How to Tender or become a Supplier to Pembrokeshire County Council

Low value contract opportunities- £12k to £30,000 (inclusive of VAT)

Contract opportunities valued between £12k and £30,000 are not normally advertised. However, officers from the relevant Service areas are required to obtain a minimum of three written quotations for this level of requirement and may do this by, emailing known potential suppliers or undertaking market research. If you are interested in undertaking business of this value with the Council please email supplierenquiries@pembrokeshire.gov.uk making it clear what products or services you offer. The Procurement team will endeavour to forward your details to the appropriate Service area so that you may be considered to quote for any future requirements. For contract opportunities below £12k, officers are required to demonstrate value for money has been obtained with this involving a more informal market testing approach.

Contract Opportunities between £30,000 and £90,000 (inc VAT)

For requirements between £30k and £90k services areas are required to obtain 3 formal quotes using the Quick Quotes function on the Sell2Wales platform. You must be registered with Sell2Wales to be invited to quote for these opportunities, as well as the Central Digital Platform (CDP) in order that we can obtain your unique Supplier Identification Number.

The Tender Process - £90k and Above

For all opportunities over £90,000 (inc VAT) that are not covered in one of the National Frameworks listed previously, the Authority will normally undertake a formal tender process prior to awarding any contracts. We will do this for one off purchases, service/ supply/ works contracts or when setting up our own Frameworks, Open Frameworks or Dynamic Markets (DM’s). The process for awarding a contract under such arrangements are clearly stated in the initial tender exercise.

All tender opportunities, whether they be setting up our own Framework, DM or awarding a specific contract are undertaken electronically with the Council currently using the Bravo e-tenderwales portal (opens in a new tab).

Frameworks and Open Frameworks

If you have been successful in a tender submission and been appointed to a Framework the level of work that you will be awarded may vary depending on the exact circumstances of that Framework. The exact process for the award of work is clearly stated in each individual Framework opportunity at the point of tender. Our Frameworks normally run for a maximum of four years and will have a deadline date for suppliers to apply with no new suppliers being permitted to join after this deadline. Open Frameworks can run for a maximum of 8 years, but must be re-opened throughout the 8 year term to allow suppliers to be added/removed from the framework. Open Frameworks must have a minimum of 2 suppliers.

Dynamic Markets (DM’s)

A DM works very similarly to a Framework but has a few important differences.

Tenderers may register for inclusion on a DM by self-certifying their credentials. Note - this process may vary for a special regime contract. All suppliers who have been appointed to a DM will normally be invited to participate in further competition exercises in line with any specific requirements save for being procured under a special regime. Further competition submissions will be evaluated with the likely winning supplier being asked to submit all of the supporting evidence to validate their initial self certification submission prior to being formally awarded the contract. Requirements in each DM may differ slightly with each one also clearly specifying how work will be awarded. A DM normally runs for a longer period than a Framework with the details clearly stated in each individual one. A DM will normally have an initial deadline date for suppliers to apply but will then reopen for new suppliers to apply at any time during the term of the DM.

Contracts

Tenders that are advertised will normally follow the Open Procedure or Competitive Flexible Procedure.

An Open Procedure means that any company which has expressed an interest in a tender will automatically be able to access the Invitation to Tender Documents and submit a tender. This information will then be considered together with your tender bid. All tenders will be evaluated in accordance with the criteria stated in each tender and a subsequent contract award made to the winning supplier.

A Competitve Flexible Procedure may include a number of steps such as a Supplier Selections Stage, Presentations, Negotiations/Dialogue etc. The full procedure detailing all stages and pass requirements will be included in the Invitation To Tender documents published along with the Tender Notice (UK4 notice). The Competitive Flexible Procedure will normally be used for more complex or strategic requirements that require further scrutiny of a bid before awarding.

Qualification - Supplier Acceptability

The Council uses the Welsh Government approved Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ) to assess a supplier’s capability at the Qualification stage of the tender process. The PSQ contains a standard range of questions that allows the Council to identify suitably qualified, capable and experienced bidders for the procurement. The PSQ is completed on the Governments Central Digital Platform (CDP) and an access code is requested for each tender exercise to give the Authority access to this information. This removes the requirement for suppliers to answer the same questions for each tender exercise, however it is the suppliers responsibility to ensure this information is kept up to date.

These questions are generic but in some cases conditions of participation questions may be added to the qualification envelope of the tender . These must be proportionate to the value and risk of the procurement. Use of the PSQ is intended to ensure a consistent process is applied for both buyer and supplier across the wider public sector. You will use your PSQ response to indicate whether your organisation can meet the requirements of the procurement exercise.

Examples of some of the areas covered in the PSQ on the Central Digital Platform are listed below:

Basic information about your organisation
Basic Economic and Financial Standing
Connected person information (these are persons with the right to exercise, or who actually exercise, significant influence or control over the supplier, or over whom the supplier has the right to exercise, or actually exercises, significant influence or control over, for example: directors, majority shareholders and parent and subsidiary companies)
Exclusion grounds information (this includes exclusion information about the supplier and its connected persons) Has your Organisation been found guilty of any practices that would cause it to be an excluded/excludable supplier or have been placed onto the debarment list

Examples of some of the areas covered in the PSQ within Conditions of Participation are listed below:

Further Economic and Financial standing – You will be asked to provide general financial information, your DUNS number or audited accounts and relevant insurance details. You must have Public Liability Insurance and Employers’ Liability Insurance, if applicable. Depending upon the nature of the contract you may have to have Product Liability Insurance and / or Professional Indemnity Insurance.
Capacity and Capability – You will be asked to detail your main business activities and examples of relevant experience. You may be asked whether you meet standards such as the Welsh Language Measure.
Management – You will be asked to detail any Quality Management System you operate, Environmental Standards you meet and how you review your performance
Sustainability – You may be asked questions regarding your organisation’s commitment to environmental matters.
Health and Safety – Your Health and Safety arrangements, including your Health and Safety Policy if you have more than five employees, with additional questions if your project falls under the CDM regulations.

Technical – Quality

This section includes questions that are specific to the procurement being undertaken and are almost always scored. Detailed information on the scores available will be included within the tender documentation together with any relevant pass thresholds. This is an important opportunity for you as a bidder to ensure that you provide clear and detailed information which addresses all of the points detailed in the questions. The minimum pass threshold may be an overall pass threshold for the quality score or a minimum pass threshold applied to each individual question. It is important for bidders to note that where there is a minimum pass threshold stated for each question, any failure to meet that threshold for one question will result in the whole of your tender bid being rejected, irrespective of your score for the remaining questions. Please read the instructions and questions for each tender carefully and address all elements requested. Some questions have limited word counts or page counts should tenderers exceed the limit then the remaining information will not be evaluated and this could impact your tender score. Your total score in this section will form part of the tender evaluation with full details included in the tender documentation. Please do not make any assumptions as to evaluators knowledge of your organisation – evaluators can only score what is submitted on paper or, as part of any other evaluation mechanism included within a competitive flexible procedure.

Commercial - Price

The third and final element of the tender process is the price submitted. Please ensure you have clearly understood our requirement and that the price you submit is sustainable for your business. Your total score in this section will form part of the tender evaluation with full details included in the tender documentation. Please take care in this section also as a non-compliant or an unsustainable price may also result in your bid being rejected.

Tender Documentation

The Bravo e-tendering portal will typically consist of the following documents but there may be others depending on the type of procurement being undertaken:

ITT (Instructions to Tenderers)
Specification of our Requirements
Pricing Schedule
General Terms and Conditions and Contract Documents
Drawings (if applicable) contract terms and conditions

Tender documents can contain various attachments and appendices and contain a lot of detail. This is not intended to discourage you from tendering for business but is to ensure that you are equipped with all appropriate information to be able to submit a compliant bid. If you have any queries regarding the documents do not be afraid to ask for help or guidance by submitting a question through the messaging facility in the tender portal. We would encourage all bidders to ask a question rather than assume the incorrect interpretation.

Tender Deadline

You will be asked to complete and return your tender submission electronically by a given time and date. All tender submissions are opened by the Council at the same time, very soon after the tender deadline date has elapsed. If you fail to submit your tender by the specified deadline your tender will be excluded from the evaluation process. Please allow sufficient time to complete your bid. Do not leave your bid submission to the last minute.

Business Wales Support

Business Wales offers tenderers support in the tender process. Their contact details can be found later in this guide.

Tender Evaluation

Tenders are normally evaluated by a panel comprising of officers from the relevant Service area(s) and facilitated by at least one officer from Procurement to ensure a fair and transparent process. Contracts are normally awarded on the basis of the Most Advantageous Tender (MAT) which is assessed on a combination of quality and price, both of which are weighted to best suit the particular requirement. i.e. a tender may have a 60% quality preference and a 40% price preference. This is always specified within the Invitation to Tender documentation along with the quality criteria, which are weighted in order of importance. Any minimum pass thresholds are also clearly stated.

Contract Award

Both the successful and unsuccessful tenderers will be notified in writing of the award decision. For above threshold procurements, the Procurement Act 2023 will apply with the initial award notification being subject to a minimum standstill period of 8 working days. If your bid is unsuccessful the notification will include the award criteria, your score and the score of the winning tenderer together with the assessment summaries which include rational for the score given.

How to Tender Guide