Tender/Procurement Query

[Steve21]

Good Afternoon All,

 

Sorry for the dumb questions, but we're looking at getting a lot of kit in over a lease this year and wondered if someone could help in regards to a few queries.

 

1) Firstly I understand you "have" to tender if the contract is over a set point, but what is that point? Some seems to suggest it's £100k~ OJEU - useful links

 

But other's including this Gov doc says £160k~ https://www.gov.uk/guidance/buying-for-schools/3d-run-your-own-procurement-high-value-and-eu-tenders

 

Do non-academies count as "Government" in the list e.g. Schedule 1, or "Others"? As I assumed it'd fall under Government but the Gov.uk doc above seems to suggest else.

 

2) Do you have to tender if lets say you want £80k in computers, and £80k in Servers/Switches if you do it as two quotes?

 

3) If you can do it as separate quotes (2) without tender, what happens if the same company win both quotes?

 

4) Are you allowed to notify set companies you've used before of the invitation or does it have to be "found"?

 

5) If you do tender, what happens if someone "random" comes in best value but you know they have a bad reputation in lets say after-support etc, can that be taken into consideration or does that need to be specified within the original contracts?

 

 

Thanks,

Steve

[localzuk]

1) I don't think schools are schedule 1 bodies - we aren't central government.

2) I believe its done on a per contract basis, so 2 separate contracts under the threshold would not need a full tender. That said, if you split it up in such a way that you're actually asking for the same things for each then you may be in breach of the rules, eg. if you want to buy 250 PCs, and divide them up into classrooms, then buy all identical PCs from a single supplier.

3) Ensure the 2 are separate contracts.

4) Best value is not cheapest. Reputation, quality of service, whatever can be included in your evaluation process. Just make sure you include the criteria you'll be using in the tender publication.

 

All that said, I would *seriously* advise buying from frameworks that already exist. There are plenty around, and the tendering has already been done! Eg: Find an Agreement | Crown Commercial Service

https://www.thecpc.ac.uk/

Edited May 12, 2016 by localzuk

[jmak]

4) Best value is not cheapest. Reputation, quality of service, whatever can be included in your evaluation process. Just make sure you include the criteria you'll be using in the tender publication.

 

 

So much this /\

 

With a governor hat on, I'd ask serious questions if I found out that the school had bought from a supplier known to be problematic.

 

Never mind the fact that it could cost you your sanity.

[Steve21]

Thanks guys, maybe we might not have to both then if we can split it to multiple quotes. Just assumed they'd get upset if one did win multiple taking it over the limit haha

 

Guess it's time to get some quotes in and see what it works out to

 

Thanks,

Steve

[mikkydoos]

You can tender your quotes on the TES website. Its really handy for finding suppliers you may not have already discovered.

[Townsend]

When you say "won" the tender - you do not have to accept the lowest price offered. Lets be honest - if the price is too low - the likelihood is that some element is probably missing. Most tenders weigh the pros and cons and have a scoring schedule - so much for the price - so many points for the service etc - and this will be a subjective decision made by the school - but most do stipulate that they do not have to take the lowest bid.

Might be worth going to CPC and tendering through them