Arrangement update - March 2025

By Isobel Czislowski, Category Officer

The month of March is always a busy time for the Contracts Administration team due to the large February round, which saw 816 tenders submitted to our 41 open Arrangements. This month has seen the team work collectively to evaluate these submissions, issue clarifications and support the other internal and external evaluators.

February Re-Cap

The February round saw the new Quarries Arrangement LB341, have a fantastic uptake with 40 suppliers applying in the first open release.

The Arrangement with the largest submissions was Business Management and Consulting Services LB309, followed closely by our ever-popular ICT Solutions, Products, Services and New Technologies LB308 Arrangement.

The Evaluation Process

Evaluation periods in any procurement activity are where responses from suppliers are assessed to ensure that suppliers meet pre-determined criteria and any procurement objectives of an organisation.

Local Buy’s evaluation processes begin right when the tenders close. Data on submissions is extracted from the tender platform to verify the date and time of submissions. From here, any late submissions are submitted to the relevant Category Managers for acceptance.

Conflicts and Confidentiality Agreements follow promptly for each tender, with all internal and external evaluators reviewing the list of applicants and declaring any perceived or actual conflicts. These agreements must be signed in their entirety prior to the evaluations being unlocked in the tender platform.

Once unlocked, our team of internal and external evaluators begin reviewing and scoring the sections of each tender they are allocated to. One tender can have up to eight (8) people evaluating, issuing clarification and scoring submissions.

Once these evaluations are complete, the team then moves onto preparing the required Evaluation Reports, that seek to summarise the results of the evaluation. Probity Advisors review the findings of the evaluations and ensure that all processes and scoring is objective and fair.

This process is repeated for each tender, with up to 23,000 questions requiring evaluation overall and over 400 clarification questions issued. We ensure that probity and transparency are at the forefront of our evaluation activities.