When Procurement Goes Wrong

Procurement challenges are increasing as tenders become more complex, contracts grow in value and unsuccessful bidders become more willing to question how decisions have been made.

In this focused 30-minute session, we examine where procurement exercises commonly go wrong and how seemingly small decisions can expose schools, academies and trusts to challenge. We will consider the warning signs that a process is drifting off track and the practical steps you can take before problems develop into disputes, reruns or expensive legal action.

In this session we explore

• Why apparently routine tenders can unravel or attract challenges from bidders

• Where risk can enter the process during design, evaluation and award

• The decisions and working practices that can weaken an otherwise sound procurement exercise

• How to recognise and respond to early challenge correspondence

• What can happen after award when a contract does not deliver as expected

Take-home points

• A practical checklist of common tender challenge triggers

• Clear ways to make your procurement process more defensible without adding unnecessary work

• Guidance on what to tighten before publication and what to monitor during evaluation and award

This session is for

School business and operational leaders with responsibility for procurement and contracts, including SBMs, SBLs, CFOs, COOs and procurement managers working in maintained schools, single-academy trusts and multi-academy trusts.

Lorraine Ashover