Public and Commercial Services Union

The project team

If the outsourcing proposal proceeds, the department will usually appoint a project team to manage the procurement process.

It is essential that PCS representatives are on this team.

The Official Journal of the European Union

The department must publish an invitation of expressions of interest with the publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU, formally OJEC).

The notice must provide sufficient information to enable interested service providers to bid. Treasury PFI guidelines require departments to let trade union representatives see and comment on the OJEU before publication.

The legislation covers organisations and projects which receive public money.

Local authorities, NHS trusts, central government departments, port authorities are all covered by the legislation and must advertise in OJEU if their contract is covered.

Some privately funded / managed contracts will also be covered - if a project is in receipt of more than 50% public funds, it would also be covered by the EU legislation.

Regarding the OJEU for projects, adverts have to be placed in the official journal when the value for the length of the contract is over £3.4 M.

The invitation to tender

The invitation provides details of the project, including its scope (what is and is not expected to transfer), specifications, funding and selection criteria.

Short-listing of bidders

The short-listing of bidders is a detailed evaluation of the bids. At this stage the project team looks at the cost of each bid, its delivery mechanisms and proposals for meeting the criteria in the tender. It is important to examine staffing issues at this stage.

Meeting with short-listed bidders

Treasury guidelines recommend that departments facilitate meetings between the recognised trade unions and each of the short-listed bidders.

Although bidders are not compelled to meet with union representatives, the project board can count this refusal against the bidder when refusing proposals.

Please note that the bidders won’t have access to staff at this stage so in most cases you would expect them to seize the opportunity to talk to staff representatives. It is a sure sign of a poor bidder if they do not take this opportunity

The main purpose of the meeting is to give you the chance to find out more about the bidders proposals and their union-related background if they have one.

This is an excellent point to ask hard questions about where they stand in relation to trade unions.