4.3 The number of expressions of interest received in response to the contract notice placed in the OJEU will normally be greater than is demanded by the procurement process. However, not all those that respond should or will want ultimately to bid for the project. Potential participants will base their decision about whether they want to be involved further largely on the next piece of information that they will obtain from the NHS body: the Memorandum of Information.
4.4 The NHS body should be ready to issue the Memorandum of Information and a Prequalification Questionnaire to everyone who responds to the contract notice and these documents should be prepared in advance of issuing the contract notice in OJEU.
4.5 The Memorandum of Information and the accompanying Prequalification Questionnaire should aim to:
• enable potential participants to decide whether they want to continue to be involved in the bidding process by providing appropriate information about the NHS body, the project and its prospects;
• invite expressions of interest in bidding for the project from the private sector;
• obtain information that will establish whether potential participants are technically and financially capable of delivering the project. PPP contracts are complex and expensive to procure. NHSScotland bodies must ensure that only consortia with the appropriate resources and skills-base are selected;
• enable the NHSScotland body to gain an understanding of the economic, financial and technical status and previous experience of the potential participants.
4.6 NHSScotland bodies should specify in the Memorandum of Information what type of members it requires to be present when consortia respond at this stage in the procurement process. It is recommended that in order to pre-qualify successfully consortia should include the following as a minimum:
• lead design and construct contractor and building maintenance services provider (however it is not necessary to have appointed architects at this stage);
• hotel services/facilities management provider;
• identified the project sponsors, the providers of equity and junior debt, the funding structure for the proposed project company, but not necessarily explicitly identified funders and third party risk capital providers. However, where funders are not identified, the consortia should have specified how they plan to raise such capital and the timetable for this.
4.7 Sponsors should be identified for the proposed project company at this stage. The private sector participant must demonstrate it has the resources to see the bid through to completion.
4.8 There is no preference on the part of the Scottish Government as to what type of company leads bidding consortia. Typically to date, consortia on major schemes have been led by building contractors or by companies specifically formed to bid for PPP projects and jointly led by contractors, service providers and/or financial institutions. The PPP marketplace continues to evolve and future bidding consortia and the type of companies leading consortia will not necessarily be the same as those involved in PPP today.
4.9 For smaller schemes, consortia may sometimes be professionally led by architects, project management companies or developers. There may also be the intention to tender aspects of the PPP deal, e.g. construction or service provider, at a later stage in the procurement to maintain competitive pressure on prices for longer during the procurement process. Depending upon the circumstances of the individual schemes, and the procurement vehicle being adopted to deliver them, the prequalification criteria should not be set so as to rule out such consortia. However, extreme caution must be exercised in such circumstances and participants should be asked to demonstrate that they will be able to recruit the necessary additional companies within the framework (particularly on risk transfer) of the deal that is envisaged prior to the selection of preferred bidder. Where NHSScotland bodies receive tenders which have differing levels of consortium membership then care should be taken to treat all consortia on an equal basis during evaluation.
4.10 The public version of the Outline Business Case should be made available on request to potential participants at this stage. The public version of the business case is discussed further in Chapter 9 of Preparing for PPP Procurement. Detailed information about both the CPAM, shadow bid model and affordability should be removed, however, the NHSScotland body should be prepared to disclose information about how the CPAM, shadow bid model and affordability have been developed in order to reassure participants that they are robust.