Evaluation of tenders

Offers will generally be evaluated via a three-gate evaluation process.

An alternate evaluation method for a specific procurement may be used by the City where it is considered advantageous to do so. Any publicly available information may be taken into consideration when conducting evaluation of tenders.

Due diligence criteria

These are designed to enable the City to filter offers that do not conform to the invitation to offer requirements or pose unacceptable risk. Due diligence criteria allow the City to assess the risk of an offer, at any of the gates, to determine whether an offer is acceptable to continue in the evaluation process.

Gate 1: Mandatory criteria

These are formed, in terms of minimum specified requirements, to allow the City to filter out those submissions that do not conform to the mandatory requirements that are specified in the invitation to offer documentation. Non-conforming offers (which don't meet the mandatory criteria requirements) will not be further evaluated.

Gate 2: Capability scoring criteria

These are formed to allow the City to select capable offers based on a combination of capability (80%) and local benefits criteria weightings (20% minimum). A relative score for each capability criterion is assigned which has a percentage weighting allocated to it to represent its relative importance and worth in the selection process (out of 100%).

Gate 3: Value for money criteria

Offers are selected based on pricing criteria with the best value pricing submission(s) chosen.

An optional total cost of ownership (TCO) / pricing gate may be added when considered advantageous to do so, and considers both qualitative and quantitative criteria relative to each other. A fourth evaluation gate will include a weighted combination of capability and TCO to determine the most advantageous offer.

Local benefits

For contracts worth less than $250,000 the City will only invite quotes from local business in the first instance.

Only when local business cannot supply, deemed not capable or not providing value for money, can suppliers from outside the City of Gold Coast area be invited to quote, and the local benefits are applied.

Invitations are prioritised to businesses as per the following categorisation.

Table 1: Business categorisation for competitive local business and industry

A Category A business:

• has an office on the Gold Coast and conducts business within Gold Coast city boundaries prior to a contract being awarded for which their offer has been submitted
• constitutes a physical address as assessed using the 100 points identification checklist(PDF, 321KB)

For further information on the business categorisation refer to section 2.1 of the Procurement Policy & Contract Manual.

Local benefits weighting criteria

A minimum 20% local benefits weighting is applied to the capability scoring evaluation criteria. This percentage can be increased in line with the market conditions and procurement strategy developed.

Local benefits capability scoring is based on the benefits that are realised for Gold Coast businesses and the local economy. Criteria for local benefits include:

• local sourced services, manufactured or sourced goods
• local employment and local subcontracting
• local growth and development including:
  • provision of new local jobs and career development opportunities
  • commitment to community and social development initiatives
  • consortiums, joint ventures or strategic partnering with local firms
  • skills transfer, technology transfer, research and development transfer
  • investment in local training, apprenticeships, trainee opportunities certifications and capability
  • participation in the Gold Coast Business Excellence awards and other industry awards.

For further information on the details and policy considerations for Local Benefits refer to section 2.1 of the Procurement Policy & Contract Manual.

For contracts worth greater than $250,000 the local benefits are applied to all public tenders.

Tips to improve your City of Gold Coast Invitation to Offer response

To improve your chances of winning a City of Gold Coast Request for Quotation (RFQ) or Request for Tender (RFT), consider these tips when compiling your response.

Tips to improve your City of Gold Coast Invitation to Offer response(PDF, 149KB)

Supplier briefings / site inspections

At the discretion of the City, where included in the invitation to offer documentation, supplier briefings / site inspections may be held as part of the invitation to offer process. All suppliers wishing to respond to an offer are eligible to attend.

The purpose of the supplier briefing is to present to potential suppliers, information about the specifications, conditions of offer and conditions of contracts. They provide the opportunity for attendees to ask further questions of clarification. These will be documented along with the responses and issued as addenda to all registered suppliers.

Changes to offers prior to offer period closing

These will be done by way of an addendum. All addenda will be forwarded to all tenderers via VendorPanel.

Where appropriate, the tender period may be extended when an addendum is issued, at the discretion of the Chief Procurement Officer. All queries should be addressed only to the contact officer listed within the tender documentation.

Action by the City after receiving tenders

After the close of the tender date, the City may without limitation to any other action initiate the following:

Request clarifications

If requested by the City, the supplier must submit by the date and time specified, information to clarify their submission. Failure to provide the requested information may result in the offer being deemed non-conforming. It will not be evaluated further.

Invitation to change offers

The Procurement Policy & Contract Manual provides that the City may invite all suppliers who submitted an offer to change their offers where there is a change in the invitation to offer documentation.

This is during the period of the close offer but before any offer is recommended for acceptance. Should the change result in alternative suppliers submitting an offer, consideration will be given to withdrawing the invitation to offer and readvertising.

Enter into post-tender negotiations

The City may negotiate with suppliers after the close of offers when it has expressly reserved the right in the conditions of offer.

Only suppliers who proceed to gate 3 may be invited to enter into negotiations. The commencement of negotiations with one or more supplier is not an indication that a particular supplier's response has been unsuccessful or successful.

All negotiations will be handled with probity and the equality of opportunity will be maintained throughout the negotiations.

Acceptance of contracts

Procurement delegates can accept recommendations and enter contracts where the City has provided for the expenditure required in its approved budget.

Council approval is required to accept a recommendation and enter into a contract where the Contracts & Procurement delegate does not have the power to make such decisions, and/or where the expenditure required to service the contractual commitment has not been included in an approved budget.

For a contract to be formed, the offer of the recommended supplier(s) must be accepted. A formal contract (contract header), or purchase order can be used for this purpose. Each of these documents must be signed by a Contracts & Procurement delegate.