Public Procurement Good Practice Guide

This guide has been developed to help anyone involved in Public Procurement to navigate their way through the process.  It will:

• Help public bodies ensure, when embarking on a procurement process, they end up with the best supplier to meet their needs;
• Ensure value for money is not only achieved, but is clearly demonstrable;
• Help those organisations bidding for public contracts to understand the process that is being followed; why it is managed in this way; and why on occasions the buyer has limited opportunities to change their process or approach.

Procurement will continue to play an essential role in helping the public sector to achieve the levels of efficiency savings that will be necessary to respond to the economic challenges ahead.  However, the reality of this ever more challenging environment is that procurement processes and arrangements will have to become more efficient and less burdensome on the public sector itself, as well as the private sector suppliers who will bid for contracts.

The 'one size fits all' approach, increasingly deployed by many public sector organisations, will become unsustainable.  Public bodies will need to ensure that the information they request from, and requirements they place on, bidders is proportionate to the nature of the contract they are letting and the associated risks.

With bid costs increasing, partly as a result of the greater use of Competitive Dialogue, unsuccessful bidders are increasingly scrutinising the process, to ensure that it has been managed fairly and in line with European Regulations.  We are increasingly seeing procurement decisions being successfully challenged in the Courts or compensation being agreed with unsuccessful bidders before it gets to Court.  It is not unusual in relation to PFI procurement for unsuccessful bidders to be faced with bid cost 'write offs' of £5m to £10m.  As a result, if there is a chance to mitigate these losses through the Courts, this may be an increasingly attractive option!

This guide provides all of the information that will be required to understand the legal requirements on public bodies; and to ensure that the process is managed efficiently and professionally.