Our procurement guidelines

Many of the projects we support, are led by other agencies or private sector companies. However, for some projects we are the lead partner and may become involved in procurement. When we do, we use the following procurement guidelines.

The procurement procedure we follow depends on expected value of goods, services or works being procured. 4 value bands apply:

• Less than £15,000
• Between £15,000 and £45,000
• Between £45,000 and the threshold for advertising tender opportunities in the Official Journal of the European Union - OJEU (currently £139,893 for goods and services and £3,497,313 for works)
• Above OJEU threshold

Find out the procedures for each of the bands below.

Where the expected value is less than £15,000

• We are not required to follow a tender process
• We will normally seek several quotes
• In order to help us make decisions we are happy to receive statements of supplier capability. We will use these for reference, together with the known capabilities of current suppliers

Where the expected value is between £15,000 and £45,000

• We will invite at least 3 tender submissions
• We will use the same process in choosing who to invite as in quotes for < £15,000 procurement  (as detailed above)
• Depending on expected value and type of service, we may advertise the opportunity on our website and circulate an email bulletin. You can register to receive e-bulletins here
• The evaluation criteria for the tender (e.g. cost and other factors, and scoring mechanism) will be clearly identified in the tender documentation
• In some exceptional circumstances procurement may take place without tendering (this requires authorisation by our CEO)

Where the expected value is between £45,000 & OJEU thresholds

(The OJEU thresholds are currently £139,893 for goods and services and £3,497,313 for works)

• We will follow a 2 stage pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) process
• The tender will be advertised on our website and the Scottish Procurement websites. We may also circulate details by email bulletin. You can register to receive e-bulletins here
• We will invite at least 5 tender submissions at the second stage
• The evaluation criteria for the tender (e.g. cost and other factors, and scoring mechanism) will be clearly identified in the tender documentation

• Again, in some exceptional circumstances procurement may take place without tendering (this requires CEO and Board level authorisation).

Where the expected value is above OJEU thresholds

• We will follow a 2 stage pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) process
• The tender will be advertsied on on our website, on the Public Contracts Scotland website and in OJEU. We may also circulate an email bulletin. You can register to receive e-bulletins here
• At least 5 tender submissions invited
• The evaluation criteria for the tender (e.g. cost and other factors, and scoring mechanism) will be clearly identified in the tender documentation