Managing positive feedback or non-response

Positive feedback is particularly important for bidders, as it provides the confidence and encouragement to pursue the innovative elements of their proposals. Experience suggests that the public sector is more comfortable providing negative feedback than positive feedback. However, an absence of positive feedback requires a bidder to 'guess' whether their bid meets the public sector's requirements or expectations in particular areas where a range of plausible interpretations exist.

There is often a perception that positive feedback carries a higher level of probity risk. In principle, this is not the case. The key issue for the public sector is to preface and represent the feedback it provides to bidders. That is, to the extent that the public sector sets clear boundaries and observes them, positive feedback can be provided without creating additional risk exposure. The preface for positive (and negative) feedback is essentially the re-iteration of the context for, and ground rules of, the interactive process, in particular re-stating the agreement between the parties on the issues of reliance and prejudice of the evaluation process (which are discussed below).

There are likely to be instances during the interactive workshops where the state team cannot respond. This may be due to the requirement for additional information to be provided by the bidder and/or the requirement for the project team to consider the issue in more detail. In these instances, bid teams are advised to defer a response to the issue in hand until such time as appropriate information is provided and/or the issue has been fully considered. The approach adopted will depend upon particular circumstances but include:

• requesting additional information from the bidder to assess the issue;

• taking the question on notice and providing a response at a later time or outside of the workshop session; and

• using a 'break out' session where the project team can consider the issue and provide a response following the 'break out' but during the same workshop session.