As a higher education institution, UCS makes routine purchases to support its operational and development needs.
UCS will usually utilise existing local, regional or national procurement agreements when appropriate. These may be accessed directly or through associated organisations such as the Southern Regional Purchasing Consortium (SUPC) and the Office of Government Commerce via their framework contracts.
Should an existing procurement agreement not be appropriate, suppliers or contractors that offer suitable supplies, services or works may be invited to provide our requirements. Procurement decisions for smaller value contracts are made on a quotes basis using the criteria of best value or most economically advantageous offer.
For larger contracts, UCS follows the tendering procedure in the normal way, this will always be subject to special circumstances, such as an urgent service requirement or if the cost of tendering is disproportionate as compared to the potential savings resulting from a tender process. It should be noted that decisions are usually made using most economically advantageous tender criteria. The level of service is often an important factor and lowest cost is rarely appropriate.
UCS does not operate a Register of Interest for prospective suppliers. All procurement requirements will be advertised as required by the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 and the corresponding EC Directives on Public Procurement. The spirit of these regulations will be applied for most procurement actions.
Where the estimated cost of the purchase is likely to exceed the thresholds declared by the EU the notice of requirements will be posted in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). Procurement using competitive tender action for values below the thresholds will have notices posted on Supply2Gov except in cases described under (b) below. These methods offer the widest exposure to prospective suppliers. UCS may also use additional advertising media for these opportunities such as local and national press or trade/professional journals.
The Tender documents will usually be made available for download from a third party tender hosting site for the duration of the declared tender period. Where a third party hosting site is used the web address will be identified to those tenderers who express an interest to the UCS Head of Procurement.
UCS is not normally in a position to receive unsolicited formal presentations outside of the tender process.
The aim of the UCS procurement strategy is to achieve best value. In the case where this is best achieved by competitive tendering the following thresholds will apply:
(a) Sealed bid tender procedures will apply to all purchases where the estimated value is £25,000 or more;
(b) Written quotes will be obtained in the case of purchases where the estimated value is between £10,000 and £25,000:
Robert Vanston
Head of Procurement
24 June 2008