Northern Ireland Public Sector Procurement

Public Procurement Policy in NI Organisations responsible for procurement e-Procurement Supplies & Services Construction -Modernising Procurement -Procurement and Contract Strategies -Procurement process -Constructionline and Buildsafe-NI Guidance for small and medium size firms

Who Are We? CPD is a Directorate within the Department of Finance & Personnel Leads on the development of NI public procurement policy Provides quality advice and professional procurement services to Government Departments

NI PUBLIC PROCUREMENT POLICY In 2001 a Review of Public Procurement was undertaken in NI A key recommendation of this Review was the need to re-think existing policy In May 2002 the NI Executive agreed to a revised Public Procurement Policy for all Northern Ireland Departments, their Agencies, Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) and Public Corporations The revised policy included a number of significant changes:-

NI PUBLIC PROCUREMENT POLICY -Establishment of a Procurement Board, to lead on procurement policy for the Northern Ireland Public Sector -Central Procurement Directorate and a network of Centres of Procurement Expertise (CoPEs) through which all public sector procurement should be channelled -Clear definition of public procurement and the concept of “Best Value for Money - the optimum combination of whole life cost & quality to meet the customer’s requirements” -Scope to include social, economic and environmental policy objectives within the procurement process.

NI PUBLIC PROCUREMENT POLICY -Compliance with Public Contract Regulations ( EU) -Establishment of twelve guiding principles by which the administration of public procurement should be governed. Accountability Consistency Efficiency Integration Legality Informed Decision Making Competitive Supply Effectiveness Fair dealing Integrity Responsiveness Transparency

ORGANISATIONS RESPONSIBLE FOR PROCUREMENT Departments, their Agencies, NDPBs and public corporations carry out procurement by means of SLA with CPD or a relevant CoPE This means that all public sector construction, supplies and services procurement opportunities are available from the following organisations:

Construction - office accommodation - college/teaching facilities - workshops, laboratories - amenity facilities - regeneration schemes etc Supplies and Services - transportation, vehicles and services - ICT (systems, hardware & software) - energy (elect, oil, gas & renewables) - consultancy services - food/catering - facilities management

Health Estates -hospitals -primary and community care centres -local health centres -fire and ambulance facilities Water Service -construction relating to water supply, treatment and distribution -construction relating to the collection, treatment and disposal of wastewater

Roads Service -new road developments -road improvement schemes -street lighting -gully emptying and grass cutting -winter snow clearance -public car parks Housing Executive -maintenance of social housing stock -housing refurbishment schemes

Translink - Translink is responsible for the maintenance, development and enhancement of the public transport network, both bus and rail, in Northern Ireland Procurement and Logistics Service (PaLS) -Products & Services -Medical Supplies -Hospital Furniture -Care Appliances services/1878.htm

major school capital works minor school capital works maintenance of schools libraries - youth facilities In addition to the five ELBs in the Controlled Sector the Department of Education also provides Grant-aid to Voluntary Maintained, Voluntary Grammar, Irish Medium and Grant Maintained Integrated sectors EDUCATION & LIBRARY BOARDS

Web sites Local press some opportunities are also placed in local press Official Journal of European Union (OJEU) see for details procurements estimated to exceed the EU directive thresholds: –£101k – (€ 116k) – supplies & services –£3.9m – (€ 4.5m) – works -useful source of information on contracts awarded ACCESS TO PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITIES

E-sourcing service –Bravosolution Introduced by CPD May 2008 Rolled out to other CoPEs 2010 Common entry point to access NI Public Sector tendering opportunities e-Procurement

Reduction in overhead costs – printing,copying paper, postage,carriage,stationery and storage Environmental and sustainability benefits Reduction of EU timescales up to 12 days Costs – Free to contractors and consultants NI Public Sector pay for e-Procurement Service e-Procurement Benefits

Supplies Most economically advantageous tender that meets specification (Consumables) Whole life costing model (high value items – vehicles) Services Most economically advantageous tender (Quality/Cost) Quality – Methodology, QA control systems, etc How will a tender be evaluated?

Construction

There are three recommended procurement routes: PFI - services purchased on long-term basis including maintaining or constructing the necessary infrastructure Design and Build - single contractor as the sole point of responsibility for the design, management and delivery of a project Prime Contracting - single contractor as the sole point of responsibility for the design, management and delivery of a project demonstrating that operating costs are within estimate PROCUREMENT AND CONTRACT STRATEGIES

COMPETITIVE AND SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAINS Public Sector needs to maintain a supplier base that is: motivated incentivised seeks to improve the service it delivers. To achieve this the public sector must: recognise the need for the supply chain to make a fair and reasonable profit suppliers will need to demonstrate that they have the ability to deliver the required resources either in-house or through good supply chain management

SELECTION OF SUPPLIERS ON BEST VALUE Public sector has moved away from the use of lowest price to award contracts. The key to the assessment of best value is to: Provide sufficient design detail to allow Design & Build team to submit a target cost, but leave enough scope for innovation focus on a supplier's commitment to partnering in order to manage risk and remove wastage and unnecessary cost fair allocation of risks to those best placed to manage them D&B team will be paid actual construction cost plus agreed overhead and profit with pain gain sharing

high quality design - sustainable and safe solutions that deliver best whole-life value D&B team will be appointed under the NEC3 form of contract which has been adopted by all Centres of Procurement Expertise in NI as the standard form of contract across the NI Public Sector

ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE NI Sustainability in Construction -Environmental -NI Sustainability Action Plan identifies ten key action themes to encourage development of sustainable construction -AE guide 11 sets out the processes by which departments can procure and deliver construction projects that best promote sustainability -Sustainable Construction Group NI additional guidance sets min 10% target for recycle/reuse content and introduces requirement for Site Waste Management Plans on projects >£200k etc

Sustainability in Construction – Social Clauses Contracts to include a requirement that the Contractor either directly, or through the supply chain provides, for each £250K of contract labour value, 13 person weeks of work experience, or employment opportunities for the unemployed, through the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) Steps to Work, or equivalent. ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE NI

Sustainability in Construction – Social Clauses Contracts to include requirement that 5% of the contractor’s workforce and the workforce of its 1 st tier subcontractors (with 20 or more employees) to be employed on formally recognised paid apprentichips A paid apprenticeship is one that is recognised within the DEL Apprenticeships NI programme in construction or a similar scheme for construction trade apprenticeships. ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE NI

Sustainability in Construction – Social Clauses Contracts to include requirement that the contractor provides employment opportunities for student(s) on a University or College of Further and Higher Education construction related course: –One 40 week student placement for contract labour value of between £2-£5m and two placements for contract labour value greater than £5m. ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE NI

PROCUREMENT PROCESS Suppliers will be selected following notification of the competition in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) or local advertisement on website competition will follow a two-stage process based on the use of the ‘restricted’ procedure Suppliers must:- -hold a Constructionline category value at least equal to the annual spend or submit audited accounts as part of the PQQ process -contractors must have a documented health and safety management system that has been accredited by a third party - Buildsafe-NI initiative

-Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQ) shall be submitted by suppliers to demonstrate they meet the minimum requirements Following this short-listing process selected firms will be invited to tender where they will be rigorously assessed against criteria such as :- -methodology -supply chain management -sustainable performance -partnering culture -price, cost management and control.

CONSTRUCTIONLINE Constructionline is a database of construction and construction- related suppliers and:- is used by the public sector to select contractors/consultants to tender for projects under £30k which are not normally advertised above £30K the Pre-qualification Questionnaire allows for contractors/consultants already registered with active status on Constructionline to have their financial suitability checked by the Contracting Authority without having to submit audited accounts and references providing that: Contractors/consultants still comply with the stated work/service categories and category values within the Memorandum of Information

GUIDANCE FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZE FIRMS suppliers will be required to develop 'one-stop shop' service delivery where all necessary resources are not available suppliers can establish consortia or joint ventures emphasis on the need for main suppliers to adopt supply chain management policies and practices which integrate, incentivise and reward good performance throughout the supply chain

Smaller firms will play a key role in the delivery of NI Public Sector work by forming a significant part of the main contractors supply chain Public sector is committed to partnering down through the supply chain to drive improvement and fair treatment at all levels Opportunities are available from targeting the supply chain at all levels

Continually check local press/Websites Leave plenty of time to complete a procurement submission Read the whole documentation Ensure you understand the Requirements/Specification Check that all parts of the submission has been completed Recheck before submitting If in doubt contact the buyer for advice via eSourcingNI messaging system Key Points

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