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    3. Special Characteristics of the PPP Tender Process
    Most of the features and characteristics of the tender process will be the same as in any public procurement process, but some stages and steps have specific characteristics and features. Special considerations inherent to the particular complexities of PPPs are listed below. Time to prepare and...
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    4. Overview of the Phase
    Generally, there are four main stages into which any tender process may be divided. Pre-qualification (in open tenders with a pre-qualification stage) or short listing (in a process with a short listing or pre-selection of candidates). Bid period – from launching through bid submission or...
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    5. Time to Prepare and Submit Offers: Requirements for Proper Assessment and Preparation by the Prospective Bidders
    As introduced in section 2 of chapter 5, it is essential to give the bidders sufficient time to prepare a sound and high quality offer. Especially in open tender models, one of the common pitfalls in a PPP procurement is that the procuring authority allows bidders insufficient time for this work....
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    6. Managing Matters during the Bid Submission Stage in Open Tenders
    The following section applies to any open tender process, including those with a previous pre-qualification phase. In processes with such a pre-qualification phase, the RFP is only issued when the qualification process has been concluded.
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    6.1. Launching the Tender Process [4]
    Launching is the milestone that triggers the tender process. Tender documents are published through standard government processes, often in the official government bulletin or journal, on a centralized procurement website, or in regional or national newspapers. Sometimes, in the case of procurement...
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    6.2. Bid Stage
    The bid stage occurs with the issue of an invitation to tender to the deadline for bid submission. This stage is, by definition, a private sector stage. During this time, prospective bidders assess the project and the proposed contract, and prepare their bids (appendix 6A explains the bid...
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    6.3. Clarifications of the Contract and RFP
    It is good practice for the procuring authority to allow requests for clarification of the contract and the RFP, but the procuring authority should retain discretion about whether to respond. The procuring authority should provide a response wherever this will assist bidders to provide a better bid...
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    6.4. Assessing Potential Changes to the Contract and RFP
    As a result of questions asked by bidders through the clarification process, it may become apparent that the procuring authority needs to materially change aspects of the contract, tender requirements, or criteria. Conducting a proper appraisal and structuring/drafting process, through meaningful...
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    6.5. Being Responsive
    The procuring agency should be responsive to the requests for clarifications, providing appropriate answers in due time to give prospective bidders the best opportunity to provide high quality bids.
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    6.6. Open Meetings
    During the bid submission period, it is good practice to have interim open meetings with prospective bidders to present responses to the questions and facilitate the provision of any information relevant to the process (for example, if a government is retaining the responsibility for land...
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    6.7. Asking for Extensions
    It is common for bidders to formally or informally ask for extensions to the bid submission deadline, claiming a lack of time to prepare the bids. When one or more bidders request an extension, others might be ready to submit; therefore, an extension may produce an unfair disadvantage to those...
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    7. Qualification Matters
    In a one-stage process with open tender, qualifications are presented at the same time as the offer. The procuring authority must first assess qualifications before evaluating the bids. Separating these two steps sequentially is generally regarded as good practice, and some jurisdictions regulate...
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    8. Specific Matters on Managing Dialogue and Interactive Processes: Managing the Dialogue Period and One-on-One Meetings
    In addition to the need to select or pre-select the candidates in a short list (see chapter 5.6.4), the competitive dialogue processes (and other interactive processes) have a number of particular and common issues. These relate to the special stage of interaction or dialogue where the technical...
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    8.1. Managing the Risk of Meetings with Individual Bidders
    Having separate meetings with each potential bidding organization or consortium can provide better outcomes than only having a single meeting attended by competing organizations. However, meetings with individual bidders also entail a range of risks. The better outcomes arise because meetings with...
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    9. Evaluation of Proposals
    As with assessment of qualifications, proposals must be evaluated in accordance with the criteria set out in the RFP. In this sense, there will be an important difference in terms of process between price-only evaluation and a combination of quality and price criteria. The latter is clearly more...
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    9.1. Administrative or Compliance Check
    The first step in evaluation is a review of formal requirements, which is also called the ‘administrative requirements’ of the proposal. This involves confirming that the bid was submitted as required by the RFP, checking that powers and signatures are valid, and confirming that the bid complies...
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    9.2. Evaluation Committees
    Where the assessment has significant subjective/qualitative elements, it is important to have that evaluation performed by subject matter experts. In some cases, the subject matter experts may be government employees, in other cases they may be external advisers/consultants. For example, according...
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    9.3. Price and Quality Evaluation Process
    As explained in chapter 5, the most common type of evaluation process is based on a combination of criteria. In this context, as introduced in chapter 5, there are two approaches, which may be regarded as good practice: a streamed process and a consecutive or staged approach. Factors relevant to...
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    10. Negotiation with a "Preferred" Bidder
    A major difference between procurement approaches in different countries is in the extent to which the government enters into negotiations with the “preferred” (but not yet successful) bidder following the evaluation process, but prior to the award of the contract. The need for post-bid negotiation...
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    11. Award
    After the tender is evaluated according to the relevant criteria provided in the RFP and any negotiations are satisfactorily completed, the award decision is made by the relevant authority, usually based on the recommendation made by the evaluation team. In some countries/jurisdictions, this does...