Technical and quality evaluation is one of the most important stages of the Procurement Journey. This stage of the Journey ensures that:
Tender evaluation happens once the deadline for tender submissions has passed. The time taken to evaluate the returned submissions will vary from project to project depending on the complexity and the number of responses received. However, the Procurement Officer should endeavour to provide approximate timescales for this stage as part of the Invitation to Tender (ITT) document.
An evaluation panel of at least two people should be established and consist of individuals with demonstrable technical ability to evaluate tenders, this may or may not include the Procurement Officer. Ideally the panel membership will be consistent throughout the entire process from pre-qualification to presentations and site visits. The evaluation panel should be able to withstand any scrutiny and no member should be associated in any way with any of the tendering suppliers without prior declaration of interest.
The panel members should read and score the quality/technical aspects of the tenders independently using pre-defined evaluation criteria and scoring system prior to a moderation meeting taking place. At the moderation meeting the evaluators come together to agree the final scores. The process to agree the final scores must be fully transparent and documented. The Procurement Officer should evaluate the commercial aspects of the tenders separately, including the price evaluation. As a matter of good practice, no member of the evaluation panel should assess both the quality/technical elements and the commercial elements of the tender. The evaluation criteria and scoring methodology should have been determined as part of the Develop Documents stage and published to tenderers in the Invitation to Tender (ITT) or OJEU advert.
The role of the Procurement Officer in the evaluation panel is to ensure an impartial and objective approach is taken to the evaluation of tenders. Some suggested 'Do's and Dont’s are listed below:
Do's and Dont's of Tender Evaluation
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Do |
Don't |
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Make note of areas that are unclear for clarification with the bidder |
'Read between the lines' or make assumptions |
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Read the submission at face value and score on the basis of the information provided |
Collude with other panel members to agree scoring collectively |
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Score tenders independently and discuss any irregularities at a Tender Evaluation Meeting |
Make changes to the evaluation criteria during the process - the criteria MUST be the same as that published in the ITT |
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Ensure full justification for scoring is provided for each question to assist with debriefing |
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The tender evaluation stage may be accompanied by Presentations/Site Visits
Unsuccessful bids
You should ensure that the evaluation panel provide justification for their scoring to help when preparing standstill letters and debriefing suppliers. A full justification of scoring is especially important where a bid has failed to meet the 'acceptable' expectation set out in the evaluation criteria. A record should be kept to ensure fairness and transparency of the process.
If an electronic tendering system is being utilised, the justification for scores should be recorded on the system.
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