Evaluation report

Purpose:

An evaluation report is the documentary evidence of the result of an assessment process whereby one or more competing providers' offerings (proposals or tenders) proceed through to the next stage of the procurement. The final evaluation report in this series (the tender evaluation report) will produce a recommendation for the winning provider, to whom an award of contract should be made.

Suggested content:

• Is the evaluation report justifiable and defensible?
• Is the evaluation report fair and equitable?
• Does the evaluation report contain comparative information between competing providers?
• Does the evaluation report show a comparison of each providers offering against the stated requirements?
• Has the evaluation report been approved by all necessary authorities?
• Does the evaluation report contain constructive, factual and indisputable information?
• Does the evaluation report provide a sound basis for a debriefing meeting with a potentially hostile provider?
• Does the evaluation report show a clear winner(s)?
• Was appropriate sensitivity analysis conducted to prove the "robustness" of the evaluation report's conclusions?
• If it is a tender evaluation report, did the report focus on "Most Economically Advantageous Tender" and not just invest price?
• Is the evaluation report free from hearsay, unsupported opinion and negative bias?
• Is the evaluation report based upon demonstrable evidence?
• Were the latest available commercial intelligence reports on providers taken into account in the report?

  
Source information:
Records of detailed analysis of each Provider's proposal and tender, records of detailed comparison of all competing provider's proposals and tenders, reference site visits, records of service / system demonstrations, and commercial information reports (from OGC's Commercial Intelligence Service (CIS) - on the provider's company.

Fresh commercial intelligence reports should be sought to update the decision making baseline, at least twice during the procurement process, as a sound business practice. This will enable checks for any variations in the each provider's circumstances, over the normally quite lengthy procurement timescale, during which time a providers commercial standing could change considerably. 

Notes:
Evaluation may be undertaken (and therefore evaluation reports produced) at several stages within an advertised competitive procurement project.

Usual evaluation stages are: Requests to participate (following placement of OJEU advertisement), Proposal (in answer to the OR / OBS), and Tender / BAFO (in answer to an invitation to tender (ITT)). This assumes an advertised competitive procurement project conducted under the Negotiated Procedure.

It is usual that the final evaluation in a procurement project will be the evaluation of competing tenders which results in the selection of the winning provider(s) who offer best value for money over the anticipated contract lifecycle, and to whom contract(s) is/are awarded.

Further information:
Briefing on Procurement

Introduction to the EC Procurement Rules: Competitive Procurement Process

For construction projects, see Guidance on Appointment of Consultants and Contractors.