Source your suppliers
This phase is about ensuring the right suppliers and providers submit quality offers and that the best offer is selected for the right reasons.
Sourcing providers of social services
Extra information on what's needed to get the right organisations providing services for social services procurements is in the sourcing social services section of our website.
Approach the market
Put together your tender or proposal documents and advertise your opportunity on GETS if you're using an open procurement process.
Putting your tender documents together
Make sure you:
- use plain English and write as succinctly as possible. Avoid legalese, jargon and acronyms.
- don't draft your requirements or specification in a manner that creates unnecessary obstacles for suppliers or providers
- align your requirements, the evaluation criteria and the response form questions – eg if the supplier or provider is required to hold a particular accreditation, make sure there is a matching evaluation criterion and a response form question asking for details
- avoid asking for unnecessary information.
Evaluate offers and make a shortlist
The evaluation panel assesses all the offers based on the agreed criteria and methodology and makes an official recommendation for a shortlist or preferred supplier.
Conduct due diligence
You must, at a minimum, complete due diligence on your preferred provider before entering negotiations or awarding the contract. You can also use due diligence checks during the tender, including as part of your shortlisting process.
You complete due diligence by doing things to independently verify a supplier or provider:
- is who they claim to be,
- has the financial ability to deliver, and
- has the necessary capacity and capability to deliver over the life of the contract.
Negotiate with the preferred supplier
Negotiate with the preferred provider to reach an agreement.
For large or complex projects, your procurement specialist can help you make a negotiation plan and conduct the negotiations.
Draft the contract
The contract should:
- be drafted using plain English
- accurately record all agreed commitments, expectations and obligations, including all negotiated points.
The contract should include clear performance or outcome measures that cover:
- quantity - how much of the product or service is to be delivered
- quality - how well the product or service is to be delivered
- effect - the impact or outcomes expected.
It should also include or reference:
- any standards or codes of practice that must be met
- obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
Award the contract
Once the evaluation panel's recommendation has been approved and any conditions (eg reference checks) have been met, you can award the contract to the preferred supplier or provider. Both parties need to sign the contract before it becomes binding.
There should be a separation between the person signing the contract and the person who will have day-to-day responsibility for contract management. Most agencies adopt the ‘one-up’ system, where a manager at the next level up signs the contract.
You must publish a post-award notice on GETS that includes:
- the agency’s name and address
- the successful supplier’s or suppliers’ name/s and address/s
- a description of the goods, services or works
- the date the contract was awarded
- the term of the contract
- the expected spend under the contract, or the highest and lowest offers the agency evaluated to award the contract
- the type of procurement process used
- if the agency claimed an opt-out (Rule 11) or exemption from open advertising (Rule 12), the circumstances that justify the opt-out or exemption
- a New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) where available
- any other information, as requested by the Procurement System Leader, for example information on what economic benefits to New Zealand have been built into the procurement.
Debrief the unsuccessful suppliers
You must offer a debrief to any supplier or provider that has taken part in a competitive procurement process. The debrief can be over the phone, by email or letter or face to face.
In the debrief, you must:
- provide the reasons why an offer was not successful
- explain how the offer performed against the evaluation criteria
- indicate the advantages of the successful offer
- answer any concerns or questions from the provider.
The information you give must be detailed enough to show the provider how they could improve for future opportunities.
Now is a good time to review the sourcing exercise.
Guide to procurement
What you need to do before approaching and selecting a supplier or provider.
How to manage the contract once it's underway.