Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
that the results are fair, which reduces the risk of a challenge from a
losing organisation. A challenge to any procurement within a programme
can add delay, cost and uncertainty to that programme, all of which are
risks PSE seeks to avoid.
Remaining in contact with all fi rms who tender for work
To meet the aim of the purchasing function of PSE to be equitable,
transparent and fair to all organisations expressing interest and submit-
ting tenders, one minor problem needs to be overcome. Once any pro-
curement is live, it must remain equitable and all communication
between tenderers and the procurement team must be transparent,
auditable and equal. This is necessary to give the fi rms on the supply
side confi dence that they are competing in a fair competition, in which
they all have an equal chance of winning.
To comply with EU legislation, a tender opportunity that is above the
threshold limits must be published in a contract notice via the Offi cial
Journal of the European Union (OJEU). The contract notice, which is
drafted by the programme procurement team, contains details of the
opportunity and a link to its eSourcing portal. Once the tendering pro-
cedure begins, a list of those organisations that have already registered
to view the opportunity via the eSourcing system can be reviewed by
the programme supply chain team and compared with the list of organi-
sations that expressed interest during vendor engagement. Any fi rms
that showed interest during supplier engagement, or participated in the
relevant market sounding exercise but do not appear to have registered
on the eSourcing system in response to the contract notice, can be
contacted and made aware of the opportunity if necessary. This serves
either to prompt them to register, or at least to ascertain why they might
not have done so already. This can be a particularly delicate stage in
procurement and may lead to a further reassessment of market interest
in the opportunity to understand any change in the appetite of fi rms.
This early intervention can identify any organisations that may have
changed their stance on the business opportunity offered since the
market sounding was taken. The procurement team can then estimate
the likely number of organisations that may respond to the tender, thus
allowing time to address any issues that might emerge through a lack
of competition in the event that the appetite identifi ed earlier is not
forthcoming.
