evaluation criteria agreed at the start of the tender process (collaborative evaluation is provided through the eTendering system), please see Appendix 24 for a model tender scoring matrix. This is to determine the two tenders with the highest scores; in other words, the two that provide best value. The highest scoring tender will become the LDA’s preferred supplier and the second will become the reserve supplier. Any incomplete tenders that cannot be evaluated should be returned to sender using the ‘Non-compliant tender’ letter in Appendix 23.

Provided that the preferred supplier’s tender is still affordable, it should be given the contract. However, if both preferred and reserve tenders are unaffordable, then you have four choices:

i. negotiate the cost with the preferred supplier

ii. terminate the project because it cannot be funded

iii. seek approval from the appropriate budget holder to increase the budget

However, if you have followed the OJEU tender process you will need to consult the procurement team before any of these options can be adopted.

You may choose to vary the scope of the project to make it more affordable. However, this must be agreed with the procurement team as it represent a large enough change to require a new OJEU contract notice and procurement activity.

Appointing the preferred supplier, feedback and the 10 day stand still period

The preferred supplier can be appointed if its tender is affordable, meets the LDA’s strategic and operational requirements and scope has not changed (unless agreed with procurement). The unsuccessful suppliers must be notified of the result using the standard rejection forms (see Appendix 11) and given 10 full calendar days (‘the stand still period’) to object to the result. The preferred supplier is informed of the LDA’s intention to appoint them at the same time using the standard form in Appendix 10.

Both the successful and unsuccessful tenderers should be given feedback on their submissions. This should be done in writing and should set out the strengths and weaknesses of the tenders as assessed by the evaluation criteria. For large and complex tenders it may be appropriate to provide this feedback face-to-face. However, this should usually be avoided because such meetings are time consuming, require significant resources and do not generally provide more information than a written response.

Once they have received the written feedback, unsuccessful tenderers often ask for further information. Rather than entering into a lengthy correspondence, it is often more convenient and appropriate to have a telephone conference call. A member of the procurement team should always be present during these calls and you should make a written record of each call and keep this on the project file. If you do have to enter into further correspondence then you should use the feedback letter in Appendix 13.

Any objections received within the 10 day stand still period should be investigated by the procurement team and one of the following appropriate actions should be taken.

i. Confirm the appointment of the preferred supplier

ii. Re-run the procurement process



iii. Appoint a different supplier, if a genuine mistake resulted in another supplier having the highest score

iv. Abandon the procurement project

3.3.8 Summary of tender periods for LDA tenders and EU tenders

Please note that the timescales outlined in the procurement approach diagrams refer to the maximum timescale; application of the eTendering system and PINs can shorten these timescales as outlined in Table 4.1 (overleaf). This table summarises the recommended and compulsory minimum timescales for inviting expressions of interest, quotations and tenders. The figures shown for LDA quotes and tenders are recommended periods: these can be changed to suit the circumstances of each project, with the agreement of the procurement team. However, the EU minimum periods are compulsory and cannot be reduced.

Action LDA Quotes

LDA Tenders

EU Restricted TendersNon PIN Route PIN Route

E-Route P-Route E-Route P-RoutePublicising/Advertising the contract opportunity OR Invitations to Express an Interest

N/A 21 Days 30 Days 37 Days 30 Days 37 Days

Invitations to Quote/Tender

15 Days 31 Days 35 Days 40 Days 31 days 36 Days

Quote/Tender Evaluation Period

1-5 Days 5 Days TBC TBC TBC TBC

Stand Still Period N/A N/A 10 Days 10 Days 10 Days 10 DaysContract Award Notice 1 Day 1 Day 48 Days 48 Days 48 Days 48 DaysTypical Time to Complete

5 Wks 8 Wks 24 Wks 26 Wks 23 Wks 25 Wks

Table 4.1: Summary of EU procurement response periods

3.3.9 Continual improvement

In order to help our procurement processes improve on a continual basis, the procurement team will issue satisfaction questionnaires to a random sample of suppliers. This will enable us to receive constructive feedback on our procurement documentation and processes. A copy of the supplier questionnaire is set out in Appendix 25.



4. DELIVER PHASE

4.1 Introduction

This section describes the commencement of the deliver phase of the commissioning framework process (see Diagram 4.1 below) and how to enter into contracts with suppliers.

Diagram 4.1: Commissioning Framework Process – Deliver Phase

A B C D E


Investment Gateway




Strategic Options

Development



Contract Monitoring

& mgt


mgt


It should be noted that prior to entering into any agreements with the preferred bidder, no commitment shall be made until an Investment Gateway C Investment Decision has been sought and approval to proceed received.

The successful supplier should not be allowed to start any work until a signed contract is in place. This will take one of two forms:

i. a purchase order requisition (POR) for projects valued below £70,001

ii. a signed and sealed contract for projects worth more than £70,000

The Director of Law and Governance is the LDA’s designated legal adviser and monitoring officer. LDA standing orders require all legal advice and support to be obtained from this person. In other words, all contracts must be prepared by the LDA’s legal team including framework call-off letters and/or agreements.

4.2 Entering into a contract

Depending on the size of the contract, specified actions must take place once the preferred supplier has been identified.

i. For low risk projects valued at less than £70,001, the project manager will issue a purchase order requisition. The LDA’s standard terms and conditions of contract apply in these cases

ii. For projects valued over £70,000, the legal team will complete the contract documents.

iii. For all contracts, you must provide the legal team with all the information required in the instruction sheet template. For projects over £70,000, you must also provide the legal team with a copy of the final statement of requirement, along with the successful supplier’s insurance documents, pricing schedule, scheme of delegated authority and any other project documentation. Along with the final version of the legal contract, these all form the final contract documents.

The legal team needs your instructions in order to complete the contract. These instructions should include the following information:

i. the name, address and company registration number of the successful contractor (if it is not an incorporated company, you need to give its legal status and registered or principal office and trading address)

ii. the name and contact details of the contractor’s representative

iii. the contract start date

iv. the term (length) of the contract



v. the specification of the statement of the LDA's requirements, (including project milestones)

vi. the price and terms of payment (including the payment schedule)

vii. details on how the GLA Group Responsible Procurement Policy is applied to this contract

Only when the contract documents are complete and ready for signing will the legal team release them to the supplier. Preparing the contract documents should usually take about three weeks. Once the draft contracts have been prepared they need to be returned to project managers for approval. If the project managers are happy with the draft contracts they should complete a LDA transmittal form4 to begin the sequence of signing the contracts (see Appendix 19). Once the supplier returns them, the legal team will arrange to have them signed and sealed on behalf of the LDA. If it takes up to two weeks for suppliers to return the documents, then it could be five weeks before the contracted services or work can begin.

It may occasionally be possible to start work on a specific contract that has not yet been signed, sealed and completed. However, this needs specific written approval from the Director of Finance, the Director of Governance and Law and the Director for Procurement.

4.3 Managing the contract

Delivery of procurement projects must not begin until the contract has been signed by all counterparties.

Contract management represents the handover stage of LDA procurement, where the commissioner takes the project into delivery. It begins as soon as the contract has been awarded and is the name given to the active monitoring and control of all aspects of the relationship between the LDA and its awarded suppliers.

4 Please check with the Law & Governance team as to whether there is still a requirement for a transmittal form



5. TABLE OF APPENDICESAppendix Section heading Type

1 Application for exemption from financial thresholds Form / Template2 Procurement checklist Guidance3 LDA Framework Agreements Guidance4 Invitation to quote Form / Template5 Modular Pre-Qualification questionnaires (PQQ) Form / Template6 Invitation To Tender (ITT) Form / Template7 Letter to unsuccessful PQQ applicant Form / Template8 Tender receipt form Form / Template9 Tender opening form Form / Template10 Quote/contract award letter Form / Template11 Letter to unsuccessful tenderer Form / Template12 EU procurement procedure, limits and timetable Guidance13 Feedback letter to tenderer Form / Template14 Sample advertisement Guidance15 PQQ evaluation form Form / Template16 Un-assessed PQQ/tender letter Form / Template17 Guidance on evaluation requirements Guidance18 Pricing Evaluation Model Form / Template19 Transmittal form and guidance note for sealing and

recording of legal documentsForm / Template

20 Application for references Form / Template21 CompeteFor shortlist questionnaires Form / Template22 Discontinuation of tender process Form / Template23 Non-compliant tender letter Form / Template24 Tender scoring matrix Form / Template25 Supplier satisfaction questionnaire Form / Template


INTRODUCTION

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