Procurement process for school property projects

The procurement process set out on this page is part of the school property procurement framework. It must be used for all school property-related procurement.

• Overview
• School property procurement
• Initiate the procurement
• Identify the needs of the procurement and analyse the market
• Specify the statement of requirements
• Plan approach to market and evaluation
• Approach the market and select
• Negotiate and award
• Support

Overview

The purpose of the school property procurement process is to support schools and the project managers they engage to manage school property projects to:

• plan how to get the best outcomes from their procurements
• approach the market in the best way for the procurement value
• evaluate and select suppliers based on the value they offer
• manage contracts to make sure suppliers deliver on agreed outcomes.

Project manager engagement for school property projects

School property procurement 

School and the project managers they engage to manage their property projects must use this procurement process and the associated School property procurement templates and guides for all school property-related procurement.

School property procurement templates and guides 

Property-related procurement falls into two categories:

The school property procurement process is summarised in the School Property Procurement Quick Guide.

School Property Procurement Quick Guide [PDF, 175 KB]

Initiate the procurement

1. Confirm that there is a budget for the project, for example your school has received funding for the project through their approved 5 Year Agreement, School Investment Package, or Property Maintenance Grant.

For information about these and other kinds of property funding, see:
Property funding and financials

2. Prepare a high level description of what is required. This is called a (high level) statement of requirements
3. Use the high level statement of requirements to estimate the procurement value. When estimating the procurement value, you should consider the maximum value of all of the spending that may result from the procurement, including any:

• potential contract variations or extensions
• other work that may need to be done, and
• additional contracts that may result from this.

For example, if you need plumbing services you should consider if the services you need are a one-off, or whether you’re likely to need more plumbing services from time to time.

If you’re likely to need more plumbing services, you should include the value of these when you estimate the procurement value.

Identify the needs of the procurement and analyse the market

4. Allocate roles for the procurement: 

5. Identify and set out a plan for managing personal and commercial conflicts of interest.

Conflict of interest management on school property procurements

6. Conduct needs analysis, which may include:

• consulting with stakeholders, such as board members, teachers, your school property advisor, other schools
• analysing previous projects/spend or similar projects at other schools
• carrying out market research and engaging with potential suppliers to gauge availability and encourage participation.

Specify the statement of requirements

7. Develop a detailed statement of requirements describing the:
• outcome sought
• the solution/deliverables (goods, services or contract works) required to achieve the outcome sought
• capability (skills and expertise) required to deliver the required solution
• capacity (resources and availability) required to deliver the required solution
• pricing structure: how suppliers will be required to break down their prices
• intended contractual arrangement (type of contract and key contract terms and conditions).

Plan approach to market and evaluation

8. Reconfirm the procurement value based on the detailed statement of requirements.
9. Select the appropriate ‘approach to market’ method. This is the way you invite potential suppliers to put in a bid to supply the goods, services or works you need. The school property procurement framework sets out minimum approaches to market based on the procurement value. A higher threshold approach to market method should be used if warranted by the risk and/or complexity of the procurement. 

In exceptional circumstances, a procurement exemption may be granted to allow the use of a lower threshold approach to market method.

Procurement exemptions for school property projects

10. Draft the procurement plan using the appropriate template.

You don’t need a procurement plan for a procurement with a value less than $10,000, but you do need approval to go ahead with it from the board of trustees representative (procurement sponsor). You can ask for this via an email that explains what you plan to buy and why.

11. Get your procurement plan endorsed and approved:
• Submit your plan to the school representative for endorsement.
• If the procurement value is $50,000 or more, submit the endorsed plan to the school property advisor for their endorsement – if you don’t get any feedback after 2 business days, you can consider the plan endorsed.
• Submit all endorsed plans to the board of trustees representative (procurement sponsor) for approval.
12. Draft the approach to market document(s) using the appropriate template(s) and get it approved by the school representative:

Approach the market and select 

13. Approach the market: 
• For open tenders, advertise the ROI, RFT or RFP on www.gets.govt.nz(external link)
• For closed tenders and direct source, send the RFQ to identified potential suppliers to invite them to submit a quote.

To use GETS (Government Electronic Tenders Service), you have to first become a GETS Procurement Officer. To apply, email EIS.procurement@education.govt.nz.  

14. The evaluation team evaluates the responses and selects a shortlist or a preferred supplier using the relevant tools and guides. 

15. The evaluation team identifies any due diligence checks that need to be done. These may include:
• reference checks
• police vetting
• checking professional accreditations.

The project manager is responsible for carrying out most checks. But only the Board of Trustees can request police vetting.

Police vetting for school property contractors

16. Draft the recommendation report, which summarises the evaluation and recommends a preferred supplier. For a two-stage open tender, a separate recommendation report is required to recommend the shortlist from the ROI before running a closed RFT or RFP. 

Procurement Recommendation Report [DOC, 118 KB]

Tip: You don’t need to write a recommendation report for a procurement with a value less than $10,000 that isn’t funded by a 5 year agreement.

17. Get your recommendation report endorsed and approved, by submitting:
• the report to the school representative for endorsement
• the endorsed report to the school property advisor for their endorsement – if you don’t get any feedback after 2 business days you can consider the report endorsed
• the twice endorsed report to the board of trustees representative for approval.

Negotiate and award

18. As soon as practical after the recommendation report has been approved, notify suppliers that they have been either preferred (subject to final contract negotiation) or unsuccessful. For procurements of $100,000 or more, you must notify suppliers in writing and offer or provide them with a debrief.

Debriefs should be carried out after the contract has been awarded.

School property procurement unsuccessful respondent letter [DOC, 31 KB]
School property procurement preferred or shortlisted respondent letter [DOC, 31 KB]

19. Negotiate a mutually acceptable contract with the preferred supplier. The Ministry’s contract templates must be used.

Contracts for construction works and professional services

20. Get the final form of contract endorsed and approved:
• the school representative endorses it
• the board of trustees representative approves it in writing.
21. Advise the preferred supplier that the Ministry intends to enter into a contract with them, subject to funding being released by the Ministry.
22. Request the funding for the project to be released to the Board of Trustees. To do this, the project manager submits the following documents to the School Property Advisor:
• the project management forms
• the endorsed and approved procurement plan
• the endorsed and approved recommendation report.

School-led project forms [XLSX, 226 KB]

23. The selected supplier and the board of trustees representative execute the contract by each signing two copies of the contract. The supplier signs the contract first.

Each party keeps a copy of the contract after it has been signed by both parties.

24. For procurements with a value of $100,000 or more, post an award notice on GETS.
25. Provide debriefs as appropriate.

Tender debrief worksheet [DOCX, 240 KB]

26. Retain all procurement documentation for 7 years on the project file (see: Role of the board of trustees in the early stages of a project).
27. After the contract is awarded, the project manager makes sure that the intended outcomes from the procurement are achieved by managing:
• the contract
• the relationship with the supplier, and
• the supplier’s performance.

Support

For procurement support, email the Ministry’s Education Infrastructure Service Commercial Procurement Team:

EIS.procurement@education.govt.nz

Last reviewed: 17 September 2020 Has this been useful? Give us your feedback