SNH News and Information Notice
Subject : Procurement Procedures for Contracts
£10,000 and over - Tender Timescales &
Introduction of 10 Day Standstill Period
Name : Information Notice No 249 - Procurement Procedures for
Contracts £10,000 and over and the introduction of the
Standstill Period
Custodian Unit : Business Support Services (036)
Internal Audience : All Staff
Approved by : Head Of Business Support Services
Date Valid : 26/02/2010
Date for Review : 26/02/2011
Notice Sub-Types
1. Instruction Note.
Issued on behalf of Management Team, it must be applied as directed, except where a section is
clearly marked as ‘Advisory’ when an element of local judgement can be applied. You must get in
touch with the Custodian Unit if for any reason you think that circumstances make it inappropriate to
implement the mandatory content of an Instruction Note. Please also let the Custodian Unit know if
you have any suggestions for improving an Instruction Note.
2. Advice Note.
Issued as advice to staff. Flexibility and judgement can be exercised in deciding how best to apply
content in local circumstances. You should get in touch with the Custodian Team if you have any
questions or doubts about implementing the content of an Advice Note or if you have suggestions for
improving it.
3. News and Information Notice.
Communications issued on an ad hoc basis to inform staff of specific facts or events.
This document is uncontrolled when stored in hard copy or an electronic
format other than eRDMS. Please do not save copies, and only print where
absolutely necessary.
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Table Of Contents
Page
TIMETABLE FOR CONTRACTS £10,000 AND OVER...................................................... 2
Steps, Time-scales and Awarding a Contract................................................................. 2
TIMETABLE FOR CONTRACTS £10,000 AND OVER
The purpose of this News and Information Notice is to remind staff of the procurement
processes and the time-scales to advertise, tender and award a contract that exceeds the
value of £10,000.00.
If you have had approval of a bid that is £10,000 or more to take forward in financial year
2010-11, you are required to carry out a full competitive tendering exercise. It is important
that you plan ahead and take the following information into account when planning your
projects, this will also ensure that the procurement team can help you achieve the required
time-scales.
Introduction of 10 Day Standstill Period: What is the 10 day standstill period and how
does it affect my project?
As mentioned above a 10 day standstill period is being implemented with immediate effect,
this applies to all contracts that are awarded through the procurement team. The standstill
period is applied once the nominated officer has selected their preferred supplier. All
bidders are e-mailed informing them of who SNH intends to award the contract to. The
unsuccessful bidders are then given 10 working days to appeal the decision.
PLEASE NOTE: The standstill period is not applicable if you are using an already
established framework agreement and / or contract to appoint a supplier.
Steps, Time-scales and Awarding a Contract
£1,000 to £4,999.99 inc. VAT
X 3 Telephone Quotes
£5,000 to £9,999.99 inc. VAT
X 3 Written Quotes
£10,000 to £24,999.99 net VAT
All Paperwork to Procurement
Full Competitive Tendering Exercise
Up to 8 Weeks
£25,000 to £156,442 net VAT
Full Competitive Tendering Exercise
Up to 10 Weeks
£156,442 and Over
Full European Tendering Exercise
Very Minimum of 3 months
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NB: Please remember to take account of Public Holidays and Privilege Holidays.
The table below sets out the steps and time-scales to carry out a full competitive tendering
exercise.
Time is of the essence. Forward planning and remembering to give your chosen supplier
sufficient time to carry out the services / works you have contracted them to do.
Stage
Action
Time
New Contract
Nominated officer forward all documentation to
Up to 8 weeks
Opportunities between
Procurement. Please provide procurement with
the value of :
the following information / documentation:
£10,000 and
Requisition (listing all suppliers being invited to
£24,999.99
tender (ITT), providing full contact details i.e.
names, addresses etc);
Statement of Requirements (SoR);
Any other documents relevant to what you are
procuring.
Procurement carry out full competitive tendering
exercise on behalf of the nominated officer.
Please note: if you are trained in using the new
iBuy purchasing system you will complete a
requisition on-line and provide procurement with
objective reference nos. for all the above-
mentioned documents.
New Contract
New contract opportunities are advertised using It is
Opportunities
the Public Contracts Scotland portal.
recommended
between the value of :
that a Contract
http://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/
Notice (advert) is
£25,000 and
When you have completed your Contract Notice advertised for a
£156,442.00 need to
(advert) you should e-mail either:
minimum of 10
be advertised.
[email address] or
working days (2
Nominated Officer
[email address]
weeks).
advertises the contract
This will allow procurement to publish the
opportunity
notice, please provide us with the following
Advertising Helpdesk
information:
No. 01463 725086 or
The Title and Contract Notice ID no.
725085
Please note: Procurement recommend that at
this stage we give an indicative number of how
many bidders we will eventually invite to tender
– please discuss with Procurement.
Evaluating the Pre
Once the deadline date of your Contract Notice
This is really
Qualification
has expired, you evaluate the PQQs. PLEASE
dependant on
Questionnaires
NOTE: You don’t have to wait until the deadline
you the
(PQQs)
date to have passed to evaluate the PQQs you
nominated
receive, you can evaluate them as & when you
officer and on
receive them.
how many PQQs
you receive.
You will be given an Objective file to save all
your PQQs into (This will help ease your e-mail
(Minimum 1
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box). An evaluation matrix can be found on the
week (5 working
Procurement Microsite under Advertising.
days).
NB: Please provide a name of an alternative
contact who can answer any queries / questions
in your absence.
Please remember to send a courtesy e-mail to
all the suppliers, who registered an interest &
returned a completed PQQ but were not
successful in being short-listed to be Invited to
Tender).
After the PQQs have
Send to procurement a list of the suppliers you
Procurement
been Evaluated
have shortlisted to be Invited to Tender (ITT)
always aim to
along with any other documents necessary for
issue ITTs within
the issuing of the ITT.
a 48 hour
turnaround. This
Ensure you provide us with full contact details of is providing we
each Supplier being invited to tender (names,
are in receipt of
addresses, e-mail addresses etc.).
all the relevant
If trained in using iBuy you complete your
documents & all
requisition on-line and provide procurement with paperwork is in
objective reference nos. for all other documents. order.
Issuing the
Procurement will issue the ITTs - providing we
A minimum of
Invitations to Tender
are in receipt of all the necessary documents.
15 working
(ITT)
days is usually
NB: Should you the nominated officer receive
recommended
any questions / queries from the bidders, please for bidders to
consult with Procurement first. ALL answers to
return their bids.
queries etc must be put out via procurement &
These time-
NOT the nominated officer. Procurement may
scales can be
have to consult with nominated officer
altered – please
dependant on the nature of the question / query
discuss with
being asked.
procurement.
NB: Please provide the details of an alternative
contact who in your absence can answer any
queries / questions received not of a
procurement nature.
Return of Tender
Procurement will conduct a Tender Board on
The Tender
Submissions (Bids)
the tender return date & forward all bids to the
Submission may
nominated officer.
take a few days
to be delivered
The bids received may not be posted out on the depending on
day the Tender Board is conducted. This may
your location.
be due to circumstances beyond our control. In
the case of Great Glen House, the bids will be
delivered by hand.
Evaluation of Tender
On receipt of the bids, you the nominated
Evaluation of
Submissions
officer, & if appropriate the evaluation panel will
bids –
evaluate all the bids submitted & select your
dependant on
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preferred supplier(s).
the nominated
officer &
An evaluation matrix can be found on the
evaluation panel.
Procurement Microsite, it is located under
Evaluations.
Once the evaluation has been completed & the
preferred supplier(s) selected, complete the
back of the Tender Summary sheet with your
preferred supplier(s) details & return the
summary sheet along with all the originals of the
bids to procurement.
Should you select the Other Than Lowest
Tender (OTLT), you need to provide
procurement with a justification, in the format of
a standard SNH memo. Clearly stating your
reasons why you have opted for the OTLT.
Reasons need to be robust in order to allow
procurement in the absence of the nominated
officer to provide constructive & meaningful
feedback to any unsuccessful contractor who
makes such request.
Standstill Period
Once procurement receive your
10 working days
recommendation. Procurement will e-mail all
(2 weeks). The
bidders stating who SNH intend awarding the
day the e-mail is
contract to. There will then be 10 working days
issued is classed
for the unsuccessful bidders to appeal the
as Day 0 (zero)
decision.
NB: The 10 day standstill period is a standard
requirement when conducting an EU tendering
exercise, to ensure compliance this requirement
is now being applied to sub-threshold contract
opportunities.
Contract Award
As soon as the 10 day standstill period has
Procurement’s
Letter/Purchase
expired & none of the unsuccessful bidders
aim is to issue
Order
have logged an appeal, procurement will go
the award within
ahead & issue the contract award / purchase
48 hrs of the
order.
expiry of the
standstill period
or as soon after.
Contract Start Date &
Please bear in mind the following hints & tips
Forward Planning
when planning to take forward a project:
(Hints & Tips)
Contract Notices (adverts) & Statement of
Requirements (SoRs) should always clearly
state when you would expect works to
commence, this allows interested suppliers & /
or invited suppliers to plan their workloads &
give them as much lead-in time as possible;
Select an alternative contact to answer any
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queries etc. in your absence & provide these
details in both your contract notice & at ITT
stage.
These hints & tips are based on feedback we
received after attending a “Meet the Research
Contractors day” held at BBY in 2008.
If you have any queries please contract:
Procurement Help Desk 01463 725097, or
Public Contracts Scotland Portal Helpdesk: 01463 725086 – 01463 725085
E-mail: [email address] or [email address] respectively.
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