6. The Department did not carry out a market survey to establish how many companies would be interested in the project and to assess whether its proposals for the project were likely to be attractive to potential bidders. Only three firms responded to the Business Prospectus and all potential bidders bar ICL dropped out one by one. The Department was thus unable to maintain competitive tension during the procurement.6
7. The Department had been concerned when the last remaining competitor to ICL decided not to bid. It had negotiated with the company to keep them in the competition but they had declined to remain. The Department was satisfied at that stage that ICL was working constructively to produce a good bid and so decided to proceed with ICL rather than to abort the competition and go for a re-procurement. It nevertheless accepted that having more than one bidder would have been much better.7
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6 C&AG's Report, paras 2.9-2.12
7 Qq 8-9, 126-129