Receipt of Responses
Quotation responses should be received through the Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) Quick Quote system. Quick Quote is a secure way to receive responses and can act as an audit trail if required. This is considered best practice.
Where organisations do not use Quick Quote, quotation responses may be received in writing or by email. Remember to check your junk mail folder before and after the quotation deadline in case bids have been filterered by your email system.
Opening the Responses
Quotation responses should be opened in line with your organisation's governance arrangements. If your organisation does not use Quick Quote, you should formally record the quotation responses received using the Record of Quotations Received form.
If less than three quotation responses are returned, reasons should be sought from the suppliers who did not submit a bid. This feedback should be retained on file and can be used as lessons learned for future quotations.
If only one response is received, please contact your local procurement team/Centre of Expertise (CoE) on how to proceed.
Evaluation of Responses
You should use the evaluation process and guidance template to score the responses. This evaluation will determine which bid best meets your requirements.
Your evaluation should score the evaluation criteria you published in the Invitation to Quote documents.
If you need to seek clarification on any or all quotation responses, this should be sent in writing to the supplier(s). You should set a specific deadline for supplier(s) to respond with their answer(s) and treat all suppliers on an equal basis.
Abnormally Low Price Response
Any quote which shows an abnormally low price may be queried with the supplier to identify the reason(s) for this. If this is due to supplier error, you should consult with your local procurement team or Centre of Expertise for further advice on how to proceed.
Alternative Terms and Conditions of Contract
If any of the quotation responses are received with alternative Terms and Conditions (T&C’s) of Contract to those you published in your quotation, you must inform the supplier in writing that your original T&C’s of Contract apply.
If the supplier continues to challenge your Terms and Conditions of Contract, you should seek advice from your procurement or legal services team or, in their absence, your relevant Centre of Expertise.
Supplier Interviews and Presentations
In exceptional circumstances, you may consider interviewing/inviting presentations from suppliers in order to assist in the evaluation of quotation responses. However if you decide to score a supplier presentation as part of the evaluation you should have stated this in the Invitation to Quote documents.
For supplier interviews/presentations, you should provide the suppliers with details of the time, place and format of any interview or presentation, ideally as part of the Invitation to Quote (ITQ).
All suppliers should be treated equally. Suppliers should be provided with an equal opportunity for interview, presentation or site visits unless the initial evaluation undertaken shows that the supplier could not meet the Invitation to Quote core requirements.
Records of the interviews/presentations should be kept for audit purposes.
Recommendations Report
Once the evaluation has finished you should complete a recommendations report. This report is used to present your findings and proposal to your manager/senior management team (in line with your organisation’s governance arrangements) for approval to proceed.
Quickfire Guide
Recommendations Report
The recommendations report should contain as a minimum:
- A summary of the process undertaken
- Ensure any decisions for supplier disqualification are given
- Recommendation of award
- Request for approval
The report should contain reference to the following:
- Summary of the process to date
- Ensure any decisions for supplier disqualification have been fully documented and that the paperwork is available for inspection
- Recommendation of award & request for approval
- Selection Stage evaluation results (if not contained within previous report)
- Technical & commercial evaluation (including whole life costing) together with details of any clarifications conducted, benefits and savings available
- Details of any risks still present and mitigation plans
- Sustainability considerations (life-cycle costing, social, economic and environmental)
- Considerations in relation to Community Benefits
- Details on how the tender outcome will meet the requirements identified in the Commodity/Service Strategy
Checklist
Have You Got Everything You Need?
Before carrying on please check you have everything you need.
- Final scores calculated for all bids
- Agreement from all evaluators on proposed final scores
- Approval received to proceed
Any documents you need are listed below
Declaration of Interest
(file type: docx)
Evaluation Process and Guidance Template
(file type: xls)
Record of Quotations Received
(file type: docx)