Page 124 - Procurement guidelines for smart sustainable cities - A U4SSC deliverable

• remove any supplier information from the questions and answers they publish, so people cannot
see who asked the question;
• make sure that they have access to any expert advice they need; and

• extend deadlines if they cannot answer questions in time or need to make any changes or
clarifications to the advertised opportunity.

Public officials and stakeholders can run an online meeting to respond to a lot of supplier questions
at the same time. However, they must publish all questions and answers from each session so that
suppliers who did not attend are not at a disadvantage.

Where possible, supplier e-mails should be sent to a general group e-mail rather than to individual
staff. This ensures that the whole procurement team can see the questions and respond in time.

Dos and don'ts

Table 20: Dos and don’ts-Answer supplier questions
Table 20: Dos and don’ts-Answer supplier questions

Do Don’t

ask the supplier to explain what they do not reveal commercially sensitive
mean if you don’t understand the question information when you answer a supplier
question, for example the supplier’s price for
publish all the questions that have been the work
asked and the answers online

use a group e-mail account so that the
whole procurement team has access to supplier
questions

Table 21: Dos and don’ts – Shortlisting suppliers
4.3 Evaluation and award

Do
Don’t
Evaluate suppliers using clear and objective criteria and select a winner.
score suppliers using a clear points do not use shortlisting to limit
system and apply it to all suppliers
Overview competition or favour suppliers you have
worked with previously

keep a record of how you shortlisted
Once public officials and stakeholders have received a number of bids from interested suppliers
suppliers, along with any e-mails you send
they should:

notify unsuccessful suppliers by e-mail
• shortlist suppliers;
Table 22: Dos and don’ts-Evaluate suppliers
• evaluate and assess each supplier; and
• award the contract.
Do Don’t

evaluate suppliers using a diverse do not choose a supplier based on a
team made up of people from across your personal preference for a certain technology
organization or brand
110 Procurement guidelines for smart sustainable cities | May 2023
score suppliers against the same criteria do not allow supplier proposals to be
you published with the opportunity changed or modified during the evaluation
stage
keep a record of how you have reached
your decisions do not award a contract if there are no
suitable suppliers

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