| COMPETITIVE TENDERING & COMPETITIVE CONTRACTING GUIDELINES |
| I. Public policy control should be retained so that services are operated
consistent with public policy objectives. |
A. The public agency should maintain complete control of service design, service
standards and performance criteria and any other matter necessary to the
accomplishment of the public purpose. |
B. The contract should be awarded to the lowest responsible and responsive proposer. |
C. Contract compliance should be monitored as a routine activity, with the use of
contract penalty and termination provisions as appropriate to ensure performance. |
| II. A competitive supplier market should be fostered to ensure the most cost
effective service. |
A. Information should be widely disseminated. |
B. Each request for proposals should cover the smallest increment of service practicable. |
C. Requests for tenders should clearly specify all service requirements and contain clear
and concise information on the required format of proposals. |
D. Generally, service contracts should be subject to new requests for proposals at least
every five years. |
E. Contract expiration dates should be rotated to minimize the increment of service being
competitively tendered at a particular time. |
F. No single company should be permitted to obtain contracts covering an excessive
percentage of service. |
G. Contract prices should not be subject to upward price negotiation after contract award. |
H. Public agencies should participate fairly in the procurement process by:
Excluding from the evaluation process any employees preparing the public agency
proposal.
Submitting sealed proposals by the published deadline.
Subject themselves to the same terms, conditions as would apply to a private
company, including expiration and retendering.
Including the attributable fully allocated operating and capital costs for the functions
procured.
Basing their proposals on cost saving innovations only to the extent that such
measures are applied in directly operated service. |
I. Public capital facilities or equipment should be made available to the successful
proposer to provide the specified service, where lower costs result. |
J. Public agencies should impose no contractor employee requirements beyond
compliance with labor laws that are generally applicable to all employees in the
economy. |
K. Public agencies should specify service outputs rather than service inputs |
| Adapted from Wendell Cox and Jean Love, "Designing Competitive Tendering Systems for the Public
Good" Transportation and Technology (U.K.), Vol. 15, 1991. . |
