The Cabinet Office has issued advice to firms about changes in procurement processes following the UK’s exit from the European Union, and is looking at further changes to the process.
New public procurement notices are no longer posted on the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) and appear on the new Find a Tender website instead. Tender notices published on OJEU before the end of the transition period will be continue to appear on OJEU and will be concluded there, however.
Exemptions to the requirement to post on the Find a Tender website include where notices would not have previously been posted to OJEU, such as Ministry of Defence contracts and regional work in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These will continue to be posted on Contracts Finder, MOD Defence Contracts Online, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI.
Although the website for advertising contracts and frameworks has changed, the principles underlying the public procurement regime such as the procedure for bidding and financial thresholds will not change substantially, according to a statement from the Cabinet Office. Firms looking for contracts in the EU will still find them published on OJEU.
The department has published a green paper, Transforming Public Procurement, to examine possible further changes to public sector procurement. A consultation is asking firms about changes they would like to see in the procurement system, such as combining all current regulations into one, and whether to award contracts based on the most advantageous firm for the contract, rather than the most financially advantageous bid.
Jonathan Oram, from framework provider Pagabo, said that any future amendments “would still have to be in line with the principles of the Government Procurement Agreement”, an accord for World Trade Organisation members including the UK. He said: “This would include embedding the principles of public procurement within the law and would expand on the three existing principles of transparency, integrity and fair treatment of suppliers to also include value for money, efficiency and non-discrimination.”
Oram predicted suppliers’ past poor performance could play a greater role in the bidding process in future. “As it stands, past performance can be considered when looking at a bidder’s application for tender, but it remains difficult to exclude them because of it,” he said.
Last year Crossrail chief executive Mark Wild, a former managing director of London Underground and CEO of Public Transport Victoria in Australia, said procurement rules could be changed to allow clients to have earlier engagement with the supply chain.
“When I was in Australia, their procurement rules allowed a much more constructive conversation with the supply chain at the very beginning. There were many times in my career in public procurement, when – I’m not saying we were constrained – but it’s quite difficult to keep a level-playing field at the same time as [engaging suppliers early],” he said.
The government has also posted an online introduction to the new Find a Tender system.
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