g) Senior departmental management should be closely involved.
As a substantial part of its operations would be transferred to the private sector, senior management within National Savings took control of the project and, with the support of professional and experienced staff, committed a large amount of time to planning the procurement and agreeing the terms of the contract with SBS (paragraphs 3.2 and 3.3).
h) Departments will be in a much stronger negotiating position if the content and scope of the deal is made clear to bidders.
National Savings clearly defined its own responsibilities and those of a private sector partner at the Invitation to Negotiate stage of the procurement process. There were considerable benefits in sending out a properly constructed Invitation to Negotiate and it is questionable whether National Savings would have got such a good deal if the document had been issued on the date originally intended. Throughout the procurement, pre-determined criteria were used to evaluate bids. To avoid any drift on price, risk transfer and value generally, competitive pressure was maintained on two final bidders by negotiating a draft contract with each of them before recommending a preferred bidder to the Treasury (paragraphs 3.8 to 3.16).