5.3 A competitive procurement is one of the ways in which the public sector aims to achieve VfM in its procurement activities. The procuring authority and the sponsoring department should be confident that the procurement will receive an adequate competitive response and that competition can be maintained throughout the resulting procurement process.
5.4 Once the procurement has commenced the procuring authority and the sponsoring department should continue to assess the quality of competition at each stage of the procurement. If market interest drops below a competitive level, procuring authorities may need to reconsider their approach. In such cases, the qualitative assumptions made against the viability, desirability and achievability criteria should be reassessed at each stage.
5.5 The procuring authority should regularly review the quality and extent of competition throughout the procurement phase until the selection of Preferred Bidder. A robust competition requires a number of well-qualified bidders who have expressed strong interests in bidding for the project. If at any stage of the procurement process there are indications that this is not the case then prima facie, optimal competitive conditions may be absent. In such circumstances procuring authorities need to assess the issues that may be restricting the competitive process before determining the actions that can be taken.
5.6 Some of the issues that the procuring authorities need to consider when assessing the procurement are highlighted below in Box 5.2:
Box 5.2: Key issues to be considered in assessing competition • the approach and structure of the procurement • specific sector related issues • broader market issues and wider issues related to the timing of the procurement |