To allow public bodies to identify a number of suitably qualified and experienced businesses who will be invited to submit a tender, the standard Selection Questionnaire template should be used to assist in supplier selection. Note: The SQ must only be used for procurement exercises that are being conducted in accordance with EU Procurement Regulations (as interpreted by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015) and therefore meet the threshold for the requirement to follow such procedures thus require advertising in The Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)). The Public Contracts Regulations are a legal requirement and as such the Head of Procurement and/or Central Procurement team must be consulted before any above threshold procurement exercise is carried out.
These questions should not be amended, however questions can be deleted if not required and additional questions added provided that they are relevant to the subject matter of the contract.
Supplier selection is the assessment of supplier's resources and capability as detailed in the SQ Guidance.
Selection should be proportionate to the value of the purchase, its sensitivity, estimated risks, and the complexity of the requirement. For many small value purchases of standard items or simple services, the supplier appraisal may be no more complicated than confirming potential tenderers are experienced in their business, can supply the requirement and have not been convicted of any of the criminal offences listed in regulation 57(1) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (even for contracts which are not covered by the Regulations). Equally, a small value purchase could involve some detailed supplier appraisal work should the item be of strategic importance or involve a frequent servicing commitment.
Ensuring that selection criteria are appropriate to the particular procurement, the supplier selection process prior to issuing an Invitation to Tender (ITT) is a "backward-looking, not forward-looking" process. That is, the criteria for selection should concentrate on the general suitability and capability of the candidate supplier for the project, as opposed to the specific means by which the supplier would implement the contract. The intention of this stage of the procurement process is to identify the suppliers who are most capable of performing the contract. The contracting authority must therefore refrain, at this stage, from asking questions that would be more appropriate for the tender stage of the process.
It is vital that SQ questions make sense to the supplier; that they deal with topics, processes and services that they can readily understand, and that they do not ask for inappropriate information (or the right information in an inappropriate way). The questions asked in the SQ must be consistent with what is allowed under the EU Procurement Regulations. The SQ template provides details of questions which can be asked. If you are unsure about what can and cannot be asked then seek professional procurement or legal advice. Market sounding can help here, by providing useful background on market-specific terms, conventions etc.
Where suppliers propose to form a consortium, the prime bidder should be requested to provide a single set of responses covering all consortium members. Where a public body awards a public contract to a consortium it may, if it is justified for the satisfactory performance of the contract, require the consortium to form a legal entity before entering into, or as a term of, the contract.
The track record of a consortium member should include details on performance and reliability on previous projects - those undertaken on its own account and jointly with consortium partners. This will also encompass records on short-listing and details of any contract breaches.
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