Part 4 - Contract Procedure Rules

12.1     All competitive procurement exercises must be conducted electronically through the Council’s e-procurement system unless the use of an alternative process has been previously approved in writing by the Director of Policy, Performance and Governance.

12.2     Receiving Expressions of Interest

All expressions of interest must be received by the date and time given in the original advertisement. An Authorised Officer may consider exceptions to this CPR in situations where the late submission is genuinely outside the control of the supplier concerned, but only with the agreement of the Assistant Director of Legal Services.

12.3     Issuing Invitations to Tender

a) Where a tendering process involves a process of qualification and selection before the award phase, an Authorised Officer shall only issue an invitation to tender to those suppliers that have met the required selection criteria, including any minimum standards set. Suppliers may be shortlisted to be invited to tender on the basis of marks awarded against the selection criteria
b) An Authorised Officer shall ensure that an invitation to tender is based on a robust procurement strategy based on model instructions for tendering approved by the Assistant Director of Strategic Procurement.
c) Suppliers shall be allowed sufficient time to complete their tenders, taking into account the complexity of the requirement and the contract, and the time required for them to prepare their response. A minimum of ten working days must be allowed from the date on which the invitation was sent.
d) All suppliers being invited to tender by the Council must be issued with the same   information at the same time and subject to the same conditions. Any clarification, supplementary information, or changes to the content or detail of the invitation, must be given on the same basis.
e) All communications with the suppliers must be through the Council’s e-procurement system.

12.4    Receiving Tenders

a) Where in accordance with CPR 12.1 tenders are to be submitted electronically, Authorised Officers shall ensure that they are stored securely in the Council’s e-procurement system and remain unopened until the specified date and time,, after which they shall be opened by an officer who has been authorised to do so by the Assistant Director of Legal Services in accordance with a procedure agreed by the Director of Policy, Performance and Governance.
b)  If any tenderer has not followed the instructions issued within an invitation to tender detailing how their tenders should be delivered, packaged, marked and referenced, such tenders must normally be excluded from further participation in the tender process to which such instructions related. However, in exceptional circumstances, the Assistant Director of Legal Services may permit an occurrence of non-minor compliance with such instructions provided that the principle of equal treatment of tenderers and the integrity and confidentiality of the tendering process would not be infringed.
c) Any tender that does not comply with the instructions set out in the relevant invitation to tender (save for incidences of minor non-compliance of the type described in CPR 12.4(b), shall be rejected and returned to the tendering supplier together with an explanation for its rejection.
d)  Any tender received by the Council after the published tender submission deadline shall not be opened or considered unless, in the opinion of Assistant Director of Legal Services or Principal Lawyer or Legal Services Business Partner, considering relevant evidence provided by the Authorised Officer, the failure to meet the deadline was due to:

(i) the Council’s fault;
(ii) an act of God, flood, drought, earthquake or other natural disaster;
(iii) epidemic or pandemic;
(iv) terrorist attack, civil war, civil commotion or riots, war, threat of or preparation for war, armed conflict, imposition of sanctions, embargo, or breaking off of diplomatic relations;
(v) nuclear, chemical or biological contamination or sonic boom;
(vi) any law or action by government;
(vii) the collapse of buildings, fire, explosion or accident; or
(viii) an interruption or failure of utility service in circumstances which are beyond the control of the tenderer (but only in circumstances where such tender was submitted electronically).

12.5       Award
a) Any contract(s) advertised via the Council’s e-procurement system shall be awarded to the supplier(s) whose tender(s) is/are the most economically advantageous (assessed from the point of view of the Council) as determined with reference to the published award criteria.

b) Such contract awards may be made only on the basis of:
i) price;
ii) cost; or
iii) best price-quality ratio

c) If awarding a contract on the basis of the ‘best price-quality ratio’, an Authorised Officer shall apply criteria linked to the subject matter of the contract.

d) If, having completed a tender evaluation exercise, a tenderer has been identified by the Council as offering the most economically advantageous tender, a contract may be awarded to them.

e) When awarding any contract for goods, services or works whose aggregate value exceeds the relevant threshold prescribed under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, an Authorised Officer shall adhere to a minimum ten (10) day Standstill Period before entering into such contract and issue a Standstill Notice at the outset of such period to all tenderers and candidates which explains the Council’s full reasons for its award decision, and which also includes details of the characteristics and relative advantages of the successful tender.