How To Do Business With OIC
Tender Opportunities
The Council offers suppliers a number of opportunities to tender for the goods, services and works it requires. Tender opportunities are advertised on the Public Contracts Scotland Portal, available from 'Related Sites' section of this page.
Current Contracts
The Council is a complex organisation delivering a diverse range of goods, works and services to the communities of the county.
We spend in the region of £50M every year with third party providers, and we work hard to ensure that this procurement activity is not only aligned with the requirements of our communities, but also that the process is fair, transparent, and legally robust.
To enable business to identify potential sub-contracting opportunities, the Council provides details of all contracts awarded, including the contact details of the successful tenderer, on the Public Contracts Scotland Portal, available from the 'Related Sites' section of this page. From time to time we may also publish on the Public Contracts Scotland Portal the details of companies that have been invited to tender.
e-Procurement
We are keen to develop our electronic procurement capability and will shortly be taking steps to take this a step further by adopting e-purchasing, which will enable the Council to trade with its suppliers electronically. We are also exploring other means of electronic procurement including the use of e-tendering and the use of purchase cards.
Small to Medium Enterprise Development
We are dedicated to working with local businesses including voluntary sector organisations, and social enterprises, encouraging them to tender for council contracts and providing support and guidance wherever we can.
Our aim is to:
- Develop better procurement support for local businesses.
- Understand any barriers that the business may encounter, and endeavour to remove any unnecessary obstacles.
- Understand each other's needs.
- Ensure opportunities are maximised.
Our objectives are to:
- Proactively engage with local businesses throughout the county and surrounding areas through a series of seminars, training sessions and face-to-face meetings.
- Develop relationships with local businesses to gain an understanding of their capabilities and to help them to understand our requirements.
- Ensure tendering processes are kept as clear and simple as possible to minimise costs and wherever possible to package large tenders into smaller lots.
- Provide guidance, support and training opportunities in areas such as e-procurement; how to tender for Council opportunities; environment management systems; health and safety; sustainability.
Selection
The selection stage is the point in the procurement process where the Council is able to assess a Bidder’s capacity and capability to carry out the contract and, where appropriate, to shortlist those Bidders to invite to tender.
The Council uses the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) (Scotland) which is the standard form document introduced by the new EU Public Procurement Directive (Directive 2014/241/EU) which replaces the Scottish Standard Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (SPQQ).
The Council’s Corporate Procurement Team is responsible for ensuring that a consistent approach to pre-qualification is applied across the Council.
The Suppliers Charter
This Council has adopted the Suppliers Charter and fully accepts that effective procurement practices are an important factor in ensuring a varied and competitive marketplace and creating opportunities for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), as well as ensuring Best Value/Value for Money for the public sector. We recognise the need, where practical, to simplify and standardise processes and to ensure consistency in order to provide a fair and open approach to tendering.
