Archives: FAQs

This section outlines the legislation and regulations the College must follow when buying goods services and works.

Brooklands College Expenditure Regulations

The Expenditure Regulations are part of the College’s Financial Regulations. They govern every expenditure arrangement needed to deliver the College’s services. In addition to ensuring compliance with Public Procurement legislation they aim to achieve value for money on a whole life basis.

EU Public Procurement Legislation

Goods and Services contracts over £181,302 (approximately) and works contracts over £4,551,413 (approximately) have to be purchased in accord with EU Procurement Directives. This is not the one-off, or annual spend, but the total value over the lifetime of the contract.

In accordance with the Financial Regulations, the College can obtain quotations or invite tenders for contracts of up to £50,000 in value, whichever is appropriate. For contracts of over £50,000, tenders are invited or a “mini-competition” is held between suppliers available to the College through one of a number of purchasing consortia.

The purchasing consortia most frequently used by the College, but not limited to, are:

• The Crescent Purchasing Consortium
• The Crown Commercial Service
• The Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium

Quotations

Quotations generally obtained from current suppliers, the MultiQuote Supplier Gateway and other recommended sources. The College will accept two (2) written quotes for orders up to £10,000 and three (3) written quote for orders between £10,001 and £50,000.

Tenders

A contract notice or advertisement will invite companies to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI). This notice will only be published in situations where the opportunity is to be advertised publicly. In situations where the opportunity is not to be advertised publicly, such as conducting a mini-competition via a framework agreement, no notice will be published. In accord with the Financial Regulations, the College can obtain quotations or invite tenders for contracts of up to £50,000 in value, whichever is appropriate. However, for contracts of over £50,000, tenders are invited or a “minicompetition” is held between suppliers available to the College through one of the following purchasing consortia:

Selection Questionnaire

Following this, a Selection Questionnaire (SQ) may be sent out to those who have expressed an interest. The purpose of the SQ is to assess a potential bidder’s suitability to supply the College and the ability to satisfy the contract before the full tender process is commenced. It saves time and effort of both the bidder and the College being unnecessarily spent on the full tender process. In general the information requested provides basic details about an organisation, verifies that it can be identified as a legitimate, discrete trading organisation, that it has acceptable levels of economic and financial standing and that it promotes good practice in areas of equal opportunities, environmental protection and health and safety. The areas assessed can be summarised as follows:

Financial information

In this section companies are asked for certain financial information. They may be asked to submit audited accounts and annual reports for the previous three years. This information is used to assess the financial position of the company in relation to the size of the contract.

Information is also required to check that a company complies with the College’s insurance requirements.

Experience and technical ability

Further information requested seeks to ensure that a company has the relevant experience and technical ability to fulfil the requirements of contract. It may be necessary to provide references.

Quality assurance

This section is to enable the College to assess whether or not an organisation has suitable quality assurance systems in place to undertake the contract. This will usually be demonstrated by certification by approved assessment companies.

General Mandatory and Discretionary Exclusion Grounds

The SQ contains a number of exclusion grounds, both mandatory and discretionary, covering a range of areas, including, but not limited to; Corruption, Slavery and Social & Labour Law. The full list of these grounds can be found on the following webpage.

Invitation to tender

Companies will be invited to tender; either in an “Open Procedure” where all companies expressing an interest are invited, or in a “Restricted Procedure” where, through use of a SQ, only selected companies are invited to do so. In either case, the tender documentation sent out will usually include:

• Instructions to tenderers
• Specification
• Pricing Schedule
• Terms and Conditions of Contract
• Form of Tender

Depending on the nature of the contract, further documents, such as TUPE schedules may also be included.

Tender evaluation and contract award

Evaluation will focus on examining how the tender proposals will deliver the service (“quality”) and the price. The required balance between the two will depend on the nature of the contract.

Normally, the College will award the contract of the basis of the “Most Economically Advantageous Tender” (MEAT).

You should note that the College is not bound to accept the lowest or any of the bids submitted.

Following a tender process, all tenderers will be notified of the outcome in writing.

Following a full tender process (such as an open or restricted procedure) exceeding one of the EU Thresholds for contract value, a 10-day standstill period may be observed following the award notification before any contract may be formally entered into. Debriefing The College will always endeavour to provide unsuccessful tenderers feedback on their submissions to help them find out why their bid failed. This information can be used to help with any future bids, as being unsuccessful in one contract does not mean that a company will be unsuccessful in the future. Contract performance Contracts have to be performed in accordance with the requirements set out in the contract documentation. The College is continuously striving to improve its own performance and expects its contractors to do the same.

Debriefing

The College will always endeavour to provide unsuccessful tenderers feedback on their submissions to help them find out why their bid failed. This information can be used to help with any future bids, as being unsuccessful in one contract does not mean that a company will be unsuccessful in the future.

Contract performance

Contracts have to be performed in accordance with the requirements set out in the contract documentation. The College is continuously striving to improve its own performance and expects its contractors to do the same.

Orders

• All our purchases are covered by a Purchase Order number.
• You should never accept a request for goods, works or services without a valid Brooklands College Purchase Order number in the form of an 8 digit number 3xxxxxxx which you will receive by email.
• Only invoice us when you have received our purchase order number and have supplied the goods and/or services.
• Our purchase orders will clearly state the goods or services required, quantity and price. The delivery and invoice addresses may be different but clearly marked.
• Our purchase orders will quote your unique Supplier number. If you need to contact us you should quote this number.

Invoices

• Your invoices should quote a valid Purchase Order number, your full business name and address and full details of what has been supplied. Without a purchase order number your invoice can not be processed
• Send your invoice as soon as possible after the dispatch of the goods or services you have provided.
• The invoice must be sent to the ‘Invoice to’ address shown on our Purchase Order.
• Ensure descriptions, prices, quantities match the purchase order.
• Submit valid VAT invoices (unless you are not registered for VAT).
• All our invoices are paid via bank transfer.

Payment terms

The Terms and Conditions of Contract below are those conditions which cover all Purchase Orders for any goods, works or services purchased by Brooklands College.

These Terms and Conditions may only be varied by amendments agreed in writing by Brooklands College or stated on the Purchase Order; these are the only amendments Brooklands College will accept.

Any Purchase Order placed by Brooklands College is conditional upon acceptance of these terms and conditions by the Supplier.

Terms and Conditions of Contract.

The College does not hold a list of preferred suppliers and utilises a number of purchasing consortia, such as; the Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC) the Southern University Purchasing Consortium (SUPC), the Crown Commercial Services (CCS), amongst others, and we encourage our staff to use suppliers available through these consortia’s framework agreements.

Suppliers on these framework agreements have won their inclusion through full EU tender exercises.

Please click here to download our Terms and Conditions.

Executive Director of Finance, Resources and People Performance
finance@brooklands.ac.uk