PfS issues guidance
on two bidder procurements
Following calls to review the procurement process when there are only two bidders
involved as there will not be a de-selection of a bidder following IPD1, PfS has
this month issued guidance on how local authorities should conduct their procurement
in such circumstances. The guidance seeks to shorten the procurement period and
provide greater efficiency and savings.
The guidance seeks to simplify the procurement process and overall the recommendations
seek to achieve a reduction from the standard 75 weeks to 61 weeks where there are
two bidders rather than the assumed three.
The recommendations that the guidance makes are to:
 |
dispense with Initial Bid Requirements and use some less
detailed Final Bid Requirements instead; |
|
|
not formally evaluate the interim submissions (IPD1) and simply provide informal
feedback; |
|
|
list fewer deliverables at the interim submission stage, (eg) legal and financial
can be developed through the IPD2 stage and submitted in a staged manner; |
|
|
shorten the interim submission timetable in order that there is sufficient time
for corrective action following the CABE review. |
PfS are of the view that the above amendments should reduce the timescale as follow
to 61 weeks:
|
|
IPD1 being reduced to only 10 weeks; |
|
|
reducing the 7 week IPD1 evaluation period to 1-2 weeks; |
|
|
reducing the evaluation of final bids from 8 weeks to 6 weeks. |
This guidance will be welcome news to all involved in two bidder competitions as
not only will it speed up the programme, but will inevitably lead to a reduction
in bid costs for bidders, which has increasingly been seen as a bar to entry into
the market and has even led to some market participants leaving the sector. It means
that the local authority will need
to streamline their own processes, especially
around evaluation periods and the decision making processes, to ensure that they
can cope with the reduced timescale. As the guidance applies only to situations
where there are two bidders from the start, and it therefore has only limited application,
it confirms the intention of PfS to further reduce timescales to make the procurements
more efficient.
|
For More Information Contact:
Tarmina Dent
TPP Law Limited
53 Great Suffolk Street
London SE1 ODB
t 020 7620 0888
f 020 7620 0778
e info@tpplaw.co.uk
Email: Tarmina
For a full printable version
of this
article please
click here
|