This new series of practitioner workshops from the CIPFA Procurement and Commissioning Network looks at the tricky issues of evaluating, scoring tenders and conducting moderation meetings. Evaluating tenders is a critical part of the procurement process; however, recent and costly court decisions have emphasised the importance of maintaining comprehensive notes to explain the decision making and to enable tenderers to scrutinise the marks or risk the award decision being set aside.
The courts have made it clear that any procurement in which the contracting authority cannot explain why it awarded the scores which it did fails the most basic standards of transparency and will be set aside, even where it has not been shown that the errors wrongly deprived the challenger of the contract. Attend these workshops to provide reassurance that your assessment and moderation processes meet the test for transparency.