Awarding a contract in property procurement

Learn how to complete the property procurement process by recommending a supplier and awarding a contract.

Aspects of the property procurement process are mandatory and must be completed.

• Recommend a supplier
• Review the draft recommendation report
• Inform suppliers of the procurement outcome
• Request funding release
• Retain records of the process
• Manage contract execution
• Further information

Recommend a supplier

The procurement officer must draft a procurement recommendation report using the template below. It summarises the evaluation which was completed and recommends a supplier to the procurement sponsor.

Procurement Recommendation Report Template [DOC, 118 KB]

See more on Roles in property procurement.

Procurements valued less than $10,000

For procurements valued less than $10,000, a recommendation report is not usually required. However, a report must be supplied if requested by the School's Property Advisor.

Two-stage open tenders

For a two-stage open tender, a recommendation report must be completed after stage one (the ROI).

This recommendation is made to state which suppliers should be advanced to stage two, when they will be invited to make an offer in the closed RFT or RFP.

A second recommendation report must then be made when stage two is completed, to identify the preferred supplier.

See more on Using either a single-stage or two-stage open tender

Review the draft recommendation report

After the procurement officer has drafted the recommendation report, it is passed on to both the procurement owner and procurement leader for endorsement.

If no feedback is received from a Ministry school property advisor (procurement leader) after two business days, a report can be considered endorsed by the them.

The recommendation report is then passed on to the procurement sponsor for approval. The sponsor should consider:

• Were any conflicts of interested declared and if so, were they managed appropriately?
• Did the evaluation conducted follow the process that was described in the procurement plan?
• Were late offers appropriately managed by either excluding them from evaluation or accepting them only if reasonable (i.e. the supplier received no real advantage by allowing their late submission)?
• Is the evaluation process and rationale for the selection of the preferred offer described clearly and in-full?

See more on Roles in property procurement.

Inform suppliers of the procurement outcome

After a recommendation report is approved by the procurement sponsor, schools must contact all suppliers who made offers and inform them of their offer’s outcome.

For procurements with a value of $100,000 or more:

• notify all suppliers in writing
• post an award notice on GETS
• offer to provide a debrief.

Note: when advising suppliers of the outcome you cannot provide detailed information about other suppliers’ pricing but you can say where the supplier ranked on total cost. 

The below worksheet supports with providing supplier debriefs.

Tender debrief worksheet [DOCX, 240 KB]

Successful suppliers

Inform the selected supplier that they have been awarded the contract, subject to funding being released.

The contracts on the pages below must be used when agreeing to a purchase.

Contracts for school-led property projects and maintenance
Contracts for Ministry-led property projects

The below template supports with contacting successful suppliers.

Preferred or shortlisted respondent letter template [DOC, 31 KB]

If the selected supplier flagged contract conditions for negotiation when they submitted their offer, negotiate the final contract form with them until it is mutually acceptable.

Follow the steps below to execute the contract.

See more on Roles in property procurement

Unsuccessful suppliers

It is important to also communicate with unsuccessful suppliers.

Explain how they performed under the evaluation criteria and why the winning supplier had an advantage (without disclosing commercial information).

This communication encourages unsuccessful suppliers to submit an offer again in the future, when they may be in a position to make a better offer.

For procurements valued less than $100,000, contact unsuccessful suppliers by email or phone.

When the project has a value of $100,000 or more, unsuccessful suppliers must be contacted using an unsuccessful respondent letter, or through a verbal debrief.

Unsuccessful respondent letter template  [DOC, 31 KB]

Request funding release

To request funding for the project to be released by the Ministry to the board, the procurement officer must submit the following documents to the procurement leader:

• the project management forms
• the endorsed and approved procurement plan
• the endorsed and approved recommendation report.

See more on Roles in property procurement

Retain records of the process

Retain all procurement documentation in the project file for seven years.

Manage contract implementation

After the contract is awarded, it is good practice for the procurement sponsor to provide a written report to the board that summarises:

• the key tasks that they have undertaken in the procurement process, with completion dates
• what went well in the procurement
• what could be improved on in future procurements
• where all documentation is filed (including any that has been passed on to the project manager).

See more on Roles in property procurement

Meanwhile, the project manager is responsible for ensuring that the intended outcomes from the procurement are achieved.

The project manager continues to manage the:

• contract implementation
• relationship with the supplier
• supplier’s performance.

Last reviewed: 28 March 2024 Has this been useful? Give us your feedback