The Construction Playbook requires that the evaluation of supplier bids must be based on a client's 'clear understanding of value, their desired/required outcomes and how these align to government's wider priorities, including net zero GHG emissions by 2050' (p.56). It recognises that framework providers and clients will need to adopt new evaluation practices in order to achieve this clear understanding and requires that:
■ 'Value-based procurement should be adopted at an organisational level and driven through a portfolio approach to projects and programmes' (p.56)
■ 'Evaluation - and evaluation criteria- should focus on value over cost' (p.56)
■ 'The quality evaluation criteria need to be sufficiently well developed and detailed to allow for the differentiation in scores between competing bids, to avoid too close or identical scores from bidders' (p.57).
A balanced approach to evaluating prospective suppliers for frameworks and framework call-offs lies at the heart of Gold Standard framework strategies, procurement processes and contracts. It enables framework providers and clients to test supplier proposals against required and expected outcomes at framework level and at project level.
Framework providers and clients should use consistent, proportionate and relevant processes for framework evaluation and call-off evaluation. They should link these to framework objectives and success measures, to Project Outcome Profiles and to agreed criteria for performance measurement.