EU Procurement Directives

We have a legal requirement to comply with the EU Procurement Directives, which govern the way public sector procurement is conducted for contracts over certain specified thresholds. The directives and regulations require us to follow detailed procedures for all procurements above these financial thresholds.

Current EU procurement thresholds can be found on the following website: http://www.ojec.com/thresholds.aspx

Under the EU Procurement Directives, Gloucestershire College can conduct its procurement using one of four processes:

Open – any organisation can express an interest and request tender documents.

Restricted – a two-stage process. Organisations expressing an interest undergo an initial pre-qualification assessment. Only the most suitable applicants are invited to tender. This is by far the most common process.

Negotiated – organisations expressing an interest undergo an initial pre-qualification assessment. The College, under limited circumstances, will then negotiate with one or two suitable contractors.

Competitive Dialogue – if the tender is very complex or an overall pricing structure cannot be created, it may be necessary to discuss the tender bid with suppliers. All such discussions are conducted on the basis of transparency and fairness to all parties to ensure an unbiased tender response.

Where procurements come within the scope of EU Procurement Directives, we must follow these basic requirements:

• Publish a Prior Information Notice (PIN)¹;
• Decide which of the processes needs to be used;
• Publish a Tender Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) to give all EU suppliers an equal opportunity to tender;
• Invite tenders according to the procedure being used (open, restricted, negotiated etc.), taking account of the minimum timescales imposed, to ensure that reasonable time is given to respond to adverts and prepare submissions;
• Select a suitable contractor using the criteria published in the Tender Notice;
• Place a Contract Award Notice in OJEU.

¹ Advises potential contractors of any forthcoming contracts so that they have the opportunity to prepare resources and tenders.