Procurement cycle guide
9. Award and implementation
Once you have chosen your successful supplier based on your evaluation and are happy that you have obtained - and can demonstrate - value for money you can proceed to award and implement the contract.
For all procurements £30,000 (Inc VAT) and above lead by the procurement team, you will be required to complete an ‘authority to let’ form and/or ODR with the relevant details including the scheme of local and financial delegation. Your procurement officer will and update publish the relevant transparency notices on your behalf and will update Atamis (contract register) before handing over to yourself for contract management purposes and amending the owner name on Atamis.
Less than £10,000
Following your evaluation, remember to obtain and record all quotes for audit / FOI purposes.
- Raise your requisition
- If it is a new supplier to the Council, you will need to Complete a Procurement supplier request form
- If the value is above £5k, the details of the contract have to be placed on the councils contracts register in line with the governments transparency agenda, so you will need to complete a contract register requirements form (MS Excel, 45KB) and send it to procurement@cheshireeast.gov.uk
£10,001 - £30,000 (Inc Vat): Request for Quotation (RFQ)
For all requirements above £10,001 you must have first completed a Procurement Engagement Form so that it can be risk assessed and determined whether you will require a signed contract or whether back of order terms will suffice.
You will received feedback following the weekly PEF triage meeting explaining what you need to do next.
Once you have obtained quotations and evaluated your submissions in line with your stipulated criteria and you can evidence best value for money, you can proceed.
Your relevant budget approver/head of service should complete and sign the Authority to let form (MS Word, 132KB) (ATL) where a signed contract is required. If its deemed low risk and back of order terms and conditions apply, then you don’t require an authority to let form.
Once signed, this is your authority to proceed with the award of the contract.
If a bespoke contract was drawn up by the legal team for this procurement, a copy of this form will also need to be forwarded to the relevant legal contact.
Complete award / rejection letters
Complete award / rejection letters and publish on The Chest. These all need to be sent out on the same day via the chest.
Unsuccessful tenderers are likely to request feedback. For advice on the relevant template / format, contact procurement@cheshireeast.gov.uk.
Signing and return of the contract
The contract will need signing and returning by the supplier(s). For advice on this process, contact procurement@cheshireeast.gov.uk.
Get the new supplier added to the system
If it is a new supplier to the Council, you will need to complete the supplier request form.
Suppliers should be available to use within 4 days of receiving a request. If not, you should contact procurement@cheshireeast.gov.uk.
Contract requirements form
Complete the contract register requirements form (MS Excel, 45KB) and send to procurement@cheshireeast.gov.uk so that your above £5K contract can be added to the contracts register.
There should be no works / services provided until there is a signed contract in place.
£30,000 (Inc Vat) - relevant Public Contract Regulation threshold
Procurement will lead on all procurements over £30,001 (Inc VAT).
Above relevant threshold
For all procurements above the relevant Public Contract threshold, the procurement officer allocated to you after receiving your procurement engagement form will lead you through the award process.
Parts of the award process are similar to contracts £30,000 (Inc VAT) and above Request for Quotation (RFQ) but there are additional mandatory requirements.
Additional mandatory requirements for above the threshold examples only
- For above threshold procurements, there is a mandatory 8 working day 'standstill' period from the intention to award and rejection letters being published to being able to confirm the award of contract to the successful provider. A Contract Award Notice (Standstill) notice must be published.
- The provision of feedback is mandatory for all tenders over this threshold.
- Following the confirmation of award a contract details notice (confirming the winning bidder and costs) will need to be published on 'Find a tender'.
There should be no works / services commissioned/delivered until there is a signed contract in place.