Current tenders from both Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City Councils are published in full on our Procurement Partnership website.
Approved Lists
For Works Contracts the Council utilises Approved Contractor Lists from Constructionline to select suitable firms to tender. No advertisement is placed when Approved Lists have been used, and only those firms selected will be allowed to tender. You should contact the Property Section to establish the process for becoming included within this list.
Our approved supplier lists for goods and services are those which are corporate contracts and have already been tendered for. We do not use approved lists for the procurement of goods and services as we prefer to use regular open competition. Businesses interested in quoting/tendering for business should register themselves on our e-tendering site.
Other Publications
As well as advertising our schemes on our ‘Tender Portal’, we also sometimes advertise in the press or appropriate trade journals and publications. You should look for our adverts in the following publications:
- Press & Journal
- Local papers
- Trade journals
Larger Contracts
All purchasing by the public sector in the UK and the rest of Europe must follow the rules of the EU Treaty. This is designed to ensure the free movement of goods and services in the European Union market. There are special European rules for public contracts above certain values, see below, which aim to make sure that the contracts are awarded in an open, transparent and non-discriminatory way. The European Directives are implemented in this country by a number of regulations, which set down the procedures that local authorities must follow when selecting tenderers and awarding contracts.
The EU procurement thresholds for local authorities are:
- Service and supply contracts over £153,376
- Works contracts over £3,834,411
Any firm can apply for these schemes, and they are advertised in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).
Schools
Some schools have their own individual budgets, which means that they don’t have to use contracts managed centrally by local authorities. Although some schools choose to use corporate arrangements, there are others that decide their own purchasing arrangements.
Schools are required to adhere to the same principles of fairness, openness and transparency.
Tender documents
At present, not all tender documents are available on the Tender Portal, and in these circumstances you will be sent a paper copy. More and more council business is being conducted electronically. If you cannot currently do business this way you should give it some serious consideration. When documents are available on the Tender Portal, you can download them and either print them off or save them to your own computer.
Although the tender documents are quite detailed, they are intended to encourage you to tender for our business. If you have any queries regarding the documents do not be afraid to get in touch with the named contact for assistance.
You will be asked to complete and return your tender documents by a given time and date, either in electronic format via the Tender Portal or in the tender return envelope provided.
Tender return and evaluation
The tender documents are all opened at the same time after the tender return date. Once the tender documents have been opened, they are forwarded to the appropriate council officers for evaluation.
If you fail to return your tender documents by the specified deadline, your tender will be excluded from the evaluation process. If it’s late, it’s too late. The tender evaluation criteria are established before tenders are invited and are stated in the documentation.
Contract award
If your tender submission meets all the evaluation criteria then you could be awarded the contract. The results from tenders advertised electronically are available on the Tender Portal once the contract has been awarded.
Seeking feedback
If you are unsuccessful and wish to seek feedback, you should contact the named council officer detailed in the tender documentation. This officer will be able to explain why your tender was unsuccessful and possibly provide some indicators as to how you might improve on future bids.
Payment
The Council has prompt payment targets. This means that we are committed to paying all invoices within 30 days of receipt, irrespective of invoice value or payee.
Contact
Purchasing Services
Aberdeen City Council
Summerhill Centre
Stronsay Drive
Aberdeen
AB15 6JA
Email: craigi@aberdeencity.gov.uk
Telephone: 01224 346200
Fax: 01224 346205
