(i) BID SUBMISSIONS

The Terms and Conditions under which RoS wishes bids to be submitted must accompany each set of tender documents. The Terms and Conditions may vary according to the nature of the procurement. A4 sized copies of RoS Terms and Conditions of Purchase must also accompany such documents as this will help reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings at a later date. The Procurement Department is responsible for undertaking all tendering exercises.

(ii) AWARD CRITERIA

The criteria for the award of the contract and the relative weighting given to each of the criterion should be finalised prior to going to tender and shall be provided in sufficient time for tenderers to be aware of them when preparing their tenders, preferably within the contract notice but certainly within the tender documents.

Contracting authorities may derogate from indicating the weighting of the criteria for the award in duly justified cases for which they must be able to give reasons, where the weighting cannot be established in advance, in particular on account of the complexity of the contract. In such cases, they must indicate the descending order of importance of the criteria.

Contracts should be awarded on the basis of objective criteria which ensure compliance with the principles of transparency, non-discrimination and equal treatment and which guarantee that tenders are assessed in conditions of effective competition. As a result, it is appropriate to allow the application of two award criteria only: "the lowest price" and "the most economically advantageous tender". 'Most economically advantageous' contract award criteria embraces price, delivery date, running costs, cost effectiveness, quality, aesthetic and functional characteristics, technical merit, after sales service and technical assistance.

NOTE: Criteria used at PQQ selection stage should not be used again as part of the tender selection process.

It may also include sustainable development, environmental and other characteristics provided these are directly relevant to the subject matter of the contract and are economically advantageous from the point of view of the contracting authority.

If meeting environmental or sustainable development requirements is relevant to the award of contract, care must be taken in how these are either included in the specification or as evaluation criteria. They can be adopted as secondary evaluation criteria only if they are directly relevant to the contract, and only after the relevant economic and qualitative criteria have been met (see SG Procurement Journey for further information).

NOTE: The Use of Presentations as Evaluation Criteria

1.       If a presentation by short-listed bidders is to form part of the evaluation the tender process must be conducted in an open, fair and transparent manner at all times.

The relative weighting to be applied to the presentation can be included in the advert however the weighting and the process must be fully documented in the Tender documentation.

The evaluation criteria used at the presentation stage must be in line with that stated in the ITT.

2.       Where the tender requires the bidder to provide a presentation, the following two stage process should be followed. Please note that although it says “two-stage” this really is conducted within the one tender exercise. Follow the guidance below:

• All short-listed suppliers must be invited to tender;
• Evaluation criteria and weightings must be agreed (NB: there must also be a criteria covering the weighting allocated to the presentation);
• The tender document must inform the bidders that only those attaining an acceptable technical and financial score (i.e. short-listed) will be invited to present.
•  Evaluators must be able to demonstrate that scores have been applied objectively, and in an open and transparent manner. Evaluators should be able to demonstrate that where a supplier fails to reach an acceptable technical and financial score, inviting to present would make no difference to the overall outcome.

Detailed below is an example of the evaluation criteria including a presentation.

Please note that only those bidders attaining an acceptable score will be invited to present. The acceptable score for the technical evaluation is 65.

The Quality/Price ratio to be applied to this requirement is 80:20

Technical Criteria (80%): -

 General understanding of the requirement, demonstrable capacity and availability to meet the Ordered Services outputs (overall weighting 20%);

 Demonstrable experience and expertise of the proposed personnel (including holding interviews where appropriate) to meet the Ordered Services outputs (overall weighting 30%);

 Operational proposals with particular emphasis on quality and performance measurements, and customer satisfaction (overall weighting 30%) and

 Presentation (pitch) (overall weighting 20%) NB: only those attaining an acceptable score will be invited to present.

Financial Criteria (20%): -

Total tender cost ex VAT (i.e. number of days x contracted day rate for all work less any applicable discounts) (overall weighting %).

Based on this example, if we say that 65 is the overall technically acceptable mark for this requirement, bidders achieving 45 or more from the first three criteria, would be invited to present and have this scored accordingly.

Those obtaining a score of below 45 would not be invited to present, as the maximum score they could achieve from the presentation would be 20, which would not be enough to reach the overall technically acceptable score (65), so would have made no difference to the overall outcome.

Once you have completed your full technical & commercial evaluation you would apply the Quality/Price ratio to your technical & commercial scores and add both scores. The tender with the highest score will be the most economically advantageous tender and will be awarded a contract.

(iii) Terms and Conditions of Purchase

RoS standard Terms and Conditions of Purchase (Terms and Conditions of Goods, services, consultancy, goods and services ).

 If the need arises, arrangements can be made to modify certain parts of these to suit a specific requirement. In such circumstances contact the Procurement Department (who may seek advice from Legal Services) for guidance and authorisation.