Many landlords are now having to spend extra time and money providing detailed feedback to suppliers about unsuccessful tenders.
So how can social landlords minimise the risk of informal challenges? One way is by improving how the tender process is explained. Procurement teams may spend lots of time evaluating suppliers’ bids, but to avoid informal procurement challenges they need to invest equally in explaining clearly their prequalification, selection and tender evaluation processes when preparing prequalification questionnaires and invitations to tender.
Procurement teams must strike a balance between being explicit on award criteria and not actually telling bidders what to write. They must also evaluate the right things at the right stages of the tender process.
Despite the complexity and volume of procurement law coming thick and fast from the European Commission, it’s essential that housing staff keep up to date.
There is no case law on informal challenges, since they haven’t gone to court, but cases such as Mears v Leeds in 2011, where ‘model answers’ were used to score bids but were not disclosed to bidders, show the legal risks around tender evaluation processes.
Andrew Millross is a partner at Anthony Collins Solicitors.
A group of Anthony Collins Solicitors (ACS) experts from across our various client sectors have gazed into their crystal ball and given us a view on how 2021 is looking.
Luton Borough Council was prosecuted by the HSE late last year following an incident at a high school in which an assistant headteacher was attacked by a pupil and left with life-changing injuries.
This ebriefing looks at the proposal to set out 'public procurement principles' in the proposed procurement legislation.
Happy New Year - our first newsletter of 2021! Throughout this year we will continue to bring you news and developments relating to the charities sector.
Local authorities should be wary of reserving contracts for local suppliers, as recommended by Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 11/20. Other contracting authorities may want to maximise their use of this
Most housing practitioners have perhaps been waiting for this news since the latest lockdown was announced by the Prime Minister on 4 January 2021.
Climate change and biodiversity is an area where significantly faster changes are needed on a global and local basis.
Chris Lloyd Smith, Adrian Leonard and Lisa Whitehouse discuss the planning opportunities available to owners of businesses and how to prepare for unforeseen events.
In their 3rd podcast of the series, Chris Lloyd-Smith and Maria Ramon discuss a number of problems with and difficulties that can arise in mediation and the mechanisms they use to overcome them.
Our previous round-up began by sharing the news that two vaccines had shown very promising test results. Here we are, not even a month later, and the first vaccines have already been administered!
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