What’s a public contract?

The entire public procurement process starts with one essential component: need.

A public authority will identify something they need, and they’ll look for a supplier to fulfil that need. To do this, they publish a contract notice.

Essentially, it’s the public sector version of a wanted ad. And it’s where your journey to winning new business begins.

More about thresholds

Any public sector organisation publishing a contract opportunity over a certain value (known as a threshold) must advertise it in the OJEU. There are different thresholds in place depending on the type of contract being awarded and the sector the contract is being advertised for.

For regular public contract notices to provide goods, works or services, the current thresholds are:

However, some contracts in more specialised sectors require their own thresholds.

The European Utilities Contracts Regulations 2006 and Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 are used for utility companies operating in the energy, water and transport sectors and defence and security related organisations and authorities, respectively.

Due to the specialised nature of these industries and marketplaces, the following specific thresholds are used:

The Concession Contracts Regulations 2016 and Concession Contracts Regulations (Scotland) 2016 govern contracts under which a contracting authority or utility outsources works or services to a company which has the right to commercially exploit the works or services to recoup its investment and make a return.

The new OJEU procurement thresholds launched on 1 January 2018, and will be in place until 31 December 2019.

These thresholds are exclusive of VAT and relate to the full life of the contract.

What’s in a notice?

The contract notice will usually contain the following information:

	The name and contact details of the buying organisation
	Who will be entitled to use the contract (particularly if the contract is being placed on behalf of a group of public bodies)
	The type of contract on offer (supplies, works or services)
	The main commodity being procured
	Any other items required which are not covered by the main object category
	The tendering procedure that will be followed
	The criteria that suppliers will have to meet
	Whether there’s an alternative way of meeting the requirements of the contract notice
	The total quantity or scope of the contract (One item or many? A one-time service or an ongoing package?)
	The economic, financial and technical capacity that will be expected of successful bidders

The notice could provide more information than this, and that’s great news for you. The more information offered, the better.

Prior Information Notice (PIN)

Buyers may issue a Prior Information Notice (PIN). PINs can be used in three ways by most authorities, but not all.

The first use for a PIN is merely to issue Notification to the market. This may be to identify an upcoming opportunity or could be an invitation to an open day to discuss the authority’s requirements.

The second use for a PIN is for a contracting authority to advise the market that it intends to reduce the tender timescale of an upcoming opportunity. If the authority intends to use it in this fashion, it must publish the PIN at least 35 days before it publishes the OJEU notice, but the use in this manner allows them to reduce the tender timescale by 20 days.

A PIN may also now be used as a ‘Call for Competition’ in both the Restricted Procedure and the Competitive Procedure with Negotiation, but only by non-Central Government bodies.  This means that the buyer will not publish any further contract notice after the PIN so contractors will need to read the full text of the notice and respond accordingly.

PINs follow a standard form and outline:

 – who the buyer is

 – what’s required

 – the anticipated contract value

 – the type of contract

 – scheduled date for start of award procedure

PINs allow you to prepare to bid for the contract before the procurement process officially begins. The more prepared you are in advance of the contract being published, the better your eventual chances of success will be.

Other types of opportunities to look out for

Framework Agreement

In some cases, a public sector authority will identify a need, maybe on a repetitive basis, but may not yet fully understand the full extent of what is required – for example, how long the need may last or how many suppliers may be needed to provide a solution.

In this case, a contracting authority may publish a Framework Agreement, either on its own or in collaboration with other buyers. This is an arrangement where the buyer selects suppliers and sets the terms and prices for a period in advance (often up to 4 years in the future), selects suppliers and then calls on those suppliers to deliver the specification when required.

Framework agreements are commonly set up to cover things required on a routine basis like construction and maintenance, various forms of consultancy, office and IT supplies, facilities operations and so on.

Although there is never a guarantee of work even if you are part of a Framework Agreement, being awarded a place on a framework is a sign to others that your business is a key player in the industry.

Now that you understand notices…

It’s time to get your hands on them!

As we’ve already discussed, the public sector is vast. There are thousands of buyers out there and, as a result, there are thousands of places you can look to find opportunities.

In the next section, we’ll show you where to get these opportunities and how to sort irrelevant contracts from relevant opportunities.