Invitation to
Tender (IT)
Purpose
The Invitation to Tender (IT) is a
procurement procedure to be issued for obtaining official offers
from bidders. This procedure concerns expenditures foreseen over
200 kCHF. It normally follows a Market Survey.
Invitation to
Tender documents
The documents to provide
depend on the nature of the expenditure.
There are two main types of Invitations to Tender: for supply
contracts and for industrial services
contracts.
Invitation to Tender documents
for supply contracts
An Invitation to Tender for supply
contracts includes the following documents to be prepared by the
technical responsible:
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Only firms
which have replied to the market
survey and are qualified on the
basis thereof shall be invited
to tender. |
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In
exceptional cases, the
Procurement Service and the Head
of the EN Department or his
representative may decide
jointly, on a case-by-case
basis, to add bidders after the
dispatch of the invitation to
tender under the condition that
the bidders reply to the market
survey and comply with the
qualification criteria. |
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A memorandum with the firms
that have been disqualified and reasons for disqualification
according to the Qualification Criteria stated in the Market
Survey, as defined in the
evaluation of firms procedure.
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The Technical
specification and
its annexes.
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Template
for
technical
specification for
supply
contracts
is
available in this
site. |
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A
bidders’ conference is normally
recommended for supplies
including complex installation
in CERN’s sites. |
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Template
for risk
matrix is
available in this
site. |
The following documents are
prepared by the purchase officer:
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A tender form
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A cover letter
Invitation to Tender documents
for industrial services contracts
An Invitation to Tender for
industrial services contracts includes
the following documents to be prepared by the technical
responsible:
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Only firms
which have replied to the market
survey and are qualified on the
basis thereof shall be invited
to tender. |
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In
exceptional cases, the
Procurement Service and the Head
of the EN Department or his
representative may decide
jointly, on a case-by-case
basis, to add bidders after the
dispatch of the invitation to
tender under the condition that
the bidders reply to the market
survey and comply with the
qualification criteria. |
-
A memorandum with the firms
that have been disqualified and reasons for disqualification
according to the Qualification Criteria stated in the Market
Survey, as defined in the
evaluation of firms procedure.
-
The Technical
specification and
its annexes.
|
|
Template
for
technical
specification for
industrial
services
contracts
is
available in this
site. |
|
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For industrial support contracts,
technical specification
documents shall be elaborated in
a clear manner and best effort
to avoid any possible "Délit
de marchandage". |
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A
bidders’ conference is normally
recommended for
complex services on
CERN’s sites. |
|
|
Template
for risk
matrix is
available in this
site. |
|
|
Template
for
evaluation
questionnaire for industrial
support contracts is
available in this
site. |
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In
case of adjudication as Best
Value for Money, documents
relating to adjudication
criteria remain confidential and
will not be sent for technical
auditing, nor presented in the
specifications meetings. |
The following documents are
prepared by the purchase officer:
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A tender form
-
A cover letter
Points to note
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Service contracts duration:
service
contracts shall be awarded for a
period of three years, renewable
by CERN for up to four further
optional years in cases of
recurrent activities. In the
case of project-linked
contracts, the duration of the
contract may match the project
duration. |
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CERN shall request the bidder
to quote his prices
in Swiss francs (CHF) or if the
bidder wishes to be paid in
another currency, in that
currency (his national currency
or the currency in which he will
have major expenses). For the
purpose of adjudication, CERN
shall convert any amount quoted
in another currency into CHF by
using the European Central Bank
(ECB) fixing rate applying on
the closing date of the price
enquiry or invitation to tender. |
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Invitations to Tender shall be
drafted in English.
Where a Market Survey has shown
that only firms in
French-speaking areas are
interested in being invited to
tender, the invitation to tender
documents may be drafted in
French. |
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As a rule, the closing
date for firms to
submit their bid shall not be
less than four weeks
from the date of dispatch of the
invitation to tender, with a
longer period being specified
for more complex items or where
a lengthier tendering process
could be envisaged. |
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In urgent cases, the Head of the
Procurement Service may
authorise the deadline for
submission of the bids to be
reduced. There exists even an
“accelerated procedure in the
case of urgent contracts”. |
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For invitations to tender, the
two-week CERN end-of-year
holiday and the period from 15
July to 14 August shall be
excluded when calculating the
closing date submitting bids. |
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Any request by a bidder for an
extension of the deadline for
submission of the bids shall
reach CERN at least one week
before the scheduled closing
date. The Procurement Service,
in agreement with the user,
shall decide on the
appropriateness of granting such
an extension. If the deadline is
extended, all the firms
contacted, expect those that
have already declined, shall be
informed of the new closing date. |
Technical
auditing
The purpose of technical auditing
is to review carefully the invitation to tender documents, so as
to ensure that the Procurement Rules are complied with. The
technical auditing shall be carried out by a specification
committee in the framework of technical specification meetings.
Once the technical documents
described before have been prepared, the
steps listed below shall be followed:
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All technical, and
commercial if available, documents shall be sent
to the
EN Specification Review Panel before they
are sent outside the EN Department, for reading,
discussion and comments if needed.
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Once the documents
have been read and commented by the
EN Specification Review Panel, they have to
be sent by the technical responsible to the
sLHC Specification Committee (contact point:
Cécile NOELS) who will distribute the documents
to the different members, from different
Departments, who are part of the Specification
Committee. The time to be allowed for the
collection of comments is two weeks.
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After the
collection of comments the
sLHC Specification Committee will call a
meeting to which will be invited:
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All technical persons who have
commented the documents.
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The Purchasing and Industrial
Service representatives.
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Legal Service,
if required.
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Head of Department.
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Any other person the chairman of
the meeting considers necessary.
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The chairman of
the meeting shall be the responsible of the
sLHC Specification Committee (Tadeusz
Kurtyka) or the person to whom he might
delegate.
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After the
technical specification meeting, all agreed
corrections and comments will be given by the
chairman of the specification meeting to the
technical responsible, who will modify the
documents accordingly. The chairman will also
provide the purchasing officer the agreed
corrections and comments to be included in the
commercial documents.
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Once all
corrections of both, commercial and technical
documents, are made, the documents will be sent
again to the chairman of the
sLHC Specification Committee, who will read
the documents again and finally give his agreement for the
documents to be sent out of the Organization.
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Once the agreement
from the chairman of the
sLHC Specification Committee is obtained,
the technical responsible or his group secretary
shall insert the documents in CFU/AIS Media.
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It shall be noted that
technical auditing is also
requested in the following
cases:
- Invitations
to tender of an
estimated value
above 200 000
CHF in case of
non-competitive
tendering.
(internal EN
Department
auditing via
EN Specification
Review Panel).
- In cases
where market
surveys, price
enquiries and
invitations to
tender include
Research and
Development and
prototype work
for amounts
above 50 000
CHF.
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Dispatch of Invitation to Tenders
Once the technical documents are
inserted in CFU/AIS Media, the invitation to tender is ready to
be sent out by the purchase officer.
Except in the case of adjudication
under Best Value for Money basis, the technical and commercial
documents, via the purchase officer, are accompanied by the
following documents:
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Selection
adjudication Criteria for Supply/Industrial
service contracts for invitation to tenders
(document updated the 1 March of every year and
that explain the realignment bases and
procedures).
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General Conditions
for Invitations to Tender.
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General Conditions
of CERN Contracts.
The closing dates by which the
bidders shall submit their bids shall be as follows:
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