Awarding contracts

All tender opportunities over £75,000 will be advertised on the South East Business Portal and Contracts Finder.

Evaluation of tenders

Once submitted, all tenders are held securely until the closing date. After the closing date tenders will be opened together, in the presence of two officers who are independent of the project.

To preserve the integrity of the competitive process, evaluation of tenders is carried out objectively and in a consistent way. We usually select suppliers on the basis of overall value for money. Price is important, but there are occasions when other criteria will be considered such as quality, reliability, delivery times, technical assistance, after sales service. The evaluation award criteria will be clearly set out in the Invitation to Tender (ITT).

If necessary we will carry out post-tender discussions with tenderers to seek more clarification aspects of the tender, prior to awarding the contract.

Awarding contracts

The council will not normally award contracts to companies, partnerships or other businesses in which any councillor or employee of the council is a director or partner, or holds 20% or more in shares or other interest.

The council will inform all tenderers of the outcome of their tender as soon as possible after the evaluation has been completed, and will discuss terms and conditions with the successful tenderer.

With regard to contract documentation, for contracts valued under £75,000 we will normally issue forms of agreement or correspondence supported by a purchase order.

If the value is more than £75,000 we will normally prepare Conditions of Contract documents. This will cover day works, collusion, corruption, insurance, liquidation damages, performance guarantees, sub-contracting and policy requirements.