Menu
Main Purchasing Activities
Procurement Policy & Strategy
Public Procurement Rules
Terms & Conditions of Contract
Contract Strategy & Tender
E-Purchasing
Support for SMEs
Introduction
The aim of this guide is to give suppliers insight into how the Department goes about buying its goods and services. Hopefully it also enables suppliers to identify potential opportunities to sell to the Department.
Main Purchasing Activities
The Department spends upward of 80% on services. Such services are very diverse in nature and cover activities such as management and consultancy services, cleaning, facilities and travel.
A great deal of this is achieved by devolving budgets to line management (including those centres of expertise referred to earlier) whereby they undertake the purchasing cycle on their own behalf.
Procurement Policy and Strategy
DECC currently uses the shared procurement services of the Department for Business and Innovation and Skills, can be seen on the web at www.bis.gov.uk
Public Procurement Rules
The Department in common with other central Government Authorities as well as many other public sector bodies is subject to European Rules or Directives. In fact they are now part of UK law and govern the way in which we are bound to purchase goods, services and works. They are particularly important when the value of the items to be purchased is estimated to cost over EU threshold values (from £90,319 upwards).
The intention behind the Procurement Directives was to provide a single market with the following objectives:
- Ensure the free movement of goods and services throughout the European Union;
- Develop effective competition for public goods services and works;
- Ensure transparency of purchasing procedures and practices; and
- Adopt standardised technical specifications.
As stated earlier the estimated value of goods, services and works, generally dictates whether the requirements to purchase are advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). These threshold values vary from time to time – usually every two years.
The Public Procurement rules also dictate that certain timescales must be adhered to when advertising. Although there are a variety of routes that can be followed, the Department has chosen as a general policy to follow the restricted route. Expressions of interest are called for and a short list for inviting tenders is then drawn up from this. The probable number of companies to be invited to tender will be advertised within the original notice.
Notices are published electronically in Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) as well as appearing in the Business Information Publications magazine “Government Opportunities (GO)".
Terms and Conditions of Contract
The Department has two sets of standard terms and conditions, which it contracts to.
These are designated in the following documents:
Standard Terms and Conditions of Contract for Services - PF31 for Services and PF32 for Supply of Goods.
It is the Department’s policy to contract only using these Terms & Conditions except when a bespoke set is drafted by Departmental lawyers for particular circumstances.
When invited to submit a bid or quote by the Department this invitation will be accompanied by the Departmental set of terms and conditions for the type of contract to be awarded. In addition, a specification and invitation to bid/tender letter will be included. Bidders are expected to accept the Departmental terms. An objection in any way to these or any part of them risks causing a bid to be rejected.
It is important to stick to the deadline given in any tender invitation. Bids which miss the deadline will be rejected.
Contract Strategy and Tenders
The DECC procurement strategy dictates that procurement should be carried out by the business unit best placed to act as the Intelligent Customer. Common areas of specialist requirements such as Information Technology (IT) are dealt with centrally within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills centrally and items such as stationery are purchased through their Framework Arrangements. Other requirements are dealt with directly by units although the intention is to place more requirements on central Frameworks wherever this is practicable.
This mixture of centralised and de-centralised procurement enables the Department to take advantage of economies of scale without the need for a centralised procurement bureaucracy.
The main principle of government procurement is to obtain value for money through competition. The current rules we operate under, described in detail in the Department’s Procurement Manual, are that small value items i.e., less than £500 can be purchased without competition. The Department operates a Procurement Card which is a VISA badged card enabling purchases to be made from VISA compliant firms. Anything estimated to cost between £500 and £10,000 is expected to have seek three or more written quotations prior to a procurement decision being made. For amounts above £10,000 formal tendering normally applies. Where the total estimated cost is over the current European Union (EU) Threshold (currently from £90,319 for central Government, see Procurement Manual Section E.8.4 - Thresholds) Public Procurement rules are followed.
In the case of formal and EU tendering the relevant unit or centre of expertise within the Department will decide which suppliers to invite to submit quotes or tenders.
All units will adhere to a tendering policy that meets the following criteria:
- Avoids over-specifying a requirement;
- Defines specifications wherever possible in terms of output;
- Invites a sufficient number of tenderers to ensure fair competition but allowing those tenderers a fair chance of winning; and,
- Provides all tenderers equal opportunities.
A bid will be successful if it is the one that offers the Department overall best value for money. Part of the specification should contain the broad evaluation criteria used for assessing bids. All bids will be judged against the same criteria. Ensure that bids contain a breakdown of costs. This will enable clarity of your bid.
A contract will be awarded as soon as possible after the assessment process is completed. The assessment process may involve an interview whereby the potential supplier has the opportunity to provide greater details and respond to questions by a panel of officials.
Within limits of commercial confidentiality, DECC will always provide unsuccessful bidders with the reasons as to why a bid failed. This may be face to face or on the phone. Such debriefings should be viewed as a two way process. The comments from the Department should be regarded as constructive. They are aimed at raising the awareness of unsuccessful tenderers, highlighting weaknesses and strengths, to enable them to better compete for future work.
E-Purchasing
The Department carries out electronic trading. It has used the Government Procurement Card for the last 7 years as a first step in this direction. On line purchasing from catalogues is in place. This covers a limited user base within the Department and includes items such as stationery, IT, mobile phones and training.
Support for SMEs