How to find out a preferred bidder

[broc]

It's worth noting that neither of these short listed consortium have any major in-house IT specialism. Presumably they'll contract it out.

Quite a lot of PFI type work is subcontracted right down to the level of the man who gets called to replace the flickering strip light after the building opens. That's why you end up with situations where a fault gets reported to the PFI site operator, who then calls his 'local' contractor who then schedules the work at some future date when he has someone available as his workforce is spread so thin because of the low price he had to bid to get a slice of the work in the first place.

 

Some of the 'bid' business is sold on after the bid has been finalised so don't be too surprised if you don't see any IT companies in the frame until late in the day as the ICT spend represents only about 10% of a typical BSF contract and I suspect does not get as much attention as we would like!

 

It's interesting to note that (as far as I am aware) none of the major 'global' IT outsourcing operations such as EDS, IBM & others has shown any interest in bidding for the BSF ICT business. I suspect it's because they have realised they cannot make it pay. There again, I have never seen a business case for BSF and the outsourcing of ICT, has anyone else I wonder?

[CyberNerd]

'Fraid not. Lots of information can be deemed commercially sensitive and will not be released in case it prejudices their bid in comparison to another bidder. If that wasn't the case then all that other bidders would have to do would be to issue an FOI request, work out what your costs are likely to be and then undercut you by 2%.

 

In an ongoing competitive bid situation information will only be given to those involved in scoring of the bids, or working on criteria to score the bids.

 

In that case the price of the bid should be public information:

 

5. Is the information commercially sensitive?

Companies compete by offering something different from their rivals. That difference will often be the price at which the goods or services can be delivered but that difference may also relate to quality or specification. Information which identifies how a company has developed that unique element is more likely to be commercially sensitive. For example where a company competes on price, it may be that the final price charged is readily available, however information disclosing how the company is able to offer the product at that price may not be. That is information revealing profit margins is more likely to be commercially sensitive. This argument can extend to working practices etc that allow a quality of service to be more efficiently delivered.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/freedom_of_information/detailed_specialist_guides/awareness_guidance_5_-_commercial_interests.pdf