7  Preferred Tenderers

7.1  Following expiry of the Tender Validity Period, the Service Provider shall (subject to the provisions of this paragraph 7) determine which Compliant Tender represents the best value for money for the Authority.  Without affecting the generality of the foregoing the Service Provider shall, when evaluating the submissions of Tenderers, ensure that the existing Services Contractor is not given an unfair competitive advantage because it does not have to make provision for Bulk Transfers.5

7.2  Immediately upon selecting the Preferred Tenderer(s) pursuant to in paragraph 7.1, the Service Provider shall supply to the Authority a copy of its tender evaluation, together with sufficient supporting information concerning the tender evaluation to enable the Authority to analyse and understand the basis for the Service Provider's determination.

7.3  If the Authority does not agree with the Service Provider's determination of the Preferred Tenderer(s), the Authority may, within fifteen (15) Business Days of being provided with the tender evaluation pursuant to paragraph 7.2, dispute such determination and, if the parties do not resolve such dispute within a further fifteen (15) Business Days, the dispute shall be referred for resolution in accordance with the Dispute Resolution Procedure.

_______________________________________________________________________________

5 The important thing is to ensure that the incumbent provider is not given an unfair advantage.  If a rival tenderer includes additional pricing provisions for bulk transfers that are, in the Authority's/the Service Provider's reasonable opinion, excessively cautious, this paragraph does not mean that the whole of the provision has to be disregarded for the purposes of evaluation.  Otherwise there is a risk of the incumbent being unfairly disadvantaged.