AT LAST SOME GUIDANCE NOTES ON THIS - AS FOLLOWS: Further Relevant links will be uploaded at a later stage.
DECLARATION/SELF CERTIFICATION/SUBMIT-ON-REQUEST, ETC – Suitability Criteria
Introduction
The small and medium enterprise (SME) sector is significant to the economy and public procurement can be a valuable source of business for SMEs. It is particularly important that small and medium sized businesses are not hindered in competing for contracts that they could perform effectively. In this context guidance[1] is now issuing which aims to have contracting authorities structure and run their competitive processes for public contracts in a manner that facilitates increased participation by SMEs, while they continue to ensure that all public sector purchasing is carried out in a manner that is legal, transparent, and secures optimal value for money for the taxpayer. The guidance is not designed to favour the SME sector over other sectors but rather to provide SMEs with a level playing field in competing for public contracts. This is in line with EU policy on increased SME participation in public procurement.[2]
Under the Capital Works Management Framework, there is a maximum of sixteen main criteria to be assessed in determining the suitability of a contractor for the award of a public works contract. In addition, there are up to seven sub-criteria for each of the four different roles relating to health and safety that a contractor may have to fulfil on a project. The criteria chosen for each project should be picked from the menu of the above referenced criteria and sub-criteria. In order to reduce bureaucracy and simplify the tendering process, applicants are no longer to be asked to supply detailed evidence of capacity (e.g. bank references, audit accounts, company turnover, company balance sheets, professional indemnity insurance etc.) at suitability stage (open or restricted). Instead they are to self-certify[3], provide third party certification certificates3 and use self-declaration certificates3 to confirm compliance with minimum standards for the relevant criteria in the suitability questionnaire. The only evidence that may be requested for qualitative assessment is that indicated in the table below. The details that the certificates/ declarations cover can be verified at tender evaluation stage (open) or after short-listing[4] (in a restricted procedure). The key consideration in relation to suitability criteria, particularly turnover, is that the level chosen should be justified and proportionate to the needs of the contract.
[1] Department of Finance Circular 10/10, together with “Guidance for Public Contracting Authorities: Facilitating the Participation of SMEs in Public Procurement”, and this Guidance Note 2.3.1.2. The first two of these documents are available on http://www.etenders.gov.ie/guides/guides_list.aspx?Type=2 document 26.
[2] “European Code of best practices facilitating access by SMEs to public procurement contracts”, Brussels: 2008. Available on-line at:
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/publicprocurement/docs/sme_code_of_best_practices_en.pdf
[3] As indicated in this document.
[4] Contracting authorities should consider increasing the number of candidates that they short-list to safeguard against a number subsequently not being able meet the commitment made in the declarations when checked resulting in those candidates being dropped from the competition before tenders are invited.
DECLARATION/SELF CERTIFICATION/SUBMIT-ON-REQUEST, ETC – Suitability Criteria,
The use of “restricted” tendering procedures, which require potential tenderers to show that they meet certain requirements (viz. pre-qualification) before they are invited to submit tenders, is often cited as a barrier to SME participation, especially if contracting authorities set unnecessarily high capacity levels. In order to address such concerns about pre-qualification criteria, the restricted procedure for tendering competitions should no longer be used for advertised contracts for works and related services with an estimated value up to €250,000. This means that the open procedure of competitive tendering will be the norm for advertised contracts up to this level.
Note: The revised arrangements in this document are effective from 13 August 2010
In order to facilitate self certification, third party certification and the use of declaration certificates, the blue areas below (refer to DOF website for tables) indicates where these can be provided. The areas in green show where information in relation to scale and complexity can be requested at a later date. For the green areas, contracting authorities should consider selecting, as the norm, the ’Submit on Request’ option on the Suitability Questionnaire. Furthermore, in order to address concerns about overly restrictive pre-qualification procedures, there is now a requirement to advertise contracts in an open procedure for works up to €250,000[1] (excluding design-and-build contracts – where an independent design consultant is engaged).
Showing posts with label pre-qualification criteria and questionaires... Show all posts
Showing posts with label pre-qualification criteria and questionaires... Show all posts
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Facilitating SME's in Public Procurement - is it too little too late?
The department of finance issued a circular back in August in relation to new guidance for the procurement of public works.
These new guidelines are aimed at facilitating Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) and ensuring that the public works market remains open to these companies.
Is the publication of this circular too little too late?
The basic changes of the new guidance and the changes pertinent to the construction sector can really be synopsised in 2 paragraphs as follows:
1 - The 'dual' stage / pre-qualification procedure for projects valued below €250,000 is now history.
Prior to this change the local authorities and other contracting authorities were using the two stage system or 'dual stage' where companies had to first make a shortlist. These shortlists are usually no more than 10 candiates and more often than not they are limited to just 5 candidates (particularly where the NRA were involved), whom then get to price the actual work.
The drawing up of these shortlists of contractors for each individual project, are derived from the first stage of the 'dual' stage by means of a pre-qualification questionnaire competition, or a beauty contest. These documents created a huge additional workload for small family run operators who in the current climate weren't geared up to undertake the completion of these PQQ's. In my own experience I have carried out some of these PQQ applications and this involves multitudes of paperwork for projects that would be for example €500k, and this was just to get the chance to price the work.
2 - The vast amount of paperwork will now no longer be requested until the pricing stage is completed, i.e. the winning bidder or bidder who is coming under consideration for the project will be asked for their insurance, tax clearance, bond undertaking, company structure etc only after the price is submitted and they are deemed the most economically advantageous.
One would imagine that these new guidance issues are as a result of lobbying by ISME, IBEC the CIF and various other groups working on behalf of SME's.
Is it too little too late or is it a case of any change to the current process is a step in the right direction?
Personally I believe it is a bit of both, i.e. they could have stretched the threshold to €500k or even €750k, however in this climate I'm sure any change where SME's will be allowed enter the market is a good one.
Sometimes its best to weigh up whether a change like this will work and function the way it should by way of everyday examples:
The DOF has stated (in this circular) that the SME sector is a very important business sector for the economy and that they are not hindered from competing for Contracts.
Example: Joe Bloggs Civil Contractor has done small culvert type bridges and many other structural concrete works down the years as a small sub-contractor to one or two of the 'mega' motorway contractors. He can't pre-qual to the pricing stage for a medium type standard bridge due to alleged lack of experience and also because he won't gain enough marks in the PQQ system ahead of the 'mega' lads he has worked for in the past. How does Joe ever build a bridge or how does Joe every compete in the market if it will be closed to those who have only built bridges in the past? Will this new system allow Joe as an experienced SME get into the bridge construction market? It is highly unlikely as one doubts there will be a bridge in this new process valued below the €250k threshold, whereas if the threshold was €750k at least Joe has a chance. Even if there was a bridge project at the €250k value then the parameters set down by awarding authorities on a larger bridge project (where Joe would have to pre-qualify) would in fact hinder Joe.
This is where an opportunity has been missed by the National Procurement Service and the Department of Finance.
Another flaw is the evaluation of the projects. Who values the projects and states whether they are within the threshold or not? Is it the awarding authorities? If so what is their basis of calculating if a job falls within the threshold or not?
This blogger also notes that the National Procurement Service was set up in 2009, another quango set up slap bang in the middle of a recession? Where the hell was this outfit during the boom when we had work to procure?
The DOF circular paragraph 6 is interesting reading. Its almost as if the DOF are only now letting the local authorities know that there is an agency in place to help them with procurement matters!!
Finally, if this NPS is around then what are the National Public Procurement Policy Unit (NPPPU) working at these days? I do know they run the excellent etenders website which I note is been copied by local authorities / public authorities in cities and countries around Europe presently, so well done to them on that front but could they not also manage to carry out the role of the National Procurement Service also?
Here is the link to the relatively new circular discussed above:
http://www.constructionprocurement.gov.ie/CWMFDocs/Circulars/Circ1010.pdf
These new guidelines are aimed at facilitating Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) and ensuring that the public works market remains open to these companies.
Is the publication of this circular too little too late?
The basic changes of the new guidance and the changes pertinent to the construction sector can really be synopsised in 2 paragraphs as follows:
1 - The 'dual' stage / pre-qualification procedure for projects valued below €250,000 is now history.
Prior to this change the local authorities and other contracting authorities were using the two stage system or 'dual stage' where companies had to first make a shortlist. These shortlists are usually no more than 10 candiates and more often than not they are limited to just 5 candidates (particularly where the NRA were involved), whom then get to price the actual work.
The drawing up of these shortlists of contractors for each individual project, are derived from the first stage of the 'dual' stage by means of a pre-qualification questionnaire competition, or a beauty contest. These documents created a huge additional workload for small family run operators who in the current climate weren't geared up to undertake the completion of these PQQ's. In my own experience I have carried out some of these PQQ applications and this involves multitudes of paperwork for projects that would be for example €500k, and this was just to get the chance to price the work.
2 - The vast amount of paperwork will now no longer be requested until the pricing stage is completed, i.e. the winning bidder or bidder who is coming under consideration for the project will be asked for their insurance, tax clearance, bond undertaking, company structure etc only after the price is submitted and they are deemed the most economically advantageous.
One would imagine that these new guidance issues are as a result of lobbying by ISME, IBEC the CIF and various other groups working on behalf of SME's.
Is it too little too late or is it a case of any change to the current process is a step in the right direction?
Personally I believe it is a bit of both, i.e. they could have stretched the threshold to €500k or even €750k, however in this climate I'm sure any change where SME's will be allowed enter the market is a good one.
Sometimes its best to weigh up whether a change like this will work and function the way it should by way of everyday examples:
The DOF has stated (in this circular) that the SME sector is a very important business sector for the economy and that they are not hindered from competing for Contracts.
Example: Joe Bloggs Civil Contractor has done small culvert type bridges and many other structural concrete works down the years as a small sub-contractor to one or two of the 'mega' motorway contractors. He can't pre-qual to the pricing stage for a medium type standard bridge due to alleged lack of experience and also because he won't gain enough marks in the PQQ system ahead of the 'mega' lads he has worked for in the past. How does Joe ever build a bridge or how does Joe every compete in the market if it will be closed to those who have only built bridges in the past? Will this new system allow Joe as an experienced SME get into the bridge construction market? It is highly unlikely as one doubts there will be a bridge in this new process valued below the €250k threshold, whereas if the threshold was €750k at least Joe has a chance. Even if there was a bridge project at the €250k value then the parameters set down by awarding authorities on a larger bridge project (where Joe would have to pre-qualify) would in fact hinder Joe.
This is where an opportunity has been missed by the National Procurement Service and the Department of Finance.
Another flaw is the evaluation of the projects. Who values the projects and states whether they are within the threshold or not? Is it the awarding authorities? If so what is their basis of calculating if a job falls within the threshold or not?
This blogger also notes that the National Procurement Service was set up in 2009, another quango set up slap bang in the middle of a recession? Where the hell was this outfit during the boom when we had work to procure?
The DOF circular paragraph 6 is interesting reading. Its almost as if the DOF are only now letting the local authorities know that there is an agency in place to help them with procurement matters!!
Finally, if this NPS is around then what are the National Public Procurement Policy Unit (NPPPU) working at these days? I do know they run the excellent etenders website which I note is been copied by local authorities / public authorities in cities and countries around Europe presently, so well done to them on that front but could they not also manage to carry out the role of the National Procurement Service also?
Here is the link to the relatively new circular discussed above:
http://www.constructionprocurement.gov.ie/CWMFDocs/Circulars/Circ1010.pdf
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Are the Public Servants Holding Constructors to Ramsom in Eire?
Greetings colleagues. I haven't published for a while but I make no apologies for this.
Chasing work has kept me busy. Similar to many people in Ireland in our Industry I've a house to pay for and a family to keep. Work is very very scarce indeed.
As a matter of fact for the first time in 12 years as a permanent employee for a long established Civil Engineering Contractor I now fear for my job security and I'm even gearing myself up to get plan 'B' into operation which will most likely involve freelance work.
Freelance work would not pose any fear for me as during the boom years I managed to squeeze in a Post Graduate Contract Law Course and a Post Graduate Arbitration Course. However having a steady job and job security was very comforting and regardless of the Public Sector pay cuts and their pension levies they still have the comfort and security of knowing that they have a job to go to every Monday morning.emm(?)
The current situation in the Civil Engineering market is diabolical to say the least. Sources tell me that some Public Sector Area's are failing to release Contract Documents where funding is in place. If this is true then it is an almighty scandal as the chain affects of not issuing necessary infrastructure work is catastrophic as this will only lead to further job losses in the industry.
I do know for a fact that my company has completed pre-qual after pre-qual in the period May 2009 until mid-February 2010 and for the large majority of these pre-qual competitions not even the pre-qual result was published.
This is crippling small and medium Civil Contractors around the Country and in the long term only add to the Public Spending Bill by virtue of the fact that another 40,000 construction personnel are expected to be unemployed for 2010.
If the government start acting now and the Public Servants are made to start releasing tenders immediately then some of these jobs would be saved and important infrastructure works would commence.
Some such project examples are as follows:
Lough Forbes Water Treatment Works - First advertised in May 2009
The Metals Dun Laoighaire - First advertised in May 2009
Grange Bridge in Kilkenny - First advertised in May 2009
Ballymahon and Granard Water Treatment - June 2009
River Fergus Flood Alleviation - September 2009
Belcamp Lands Remediation - January 2010
Embankment Road Extension Tallaght - February 2010
All of the above are 2 stage select tenders (pre-qualification competition first) yet all but one of these projects has yet to reach the second stage; the pricing stage. Why is this?
In the meantime the other projects that were advertised in the back end of 2009 and so far this year have been few and far between, so one wonders where the so call 'Capital Spend' promised in the last budget is going?
My guess is that the government are holding off until the NAMA transfers have commenced properly or else perhaps some Public Sectors are acting in a similar fashion to our friends in the Passport office. Maybe funds are in place for Contracts but the Public Servants are on some sort of work to rule and not bothering to issue the tender documents?
FOGRA:
I noticed in the Sunday Business post at the weekend that the Department of Finance are reviewing the PPP model and now deem it bad value for money.
This blogger and many more amongst us and even people with a level Pass C leaving certificate maths would realise this. The Government pumping the circa € 110,000,000 subvention into the Kilkock - Kinegad bypass motorway PPP back in the day was a complete disgrace.
This amount of cash, at the time, would have built 15 to 20 km of motorway on its own without having the necessity for a toll.
Anyhow, as soon as this Blogger hears more on the DOF review I will post some thoughts and comments. However, it would appear to be a more than likely a Fianna Fail PR move in order to ditch the Metro for a few years without upsetting the Greens too much.
You know what ... all of the above reminds me of something familiar.......................
http://constructionconciliation.blogspot.com/2009/07/irish-government-needs-to-stimulate.html
Chasing work has kept me busy. Similar to many people in Ireland in our Industry I've a house to pay for and a family to keep. Work is very very scarce indeed.
As a matter of fact for the first time in 12 years as a permanent employee for a long established Civil Engineering Contractor I now fear for my job security and I'm even gearing myself up to get plan 'B' into operation which will most likely involve freelance work.
Freelance work would not pose any fear for me as during the boom years I managed to squeeze in a Post Graduate Contract Law Course and a Post Graduate Arbitration Course. However having a steady job and job security was very comforting and regardless of the Public Sector pay cuts and their pension levies they still have the comfort and security of knowing that they have a job to go to every Monday morning.emm(?)
The current situation in the Civil Engineering market is diabolical to say the least. Sources tell me that some Public Sector Area's are failing to release Contract Documents where funding is in place. If this is true then it is an almighty scandal as the chain affects of not issuing necessary infrastructure work is catastrophic as this will only lead to further job losses in the industry.
I do know for a fact that my company has completed pre-qual after pre-qual in the period May 2009 until mid-February 2010 and for the large majority of these pre-qual competitions not even the pre-qual result was published.
This is crippling small and medium Civil Contractors around the Country and in the long term only add to the Public Spending Bill by virtue of the fact that another 40,000 construction personnel are expected to be unemployed for 2010.
If the government start acting now and the Public Servants are made to start releasing tenders immediately then some of these jobs would be saved and important infrastructure works would commence.
Some such project examples are as follows:
Lough Forbes Water Treatment Works - First advertised in May 2009
The Metals Dun Laoighaire - First advertised in May 2009
Grange Bridge in Kilkenny - First advertised in May 2009
Ballymahon and Granard Water Treatment - June 2009
River Fergus Flood Alleviation - September 2009
Belcamp Lands Remediation - January 2010
Embankment Road Extension Tallaght - February 2010
All of the above are 2 stage select tenders (pre-qualification competition first) yet all but one of these projects has yet to reach the second stage; the pricing stage. Why is this?
In the meantime the other projects that were advertised in the back end of 2009 and so far this year have been few and far between, so one wonders where the so call 'Capital Spend' promised in the last budget is going?
My guess is that the government are holding off until the NAMA transfers have commenced properly or else perhaps some Public Sectors are acting in a similar fashion to our friends in the Passport office. Maybe funds are in place for Contracts but the Public Servants are on some sort of work to rule and not bothering to issue the tender documents?
FOGRA:
I noticed in the Sunday Business post at the weekend that the Department of Finance are reviewing the PPP model and now deem it bad value for money.
This blogger and many more amongst us and even people with a level Pass C leaving certificate maths would realise this. The Government pumping the circa € 110,000,000 subvention into the Kilkock - Kinegad bypass motorway PPP back in the day was a complete disgrace.
This amount of cash, at the time, would have built 15 to 20 km of motorway on its own without having the necessity for a toll.
Anyhow, as soon as this Blogger hears more on the DOF review I will post some thoughts and comments. However, it would appear to be a more than likely a Fianna Fail PR move in order to ditch the Metro for a few years without upsetting the Greens too much.
You know what ... all of the above reminds me of something familiar.......................
http://constructionconciliation.blogspot.com/2009/07/irish-government-needs-to-stimulate.html
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Sound of Tumbleweed..........
"October and the leaves are stripped bear of all they wear what do I care, October and Kingdoms rise and Kingdoms Fall but you go on" ........................U2 October.
By the way that's the whole song up there, probably Bono's shortest. This October for anyone involved in the Irish Civil Engineering Industry hasn't been a short one. In fact it's a month that combined with this coming November will be dragging and dragging. The reason for this apparent prolonged Autumn is due to the customary (or recent customary) slow down on release of tenders coming up to budget time. I say recent because now it is quiet the opposite to those boom years of the mid noughties. During those good ole days and at this time of year the civil construction industry via the public sector would have large enough capacity of tender releases. The reason for this was that during the month's coming up to budget time many Local Authorities would've actually had a surplus of cash and they would be getting rid of this annual surplus in order to get the same matching funding the following year. Oh how times have changed.
It is now completely the opposite and the figures speak from themselves; For the whole month of October 2009 in the Republic of Ireland so far only 5 fairly straightforward Civil Engineering Public sector projects were advertised for tender in the open market. Take this combined with the approximate total of 8 in the whole of September; then you know where this topic is heading.
Lets consider then for arguments sake and with a knowledgable quantity surveyors hat on, that the value of these projects was / will be approximately, on average, somewhere in the region of €1mil per project - that's €13m worth of supply coming into the civil engineering sector market for a capacity / demand that was of the order of €5 to €6 billion per-annum. Getting back to Bono, "Kingdoms rise and Kingdoms fall"; surely we mustn't let the Kingdom collapse and disappear altogether?
One also has to note the many 'dud' or 'shelved' projects advertised during the year via the 'two stage' tendering process. This two stage process (adopted from EU public procurement legislation) involves the first batch of tendering candidates to be whittled down to a select bunch of say 8 to 12 contractors (in this climate the first bunch has known to be up to and over 40 candidates). This 1st stage is "assessed" on a marking / technical capability system and a pass/fail system which is supposed to be objective but for anyone who has read one of these actual pre-qualification criteria documents and questionnaire documents then they will see how subjective they actually are.
On some of these pre-qualification type tender projects even when the stage reaches past the whittled down process to the actual pricing of the contracts one has noted that many of these projects have disappeared into oblivion and documents have never left the design offices for this 2nd stage, the actual pricing stage. One presumes these were shelved for reasons on unavailability of funding. Has anyone in the Government Departments considered the wasted funding and resources spent by each contractor in preparing these questionnaires and going through the first stage?
Back in July I noted that their wasn't a sod to be turned in the Country and that we need a stimulus package in the next budget to get some form of Industry and work in the Country. Since then my research has led me to the CIC (Construction Industry Council) who have already lobbied the Government last march on this subject in an excellent report ---http://www.scs.ie/press_submissions/submissions_files/29-04-09-CIC-Submission-to-Government.pdf.
However, if the well is already dry and no funds are available then we need to look outside the Government for a boost. Maybe these guys will help? http://www.spiritofireland.org/mission.php
More about Spirit of Ireland in a later blog; as a young Bono has said "kingdoms fall, but you go on" - hopefully the people in the Spirit of Ireland will go on and the 'no brainer' obvious potential projects they have their sights set upon will be up and running soon which will help to stimulate the civil infrastructure sector and in turn create thousands of badly needed jobs rather than waiting on Government and Government Departments to get off their holes and come up with a viable plan to do something about the state we are now in.
By the way that's the whole song up there, probably Bono's shortest. This October for anyone involved in the Irish Civil Engineering Industry hasn't been a short one. In fact it's a month that combined with this coming November will be dragging and dragging. The reason for this apparent prolonged Autumn is due to the customary (or recent customary) slow down on release of tenders coming up to budget time. I say recent because now it is quiet the opposite to those boom years of the mid noughties. During those good ole days and at this time of year the civil construction industry via the public sector would have large enough capacity of tender releases. The reason for this was that during the month's coming up to budget time many Local Authorities would've actually had a surplus of cash and they would be getting rid of this annual surplus in order to get the same matching funding the following year. Oh how times have changed.
It is now completely the opposite and the figures speak from themselves; For the whole month of October 2009 in the Republic of Ireland so far only 5 fairly straightforward Civil Engineering Public sector projects were advertised for tender in the open market. Take this combined with the approximate total of 8 in the whole of September; then you know where this topic is heading.
Lets consider then for arguments sake and with a knowledgable quantity surveyors hat on, that the value of these projects was / will be approximately, on average, somewhere in the region of €1mil per project - that's €13m worth of supply coming into the civil engineering sector market for a capacity / demand that was of the order of €5 to €6 billion per-annum. Getting back to Bono, "Kingdoms rise and Kingdoms fall"; surely we mustn't let the Kingdom collapse and disappear altogether?
One also has to note the many 'dud' or 'shelved' projects advertised during the year via the 'two stage' tendering process. This two stage process (adopted from EU public procurement legislation) involves the first batch of tendering candidates to be whittled down to a select bunch of say 8 to 12 contractors (in this climate the first bunch has known to be up to and over 40 candidates). This 1st stage is "assessed" on a marking / technical capability system and a pass/fail system which is supposed to be objective but for anyone who has read one of these actual pre-qualification criteria documents and questionnaire documents then they will see how subjective they actually are.
On some of these pre-qualification type tender projects even when the stage reaches past the whittled down process to the actual pricing of the contracts one has noted that many of these projects have disappeared into oblivion and documents have never left the design offices for this 2nd stage, the actual pricing stage. One presumes these were shelved for reasons on unavailability of funding. Has anyone in the Government Departments considered the wasted funding and resources spent by each contractor in preparing these questionnaires and going through the first stage?
Back in July I noted that their wasn't a sod to be turned in the Country and that we need a stimulus package in the next budget to get some form of Industry and work in the Country. Since then my research has led me to the CIC (Construction Industry Council) who have already lobbied the Government last march on this subject in an excellent report ---http://www.scs.ie/press_submissions/submissions_files/29-04-09-CIC-Submission-to-Government.pdf.
However, if the well is already dry and no funds are available then we need to look outside the Government for a boost. Maybe these guys will help? http://www.spiritofireland.org/mission.php
More about Spirit of Ireland in a later blog; as a young Bono has said "kingdoms fall, but you go on" - hopefully the people in the Spirit of Ireland will go on and the 'no brainer' obvious potential projects they have their sights set upon will be up and running soon which will help to stimulate the civil infrastructure sector and in turn create thousands of badly needed jobs rather than waiting on Government and Government Departments to get off their holes and come up with a viable plan to do something about the state we are now in.
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