Procurement & Tendering

Question 1

1. What is procurement, and name some examples

Answer 1

a. Overall act of obtaining goods and services. In construction this Traditional, D&B, MC, CM

Question 2

2. What is tendering, and name some examples?

Answer 2

a. The obtaining and selection of prices and providers for the services. In construction this is Open, Single, Two-Stage, Negotiated, Framework

Question 3

3. Can you advise of the advantages and disadvantages of a traditional procurement route?

Answer 3

a. The client is responsible for producing the pricing document, and therefore the quantities in the contract
b. There is no overlap between design, tender and construction
c. Certainty of time is gained at tender stage (can plan ahead)
d. Full competition of tenderers, with full design
e. Control of quality of design, so certainty
f. Don’t get early buildability from contractor
g. Little risk as you get certainty of cost, time and quality

Question 4

4. When might it be appropriate?

Answer 4

a. When client wants certainty of cost, competitiveness, certainty of time but isn’t concerned with a longer tender process, and wants certainty of quality

Question 5

5. What is two stage tendering?

Answer 5

a. When a competitive tender is sought between contractors where they submit their OH&P, prelims CV’s method statements etc based on little design. Then a tenderer is selected to progress to stage 2 which he then submits his full priced tender with 3 quotes on packages, and costs are negotiated. The contractor is paid a pre construction services agreement fee to start building design.
b. Not as competitive as contractor can select the subbie quotes, and as he has the contract In a way and fees may have been paid, it is difficult or costly to get out of, so contractor can increase prices. Although quality of construction and buildability is good due to early engagement, the client could lose control of some of that design

Question 6

6. Can you tell me the difference between Construction management and management Contracting?

Answer 6

a. MC – where a Management Contractor has contracts with subbies and work packages are let. This is usually tendered on minimal design and packages are let as the design progresses based on which work is needing built first.
b. CM – where Construction Manager is appointed by client (expert) to manage subcontracts, the client is signed into these subcontracts directly. A very fast procurement route where the design and tender happens consecutively

Question 7

7. Advantage and disadvantage of Management Contracting?

Answer 7

a. Good when client doesn’t care about cost certainty, but needs an early start on site. Very short programme. Price not known until the last package. Changes to design later on can be expensive.

Question 8

8. Advantage and disadvantage of Construction management?

Answer 8

a. Large complex projects where early start is key. Design tender construction all happens simultaneously. Lots of admin, don’t get cost certainty.

Question 9

9. What is a framework?

Answer 9

a. An agreement between a buyer and suppliers, where the buyer has a long standing arrangement of works over time in the future, where the works are of a similar nature, allowing individual contracts to be let off of these framework agreements.

Question 10

10. What practice notes are you aware of relating to tendering?

Answer 10

a. I am aware of the guidance note - tendering strategies 2015

Question 11

11. What would you do if a tender was returned 1 minute after the deadline?

Answer 11

a. I would not open the tender, as this would give an unfair advantage to this tenderer, as the other tenderers where not aware of this extra time. 1 minute is still past the deadline, and the other tenderers may have submitted much earlier. Fraud, collusion. If private client it is at their discretion to open them. If public, you cannot open them.

Question 12

12. What if the client insisted you open the tenders?

Answer 12

a. I would advise the client that he is free to open them, but would advise this is not what I am going to do, and produce my report based on this tender not being bona fide.

Question 13

13. How has Brexit affected tendering? What legislation is there for tendering?

Answer 13

a. In October 2024, new procurement act comes into force
b. Deliver VFM / public benefit / transparency / integrity
c. New digital platform

Question 14

Who does the Procurement Act apply to?

Answer 14

Public bodies, such as NHS trusts, schools and government bodies.

Question 15

14. What is the least risky procurement route?

Answer 15

a. It would depend on the construction project, client, and design requirements, but generally speaking traditional is seen as less risky, as you get cost certainty up front with pricing the stage 4 design, and the contractor wont price risk in due to this. There is programme certainty as the design is completed and all accounted for in the contractors programme, so should be minimal Prov Sums etc. There is quality certainty as the client retains this control, and has say over the design.

Question 16

15. What is OJEU?

Answer 16

a. The Official Journal of the European Union, I am aware there are thresholds for advertising.

Question 17

16. Why would traditional and D&B have different tendering timescales?

Answer 17

a. D&B may be longer due to the required design

Question 18

17. Why might D&B have different number of tenderers than traditional?

Answer 18

a. It may have less to give contractors chance they will win the work.

Question 19

18. How do you ensure that the costs returned under a negotiated tender are fair and reasonable?

Answer 19

a. On Havant I requested 3 different quotes from the subcontractor packages such as joinery, M&E, and finishes. I would also compare these rates to recent tendered rates, and in house cost data, more so if I have the data from the same contractor.

Question 20

19. As opposed to the prelims, what other documents did you have to produce for the tender documents on Innovation Centre?

Answer 20

a. I had to produce the contract sum analysis as the main pricing document for the contractor to fill in to form part of the contract. Also created a VE register draft with early VE ideas from the design team. I created a schedule of all contract documentation, which acted as a table of contents. I produced a tender clarification log to include in the pack for tenderers to fill in their clarifications and queries.

Question 21

20. How were the contractors selected prior to sending out the EOI?

Answer 21

a. A shortlist was created by myself and the client based on past experience, trust, the type of project, and location. A shortlist of 7 contractors was created to send the EOI to.

Question 22

21. How could you ensure that the contractors are in a suitable financial position to undertake the work?

Answer 22

a. I would advise the client to carry out a Dunn and Bradstreet financial check on the contractors. I would also ask for the companies annual turnover and any company profit and balance sheets.

Question 23

22. Can you elaborate on the framework pricing agreement and how these rates were agreed?

Answer 23

a. The rates were agreed as part of a framework tender around 2 years ago, these form part of the framework and current design iteration that projects are based upon. Costs on a project level were then returned and analysed based upon the previous framework costs where they were uplifted for inflation, design change and project specific design elements.

Question 24

23. What do you understand by the term value for money and how did you advise the client that it had been achieved on the data centre equipment project?

Answer 24

a. This depends project to project and what the client wants, to me VFM is achieving or exceeding the clients requirements at a reasonable price.

Question 25

24. Should the costs not have been the same as the tendered rates? Is this not the point of a framework that costs are agreed in advance?

Answer 25

a. The framework agreement was tendered as a schedule of rates on an example project design, but the costs were not fixed for suppliers at the time, the agreement was contract only to aid in project allocation across the region. individual project costs were then agreed.

Question 26

25. Under what procurement route was the off site junction work tendered and why?

Answer 26

a. It was a Design and Build Procurement route, as the works involved significant ground risk, as well as traffic management risks. The design and quality was not necessarily a priority for the client, but it had to meet the minimum requirements set out by the adopting authority, therefore I advised the client due to this, it would be better for the contractor to handle this risk

Question 27

26. You mention that you re tendered competitively - what saving was seen from tenderer 1?

Answer 27

a. The original tender was 9 million, the PTE and other 2 tenderers ranged from 5.8-6.5 million. The revised tender from tenderer 1 was c1 million.

Question 28

27. When preparing a tender report, what information would be included?

Answer 28

a. Project overview, figures of the tenders, a matrix of what was requested in the Form of Tender and what was submitted, were any non compliant, a comparison of rates, elements etc, contractors submitted programmes,

Question 29

28. Have you ever conducted a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire? Why is this important to do in the procurement process?

Answer 29

a. On the Innovation Centre Keele I drafted a PQQ which was issued to a longer list of contractors, as this scheme was high value, was important to the client, and the programme allowed for this exercise.
b. This helps whittle down the longer list of contractors to a shortlist, highlighting key strengths of the contractors, and if they are suitable for this project, based off prior similar experience, proposed project team/CV’s, experience with the client, and other key client drivers.

Question 30

29. On Havant, you noticed the issue when drafting the prelims for the contract, did you miss these during the tender documents?

Answer 30

a. I was using the clients preferred preliminaries template for this contract, which didn’t include any facility for contractors welfare location, therefore I advised the client this should be included in the standard template.
b. This happened mid tender, as drafting the contract occurred consecutively.

Question 31

30. On the Data Centre Equipment procurement project, what was the outcome of your advice?

Answer 31

a. My advice on the tender award recommendation letter, was selection of a vendor based on the qualitative and quantitative assessment. There was a tenderer who achieved the better score in both matrices. I then informed the unsuccessful tenderers of the outcome and that they were unsuccessful.

Question 32

31. Can you advise how you analysed the tenders and how you ensured they were analysed fairly?

Answer 32

a. I first carried out a clarification, query and normalisation process to level the tenders, so all have included/excluded the same items, and made the same assumptions regarding the design. This ensures they are all pricing with the same assumptions and knowledge. Any additional info or Q&A’s out of this were shared between tenderers.

Question 33

32. Did you distribute the queries to all contractors or just the contractor that has asked the question?

Answer 33

a. I distributed the queries and more importantly the answers to all contractors, ensuring that any reference to the contractor was removed.

Question 34

33. Why did you advise on introducing new tenderers and to carry out a competitive tender? What could this bring to the tender process?

Answer 34

a. I advised this to provide commercial assurance on the project, as I was aware the single tenderer was already on the wider scheme, the contractor would see this as an opportunity to add cost as there is no competition they think the project is already theirs to have.
b. Adding in competition would make the rates tendered more competitive as contractors are then competing to win the project, it also adds diversity in that different contractors price things in a different way, offer solutions, and will possibly use a different supply chain.

Question 35

34. Since there was already a Contractor on site for other projects on the development, how would you normalise their tender price vs the other tenderers.

Answer 35

a. The S278 works were separate from the main scheme, and even if the main contractor had the project, they requested the need and priced for additional welfare facilities, so there was nothing that the main contractor had included that the others hadn’t, part of the clarification process picked anything like this up.
b. I normalised it like any other, and included this in my tender report to the client.
c. During the process I sat down at the start of the clarification process, midway through and at the end with my report, updating the client on progress, running through key clarifications and methods of work.

Question 36

35. If a contractor appears to be in financial difficulty, how do you advise your client?

Answer 36

a. Look at company accounts, previous work complete, ensure he can provide a bond

Question 37

You’ve mentioned single stage and two stage, what are the advantages of using a two stage tender?

Answer 37

Early contractor engagement buildability, dont need to complete design to start construction, early start on site.

Question 38

What would you typically tender in the first stage?

Answer 38

Design info to RIBA stage 2, along with key project details, prelims, scope of services and payment conditions

Question 39

What would be returned in the first stage of a two stage tender?

Answer 39

Price for preliminaries and OH&P, as well as CV’s, method statements, proposed programme, fees for the PCSA, and potentially a cost for early construction works.

Question 40

On the scoring matrix which you have mentioned, which items did you score for the qualitative assessment?

Answer 40

I scored the experience delivering similar packages, experience in the region, submitted programmes. I ran through this with the client in case they had additional information.

Question 41

On Tyseley Energy Park, how did you go about tendering?

Answer 41

Firstly i advised my client that due to the fact we had time, issuing an EOI to a longlist of 7 tenderers would ensure that those willing can tender for the project. 5 tenderers were then interested. I then advised the client that 5 tenderers may be too many to tender to, and it would be wise to shorten the list by using a PQQ. this was implemented which shortened the list down to 3 contracts.

Question 42

What was the pricing doc on Data Centre Equipment?

Answer 42

It was a bespoke schedule of rates essentially, used to rely on the rates for various bits of equipment.

Question 43

Why was it important to identify the welfare storage on Havant? And what were the risks had you not found this?

Answer 43

So the contractor could include any due allowances in his price and programme in case of distances from the site, as well as organising deliveries.
The risk would be the contractor would not have been aligned with what the landlord and client required, so may have resulted in disputes on locations, and having to move it around.

Question 44

On the Rugby offsite Junction Infrastructure works, why did you advise your client to use competitive tendering? What did you consider?

Answer 44

As the clients main drivers were cost in this instance, competitive tendering achieves VFM. Although it does generally take longer due to multiple tender analyses, it results in cost certainty.

Question 45

On Rugby, Did you advise your client of the risks of competitive tendering and focusing solely on price? How was the tender to be assessed? Was the tender to be assessed on a lowest price basis?

Answer 45

I advised the client that the main risk was time, as well as potentially damaging existing relationships with the current contractor on the other site, as well as the other tenderers if they were not selected within good reason. I also advised that the tenderers would submit programmes and method statements for review and these would be scored in a matrix on separate basis.

Question 46

On the DC Equipment Procurement what did you advise your client regarding the qualitative assessment of the tenders?

Answer 46

I produced a report, and scoring matrix and scored the suppliers based off Programme, past experience, experience working within the region, and experience delivering this type of equipment, as it was first of kind. This was done by giving those matrices a weighting and score out of 5. As these parameters were important to the client.

Question 47

What would be included in tender documents?

Answer 47

ER’s, CSA, CPI, planning info, statutory works, Form of Tender

Question 48

Why would a contractor want a 2-stage tender?

Answer 48

As there is more chance for bidding for a project, and more chance to win with smaller effort to put in at the start.

Question 49

Where is risk held in the 4 main procurement types?

Answer 49

Does depend in case there are project specifics but, generally.
Traditional - Client slightly in case of change, but otherwise cost time and quality are all known at design/tender stage
D&B - Contractor/Client - as cost/time are known at tender stage, but quality is dependant on contractor, and he can charge a premium
MC/CM are similar, there is risk of cost, time and quality certainty not being known until late on until final package is priced/complete. very risky for the client therefore

Question 50

How do you compile a list of tenderers for a scheme?

Answer 50

EOI and/or PQQ

Question 51

What do you do with an arithmetical error in tender return?

Answer 51

2 options, either ask them to correct the error, or ask them to stand by their price.