Contract award criteria

Contracts awarded by the Council will generally be to the supplier who will provide best overall value, whilst meeting the Council's requirements and standards. During the Procurement process the Council aims to be fair and transparent in the awarding of contracts and whilst wishing to encourage local suppliers to compete for contracts the Council cannot discriminate in their favour.

Having received quotations or formal tenders we will evaluate and compare them. For all purchases over £40,000 we will have determined a set of evaluation criteria before requesting the quotations or tenders and these criteria will have been made available to suppliers.

Clearly, price will always be a factor but other aspects will also be taken into consideration. These may include, but are not restricted to the following:

• quality
• delivery date,
• running costs,
• cost-effectiveness,
• aesthetic and functional characteristics,
• technical merit,
• after-sales service
• technical assistance

Following the evaluation and comparison of responses we may award a contract to a selected supplier, but we also reserve the right to terminate the process at any time.

Having selected a supplier we wil notify unsuccessful tenderers who may seek further information as to why their bid was not successful. Click here to get details of how to seek feedback.

In addition, for all contracts which exceed the EU thresholds we will impose the statutory 15 day 'standstill period' which will allow unsuccessful tenderers 10 days (minimum) in which to appeal prior to the award of the contract. Explanation of this can be found at www.simap.europa.eu

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