Step 3: Evaluate supplier offers
Complete initial checks and evaluate the offers you’ve received to identify the preferred supplier.
Assemble the evaluation team
The evaluation team should have 3 or more people on it. It could include:
- the procurement officer
- the procurement owner
- a technical expert, like an architect
- a school board member (this can’t be the same person as the procurement sponsor).
1 evaluator is nominated as the team’s chairperson – note that the chairperson can be the procurement officer, however for procurements over $100,000, this is a non-scoring role.
Do initial quality checks
The procurement officer and evaluation team’s chairperson will do an initial quality check of all the offers. Any that don’t meet the tender requirements can be excluded with approval from the procurement sponsor.
For each offer, verify that:
- the supplier has completed all declarations
- it’s compliant with the RFx process terms and conditions.
Evaluate offers
Use the evaluation process in the procurement plan to score each compliant offer.
After evaluating the scores individually, the evaluators will meet to moderate the scores and determine a preferred supplier. This process is led by the evaluation chair with support of the procurement officer.
Due diligence
Complete due diligence checks on the preferred supplier and document your findings. Due diligence checks can include:
- checking the supplier’s accreditation and staff’s qualifications
- credit checks and a review of the supplier’s financial information
- researching the supplier online
- contacting at least two of the supplier’s referees (these should be current or recent customers)
- asking other local schools for their opinion if they’ve worked with the supplier.
Police vetting is mandatory for anyone who is likely to have unsupervised access to students at a school during normal school hours.
Police vetting for school property contractors and consultants