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Further Competitions

By OGCbuying.solutions

Here we provide guidance to clarify what we mean by further competitions.

Mini Competition

The accepted practice to determine which supplier to use on Framework Agreements executed before 1 January 2006 was to conduct a Mini Competition.

This was the case with Framework Agreements such as S-Cat and GCat. Customers were advised to use the catalogue approach for simple, straightforward or low value requirements or where the degree of urgency justified the single tender approach.

For all other procurements, the Mini Competition process was recommended. This entailed selecting a number of suppliers from those on the Framework Agreement capable of meeting the requirement from whom to invite a written quotation.

The number of suppliers included in a Mini Competition was a matter for the customer to decide, taking account of internal policies. For example, many organisations required three quotations for purchases above a specified level of expenditure. In such cases, procurers would select three suppliers from those on the Framework Agreement to compete. There were no rules governing how those three suppliers were selected.

Further Competition

Photograph showing a collection of flags

The European Council has made provision for Framework Agreements in public sector purchasing.

Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Council (the Consolidated Directive) was embodied in the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 which came into force on 31 January 2006. The Directive, for the first time in EU law, made explicit provision for Framework Agreements in public sector purchasing.

In making such provision, the Directive specified the way in which Framework Agreements should be used (Article 32). One such provision concerns the procedure to be followed when awarding a contract under a Framework Agreement concluded with several suppliers.

Public sector bodies may award directly to one of the suppliers "by application of the terms laid down in the framework agreement without reopening competition" i.e. a Catalogue Order where best value for money may be determined by browsing Catalogue entries. Otherwise, they should "consult in writing the suppliers capable of performing the contract".

The latter has been termed "Further Competition" and is quite different from a Mini Competition in that the Directive requires all capable suppliers to be invited to tender, rather than just a selected few.

"Capable supplier" is not a new concept, in that the S-Cat Guidelines gave customers the option of "mini-Competition Evaluation Process – for more complex requirements that more than one S-Cat Service Provider may be capable of meeting." The interpretation of "capable" has not changed, the procedure under which the competition is conducted has.

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