Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

The improved procurement process

3.1 implementing the procurement strategy

The Agency's Procurement Strategy was published in November 2001 and outlines the overlying principles that the Agency will apply in developing detailed policies and processes.

As part of the ongoing implementation of the Procurement Strategy, the CAT has been developed by the Agency's Supply Chain Management Team to:

• improve the consistency, transparency and robustness of the selection of tenderers.
• facilitate a programme of supplier development aimed at improving the effectiveness of our suppliers.

The CAT has been developed in consultation with the construction industry and incorporates feedback gained from across the Agency's procurement practices.

3.2 the new approach to selecting tenderers

Under the new approach, tenderer selection will be a high-level company assessment that will exclude detailed project issues. The aim will be to allow the best and most appropriate suppliers the most tendering opportunities.

The new process will use standard selection criteria to pre-qualify suppliers (step 1) and then capability, past performance and strategic overview information to arrive at a tender list (step 2).

This process has been designed to reward the most capable and best performing suppliers, whilst maintaining competition in our supply base. It systematically increases the likelihood of success, by ensuring that the best and most appropriate suppliers are placed on the Agency's tender lists. The process is consistent and transparent and allows suppliers to develop realistic and relevant improvement plans that respond to the feedback that they receive.

Data obtained from the CAT will initially be used in major highways procurement exercises, but will be applied to other work categories in due course.

3.3 how does the CAT fit into the procurement process?

The new two step process will be used to select suppliers for tender lists following receipt of expressions of interest.

step 1 pre-qualification

During this step, suppliers expressing an interest are assessed as to their financial and economic standing and their technical capacity, including a strong focus on health and safety issues. Suppliers must exceed acceptability thresholds to pre-qualify.

step 2 short-listing

A single set of validated capability scores will be held for each company on the Agency's procurement database. The scores will relate to the entire company and will normally be valid for a period of 12 months.

The validated capability scores will be used together with past performance and strategic overview information to arrive at the tender list.

This approach will:

• reduce the time and cost of selecting tender lists
• reduce the number of repetitive actions that are part of the current process
• increase consistency and transparency

The Highways Agency procurement vision (18KB PDF)