Before proceeding with your Contract Award you must ensure you have received, reviewed and approved the most up-to-date supporting documents referred to in the selection stage response e.g. certificates.
You should now be at a stage where you have identified the successful tenderer(s). From a fraud awareness perspective, the following checks should be made before progressing to the next stage.
Checklist
Before a Procurement Officer awards a contract they should check the following points:
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Who was involved in the tender award process? Have there been any changes in staff from those involved during the tender evaluation? |
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Did any of the tenderers drop out of the process and decide not to proceed with the tender? Consider if an unknown agreement was made. |
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Review the list of proposed suppliers/sub-contractors to be used by the successful bidder? Did these organisations also bid directly for the tender exercise? Such circumstances can lead to a pre-determined outcome as it would be irrelevant who was awarded the work. This may identify cartel operating. |
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Blank rows are provided for your use e.g. to add additional checklist items.
You should prepare a Contract Award recommendation report. This should be endorsed by the User Intelligence Group (UIG) prior to receiving approval to proceed by the appropriate authority level within your Organisation.
Quickfire Guide
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 any 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)
Cyber Security Considerations
Considerations in relation to Community Benefits in procurement exercises equal or greater than £4M
Details on how the tender outcome will meet the requirements identified in the Commodity/Service Strategy
Once you have obtained approval you can notify both the successful and unsuccessful tenderers of the outcome, and they should be notified as soon as possible.
Information provided to tenderers must, where applicable, include the grounds for any decision:
Consideration must also be given to Planning, Sustainable Procurement and Risk Management throughout this stage of the Procurement Journey.
The Remedies Directive provides legal solutions to bidders/potential suppliers. This is as a result of EU procurement law breaches by public bodies or utilities.
The 2009 directive introduced:
Further information can be found in SPPN 7/2010
The contract documentation should be collated and finalised to reflect the successful tenderer’s submission and agreed terms and conditions. The documentation must be signed in duplicate by the appropriate authority levels in both the contracting and tenderer's organisations.
It is important to include the Fair Work practice commitments from the successful tenderer’s bid as standard Contract & Supplier Management criteria in the contract terms, including any agency or sub-contractor workers.
It is also important to include terms, which will apply to any new members to the workforce during the delivery of the contract.
You must consider who you need to inform when a contract has been awarded and the information they will require e.g. notify stakeholders and users of the contract award providing them with timescales, details of the contract and any migration considerations. Many organisations have a governance process which requires internal approval to be obtained before the contract is awarded to a supplier.
If utilising PCS-Tender, the Contract Award must be activated on the system. Please note that this does not generate correspondence to the tenderers and this should still be issued by the Procurement Officer.
The Contract Award Notice must now be created on PCS
If the contract involves cyber risks, and you are using the Cyber Security Procurement Support Tool (CSPST), please ensure you select the successful tenderer in the CSPST tool to allow your organisation to manage overall cyber risks.
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