By Joanna Frost
5th Oct 2016
New Mandatory Standard PQQ to be Used When Conducting OJEU Tenders Crown Commercial Services (CCS) have just published a revised Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (now called a Selection Questionnaire.) this is mandatory for all contracting authorities to use in all tenders that are above the relevant EU threshold to which The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 apply. You should now stop using the previous mandatory Pre- Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) and instead refer to this new guidance and use the new standard Selection Questionnaire.
Why the Changes?
A new document was needed to align the CCS standard PQQ with the requirements of the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) set out in The Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The ESPD is an online service that allows suppliers to self-certify that there are no grounds for exclusion and as there has been an obligation on contracting authorities since January 2016 to accept completed ESPDs from suppliers, it was important that the two documents mirrored each other.
Important Points to Note:
The SQ is for use when you are conducting your own, above relevant threshold tender processes advertised in OJEU. Of course, one of the benefits of using a framework agreement instead of conducting your own tender process, is that you don’t have to worry about the above as the CPC will have done the selection stage for you. Instead you can concentrate on evaluating the framework suppliers against your specific requirements.
The Further Education Library of Procurement has more information on the selection stage of a tender process or if you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact your CPC Regional Procurement Advisor for more information.