Procurement challenge case study
We suggested a couple of procurement challenge towards the award of a contract by a County Council. We obtained an emergency injunction for the shopper which successfully compelled the Council to re-run a part of its procurement course of.
Our shopper is an present supplier of domiciliary care (care at residence) on behalf of the Council. The Council determined to re-tender its domiciliary care packages. Being a public physique, the Council elected to comply with a procurement course of below the procurement guidelines set out within the Public Contracts Laws 2006.
As a part of the procurement course of, the Council selected to carry an interview. The invitation to tender (“ITT”) acknowledged that the interview accounted for 40% of the obtainable marks. Sadly for our shopper, it was not clear from the ITT what was being measured at interview, or what standards had been to be utilized to attain the interview. Consequently, there was a threat that the Council may have simply awarded excessive marks to individuals it felt it may get together with and low marks to individuals the interviewing panel occurred to not like.
The procurement guidelines state that the factors public our bodies use to attain bids, and the weighting connected to every of the factors, should be set out within the tender paperwork. Procurement processes should be honest and clear.
We suggested our shopper that the Council ought to be requested
• to not signal contracts with the successful bidders; and
• to re-run the procurement course of.
Because the Council wouldn’t comply with this, we suggested that an injunction ought to be obtained to stop the Council signing a contract with the
successful bidders from the unfair course of. A Choose was discovered on a Saturday and, after arguments had been introduced, granted our shopper an emergency injunction to restrain the Council from signing contracts.
Having had an injunction served towards it, the Council then agreed to rerun the interviews in a good and clear method and pay our shoppers prices of bringing the proceedings.
