Code of practice
For purchasing purposes the University is divided into a number of cost centres (individual schools and services) each with their own local operating budgets.
Most day-to-day purchases are carried out and administered by staff (e.g. purchasing administrators) working for the individual schools or services.
Larger or more complex contracts (involving multi-clients within the University) are usually let by or with assistance from the University's Procurement Office.
Procurement Policy
The University has a procurement policy in place, the key objectives of which are to advance corporate priorities, achieve optimum value for money and ensure probity and accountability for the business outcomes.
Contracting Code of Practice
The University operates to a contracting code of practice. The overall aim is to obtain the best value for money. That is the goods/services shall be of the right quality, available at the right time, fit for their intended purpose and affordable.
The following summary covers some of the key points included in the code of practice that are relevant to potential suppliers:
Financial Thresholds
For purchases where the value is likely to be between £5,000 and £40,000 (inc. VAT) University staff should seek at least three written quotes from potential suppliers. The University should fully explain its requirements to bidders and may often assess information other than price before awarding the work.
For values in excess of £40,000, a minimum of five formal tenders (i.e. sealed bids) should be sought. If the estimated value of the contract is greater than £174,000, EU policy and procedures will usually have to be followed.
Pre-Qualification
The University may seek tenders via advertisement on the internet, in newspapers or the trade press. Above the £174,000 plus threshold, the University will usually be required to advertise in Europe (i.e. via OJEU). Where the level of interest is likely to be high, applicants may be required to complete a pre-qualification questionnaire in order to be considered. The questionnaire will require information on areas such as the applicant's company size, experience, technical capabilities, CVs for key staff and company accounts.
The University shall only request information that it intends to evaluate and it is important to submit all the information required if you want to be considered for the tender list. Each item from each company will be scrutinised and assessed against criteria that has been agreed in advance for the particular contract. For example, the University may want to make sure that the company has enough staff to operate the contract or enough large contracts to maintain economic viability whether or not they are awarded the work again at the end of the contract term.
Such information is treated in the strictest confidence and the legitimate interests of the organisation concerned shall be taken into account as regards the protection of their financial position and technical status. The separate section on pre-qualifications provides more detail on the University's requirements.
Invitations to Tender (ITT)
- These consist of a letter and package of documents stating the University's Terms and Conditions plus other requirements. The package normally includes several sections:
- Section I usually covers: the invitation and conditions of tender, including the form of tender plus declarations that the bidder has understood the University's requirements and makes the offer in good faith
- Section II comprises the University's general conditions of contract. Tenderers should not include their own terms and conditions when submitting tenders or bids as it is standard practice for the University to either seek to reinstate their own (in the interests of protecting public money) or view the bid as non-compliant which could result in it being excluded. However, tenderers may wish to query any issues in the terms that may adversely affect their bid
- Section III is the specification and/or scope of work that contains the particular requirements of the contract. University staff will make this as clear, concise and unambiguous as possible but potential bidders should query anything that is unclear (or for example any significant omissions) and get a clear response before tendering. If you have to make any assumptions in a tender they should be clearly stated so that bids can be compared fairly on a "like for like" basis
- Section IV covers the financial information and/or proposal. Where relevant and possible, the University shall consider the "whole life" costs of all purchases to determine what is good value for money. There are many ways in which to show and break down prices - this and the need to compare bids fairly will have an impact on the information tenderers are asked to provide. It is therefore very important that prices are submitted in the same format as the University's schedule of rates form that will vary from contract to contract.
Bid Evaluation
The invitation package may also contain questions for the tenderer to answer or a note of information to be provided. The relative weighting of specific criteria is agreed by the evaluation team prior to the opening of the tenders and each one is considered during the evaluation process. Evaluation is normally performed by a small panel of University staff but may include experts from external agencies, the end user will always be included. Each panel member normally evaluates bids individually by reference to their own copy of the information before the group meets to discuss the bids and agree a final shortlist. Each member should also start their evaluation with a different tender to ensure no tender is unfairly advantaged because it is particularly lengthy or brief. All tenders are scored and a shortlist is produced before prices are considered.
Where a presentation of the tender proposal is required the likely dates shall be included in the invitation to tender. To avoid wasting the time and effort of bidders that are unlikely to win, only short-listed tenderers are invited to present their tender to the panel. At the presentation, marks are awarded for areas such as the communication skills of the key staff and their ability to work as a team. The marks that tenderers have scored for their tenders may be added to those gained at presentation. To avoid over emphasis on this second stage, the maximum possible scores gained at presentation should not constitute more than approximately 40% of the total maximum available throughout the tendering process.
Contract Award
It is essential for the University to ensure that the final contract agreed constitutes the best overall value for money and incorporates everything that has been agreed with the successful bidder. Therefore any outstanding issues must be clarified in writing and will be referred to in the form of agreement or the letter of acceptance that the successful tenderer receives at the end of the process. Some issues may be particularly important to the University and very detailed questions may be asked even at this stage but great care is taken not to distort competition.
Debriefing
The EC Directives require that unsuccessful parties are offered a debrief and it is also encouraged as a matter of policy. The object of the discussion is to help the supplier to find out which areas of their application or tender were particularly good and which parts need improvement - it should help them to submit better work in the future. No information shall be given about any other bids as such detail is considered as commercially confidential. It is not therefore usually possible to make comparative statements.
Environmental Sustainability
This may effect each contract differently. The University will draw the tenderers attention to any areas of particular environmental concern relating to the product or service being purchased. Although the environment can form only one aspect of the evaluation, credit will be given where bidders show that they have taken any detrimental impact on the environment into account and minimised it as far as possible.
