The United Kingdom has generally employed a negotiated procurement process for its highway PPP projects. Depending on the scale and complexity of the project, the in-house staff and consulting advisors involved can vary significantly. Procurement of the M25 project included a significant staff of internal and external personnel. "Case Example: M25" describes this project more fully. The primary stages of the process are (1) prequalification, (2) tender, (3) negotiation, and (4) contract award. Each stage is described below.
Prequalification includes the following:
♦ Prior information notice (PIN) to indicate to the market that a solicitation is pending
♦ Advertisement in OJEU
♦ Issue of prequalification pack, which includes details of the project, description of submission requirements, and assessment criteria
Tender includes the following:
♦ Issue of tender documents, which include a model contract, instructions and guidance to tenderers (IGT), an illustrative design to demonstrate to respondents that a feasible design solution for the project exists, and draft schedules
♦ Dissemination of tender circulars and response to queries
♦ Submission of tenders
♦ Assessment of tenders, which leads to identification of the provisional preferred bidder (PPB) and subsequently the preferred bidder