Applying Government or EU Procurement Rules

Public sector buyers have to comply with either the Government or EU rules when awarding contracts.

Buyers are required to comply with certain rules, irrespective of the contract's value, such as:

  • Advertising contracts
  • Drawing up tender lists, based on applying certain selection criteria
  • Issuing tenders, including specifications
  • Receiving and opening tenders
  • Evaluating tenders, based on applying certain award criteria
  • Awarding contracts

It should be noted that most of the bodies have less formal rules for very small contracts (under £20,000 or €25,000).

The following chart provides an overview of the steps to be applied for the various contract values:

EU CONTRACTS

  • Publish Periodic Information Notice
    (PIN) in OJEC (if contract above € 750,000 or £464,024
  • Publish Call for Competition Notice in OJEC
  • Decide on specification
  • Decide on criteria for selecting tenderers (if using restricted or negotiated procedures)
  • Decide on contract award criteria
  • Issue Tender
  • Receive Tenders
  • Evaluate Tenders against award criteria
  • Award Contract
  • Publish Award Notice in OJEC


CONTRACTS ABOVE STG£20K/ €25k BUT BELOW EU THRESHOLDSCONTRACTS BELOW £20K/ €25k

Option 1 – Advertisements

  • Publish advertisement in media
  • Decide on specification
  • Decide on criteria for tenderer selection
  • Decide on criteria for contract award
  • Issue tenders
  • Receive tenders
  • Evaluate tenders against contract award criteria
  • Award contract

Option 2 – In-house Tender
Lists (or Select Lists) Option 2 is only used by a limited number of organisations, such as the utilities and GSA.

  • Operate pre-qualification system – issuing questionnaires
  • Draw up tender list
  • Decide on specification
  • Decide on award criteria
  • Issue tenders
  • Receive tenders
  • Evaluate tenders against set criteria
  • Award contract

Buyers only invite suppliers to quote from known sources:

  • Define requirement – basic specification
  • Seek quotations – postal, phone, e-mail or fax
  • Award contract against criteria usually of price and delivery

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