Review and award in procurement

How does HHNK evaluate bidders' offers when we tender a contract? And how do we ultimately award the contract to a company? To do this carefully, we go through a number of steps.

Opening digital safe

Bidders submit their bids for a tender by a specified date and time. These bids enter the TenderNed digital vault . After the closing date, the digital vault opens and the evaluation begins.

Have all formal requirements been met?

HHNK checks whether the tenders meet the formal requirements we have set in the tender: has the tender been submitted in full? Tenders (offers) that do not comply with fundamental requirements of the specifications (non-compliant tenders) must be set aside and we may not include them in the comparison with other tenders.

Testing for grounds for exclusion and suitability requirements

On the basis of the Uniform European Tender Document (UEA), we check whether we should not exclude the tenderer on the basis of one of the specified grounds for exclusion. We also use it to check whether the tenderer meets the suitability requirements. The UEA must be fully completed and duly signed.

Testing against set Requirements and (minimum) requirements.

Bids must meet all requirements and Requirements set by HHNK in the tender. We consider whether the tenderer makes an appropriate offer and whether it agrees to our contract and procurement terms and conditions. We also determine whether the contractor applies certain regulations or special performance conditions.

Awarding: which company gets the contract?

HHNK will ultimately determine who submitted the best bid based on the award criterion. The award criterion is Best Price-Quality Ratio (BPKV). Sometimes we award on the lowest price, but then we have justified this in the tender document.

Objective assessment

The members of the evaluation team do not know what price was bid for. Sometimes they also don't know the name of the company behind a tender they have to evaluate. This is how we ensure the most objective evaluation process possible.

Only when the evaluators have agreed on the scores for the various award criteria and established them by consensus will HHNK announce the tender amounts (and identity) of the bidders.

Award decision

The award decision is sent via TenderNed, so that all companies participating in a tender are aware of it at the same time. The winning bidder receives an intention to award and the other bidders receive a rejection. The rejection states:

  • To which party HHNK intends to award the contract;
  • Why HHNK wants to award the contract to this party (award decision);
  • The amount for which HHNK awards the contract;
  • The rejected bidder's scores relative to the winning bid;
  • The motivation (rationale) accompanying the rejected bidder's score.

Litigation

Tenderers who do not agree with a proposed award decision can file summary proceedings with the North Holland District Court. For a National or European tender procedure, this must be done within a period of twenty calendar days (standstill period or suspension period) after the intended decision. In a multiple negotiated procedure there is no mandatory standstill period. In this procedure, HHNK itself uses a period of five working days in which a rejected party can object.

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