Page 127 - Procurement guidelines for smart sustainable cities - A U4SSC deliverable

Why it's important

The evaluation stage enables public officials and stakeholders to assess suppliers fairly and decide
on a winner. They must evaluate suppliers using the assessment methods and evaluation criteria
they published with their requirements.

What it means

The most common way to assess suppliers is against a written proposal describing how they will
deliver the outcomes published by public officials and stakeholders. This is often combined with
a presentation, allowing them the chance to meet the supplier and ask questions.

If the supplier is proposing a team, it is important to meet some or all of them during the evaluation
stage. This will help public officials and stakeholders direct technical questions to the right person.
Other assessment methods such as interviews or tests might be more appropriate if they are hiring
an individual specialist, for example a software developer.

Public officials and stakeholders should make sure that they:

• ask suppliers to provide information in the same format, whichever method they choose; for
example, give suppliers a template to fill in so that it is easier to assess them; and

• do not look at any suppliers’ proposals until after the deadline.

Public officials and stakeholders can ask suppliers questions in order to clarify their written proposals,
but they should not allow them to resubmit proposals with modifications. Use an evaluation team
or panel to score the suppliers. This will help ensure objectivity and reach a consensus.

The team should:

• include people from across the organization who will be involved in the use of the product/
service;

• include people with a diverse range of skills, experience, genders and backgrounds;
• be aware of their evaluation criteria and requirements and have read the supplier proposals;
and

• use the scoring system published with the opportunity and add justifications for their scores.

The team should not evaluate suppliers based on:

• experience of working with a particular supplier;
• personal preferences for a certain technology or brand; or

• social background, age or gender.

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