Selling to the council

Selling to the council

We have both a centralised and decentralised procurement structure.

Our contracts are procured via the Delta eSourcing portal, which contains a list of contract opportunities. Registered suppliers can opt in to a free contract alert service for new opportunities.

Other procurement portals include the UK Government's Contracts Finder.

How we advertise tenders and contracts

We advertise for business in line with our Contract Procedure Rules, which are set out in the Constitution [link to constitution page in Your council].

These rules are summarised  below .

• Total value £2,000 or under

One oral quotation (confirmed in writing where the total   value exceeds £500)

• Total value £2,001 to £25,000

Three written and meaningful quotations. If three written   quotes cannot be obtained and an exemption, as specified in paragraph 3 of   the Contracts Procedure Rules, does not apply, the requirement should be   advertised.

• Total value £25,001 to EU threshold

Invitation to tender and advertise to at least three and   no more than six candidates.

• Above EU threshold

EU Procedure or, where this does not apply, an invitation   to tender. Advertise to at least four and no more than six candidates.

The tendering process

We have a thorough tendering process to ensure we offer the best value for money. The process generally begins with a needs analysis, followed by supplier selection and the tender itself. The process ends with the award of the contract and contract monitoring.

Needs analysis

Before a tender is issued, we research the needs of end users to ensure that the tender specification meets these needs. This may include community consultation in the case of large projects.

Supplier selection

For smaller contracts, council managers carry out their own supplier search or use pre-negotiated contracts with governmental buying groups, such as Hertfordshire Business Services and OGC Buying Solutions. We can participate in these pre-negotiated contracts without having to go out to tender. Suppliers can approach these organisations separately to enquire about opportunities to supply.

In the case of ICT and consulting, we can also access pre-negotiated OGC contracts via G-Cat (IT Catalogue) or S-Cat (IT Services).

Tendering documents

Tender documents – usually called an invitation to tender – usually contain the following sections:

• Introduction – background information on the tender
• Tender conditions – the legal parameters surrounding the tender
•  Specification – a description of the supplies, service or works to be provided
• Instructions for tender submission – instructions for the bidders
•  Qualitative tender response – qualitative questions to be answered by the bidder
• Pricing and delivery schedule – quantitative questions to be answered by the bidder
• Form of tender – a declaration to be signed by the bidder
• Certificate of non-collusion – a declaration that the bidder has not colluded with any other bidder on the tender
• Draft of proposed contract – a draft of the contract to be signed by the successful bidder

Tendering procedures

Most council tenders are restricted or open tenders. Council tenders that fall under EU Procurement thresholds are restricted, open or negotiated tenders.

Restricted tenders follow a two-stage process. All suppliers expressing an interest will be sent a pre-qualifying questionnaire. Suppliers are shortlisted based on the information provided in the questionnaire, and an invitation to tender is sent to an appropriate number of tenderers (usually five to eight companies). For tenders that fall under EU procurement thresholds, suppliers have 37 days to respond to the pre-qualifying questionnaire and 40 days to respond to the invitation to tender.

Open tenders allow any supplier that expresses an interest in tendering to be sent the Invitation to tender documents. The supplier will simply send a letter referring to the contract, expressing an interest, and enclosing the relevant contact details. In the case of tenders that fall within EU procurement thresholds, suppliers have 52 days to respond to the invitation to tender.

Award of Contract

We consider cost, quality, experience, proposed invoicing and payment processes and the proposed implementation timetable when evaluating tenders.

Once a contract has been awarded, we enter into a contract with the selected supplier based on the draft of proposed contract included in the tendering documents.

We then expect to meet with the selected supplier regularly to review performance and discuss any related issues.