Contents
- Where we advertise our contracts
- Small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
- Things we consider when selecting a contract:
- Questionnaires
- Contract award
- Contract management and monitoring
- e-procurement (doing business online)
Where we advertise our contracts
We usually select contractors through advertising contracts. We invite businesses to either submit tenders or to express interests in tendering for contracts.
All contracts above the relevant European Union (EU) threshold must be advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), that is:
- £156,442 or more for supplies and services
- £3,927,260 or more for works.
These contracts can be viewed at Tenders Electronic Daily (Ted) Publication
website: http://ted.europa.eu
Our general contracts are advertised at the following websites:
- Nottinghamshire County Council website: www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk
- Source Nottinghamshire at website: www.sourcenottinghamshire.co.uk - for suppliers who wish to view both our low-level and larger contracts.
Our financial regulations state that all contracts estimated to exceed £25,000 must go to tender.
Find out more information about European Union Public Purchasing Directives and how these affect tendering opportunities.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
We aim to encourage Nottinghamshire’s small and medium enterprises to meet our specifications so they are on an equal par with other traders to conduct business with us.
We cannot guarantee any supplier future business or discriminate in favour of Nottinghamshire businesses during any procurement.
However, we would like to break down any barriers that small traders may be experiencing in doing business with us. Find out more about Procurement and community benefits.
Selecting a contract
When selecting a contract, we will often consider the following:
- previous experience and performance (quality assurance, references)
- technical and resource capacity
- ‘whole-life’ costs (not necessarily the cheapest at the time of supply)
- social/community impact (benefits to local people, equality)
- environmental impact (such as fuel efficiency and replacement lifetimes)
- other factors to suit our needs.
When we have a regular need for goods, works and services, they are usually purchased through contracts that are in place for a period of time. This is beneficial to suppliers as it stabilises or increases the volume of business and cash flow. It gives us peace of mind that our traders are credible as they meet our requirements and will provide best value or value for money.
We set specific response times for suppliers to prepare and submit their offers. This is usually a minimum of ten to 52 working days depending on procedure.
We also take into account:
Best value:
- imposes a legal duty on all local authorities to continuously improve the services they provide, having regard to a combination of the economy, efficiency and effectiveness
- having a duty to provide the optimum combination of ‘whole-life’ costs and benefits to meet the customer requirement.
Value for money:
- a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness - having the right goods or services at the right quality, in the right place, at the right time.
- the combination of cost, over the whole life of a project, and quality which best meets an organisation’s requirements.
- considering quality, long-term cost, benefits as well as initial price, for example thinking about cost, environmental and social issues prior to a product’s inception and at the end of its lifeline.
Businesses are expected to complete a pre-qualification or company questionnaire to assess their suitability to undertake business with the County Council.
If you wish to bid for businesses with other councils you will have to complete the appropriate pre-qualification process on each occasion.
The Environment Department utilise the accreditation processes provided by Construction Line.
For further information go to website: www.constructionline.co.uk.
Once a contract has been awarded (contract award), both successful and unsuccessful applicants will be notified. Tender awards will also be published on Source Nottinghamshire and, when appropriate, in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).
Feedback is available on request to help unsuccessful suppliers and contractors improve their prospects of winning future contracts.
Contract management and monitoring:
The County Council will monitor the progress of contracts throughout their lifetime. This ensures that the standard of services provided on our behalf, are being met.
- for works contracts – this will involve regular communication with a contract administrator and submission of activity records.
- for suppliers and services contracts – an officer will be designated to monitor performance of the contractor.
Electronic Procurement (e-Procurement)
An e-procurement team has been set up to assist contracted traders to join the electronic market place and buyers to purchase online.
These experts will establish projects that enable suppliers and purchasers to reduce costs associated with the procurement process and the cost of normal commercial trading, for example, through:
- electronic ordering
- invoicing
- payment
- catalogues
- auctions.
Some of these are partially in place and others are in the process of being set up. Suppliers and contractors may be asked to comply with these.
Find out more about e-procurement.
