eAuction Funding Availability

The Efficiency Challenge Fund

The Efficiency Challenge Fund (ECF) is money made available by HM Treasury to help deliver early efficiencies.  OGC has bid for ECF money for a number of Efficiency Workstreams and will utilise some of this bid to fund Electronic Reverse Auctions (eAuctions) as part of the Procurement Workstream during the course of 2005/6.  ECF is available to initiate efficiency activity on a matched funding basis across the public sector.  The amount of money available through the ECF is limited.  For further information on the use/or availability of ECF you should contact OGC's Cross Sector eProcurement Team at eprocurement@ogc.gsi.gov.uk or see the team contact list page .

Requests made for ECF to assist in running eAuctions should be submitted to the Cross Sector e-Procurement Team (CSePT), except for applications from the local government & education sectors and police forces (see sections 5, 6 & 7 below).  All applications will be considered on merit on a case-by-case basis.

Wherever practical, public sector bodies (PSBs) should work together to run a collaborative eAuction.  Intelligent aggregation of spend will enable all parties to share the benefits of economies of scale.  The PSB will be expected to explore the possibilities for a collaborative eAuction and provide evidence of this in their request for ECF money.

Where applicable, the lead authority should ensure that any contracts arising from an ECF funded eAuction are open to the whole of the public sector by indicating this in the initial advertisement of the requirement. This is especially important if advertising in the European Journal (OJEU).  The contract itself must also include a clause in the terms and conditions to the effect that the contract is open and available for use by any authority in the public sector.

PSBs who are successful in securing ECF for an eAuction will be subject to the following conditions:

1. OGC will disburse ECF money to fund in full an initial eAuction on the understanding that the authority will undertake a second, non-ECF funded, eAuction within 6 months of the original ECF sponsored event.  Following completion of each eAuction full details of the results must be recorded and the information below sent to: eProcurement@ogc.gsi.gov.uk.

2. OGC may deploy ECF to fund a third eAuction for an authority.  This will be conditional upon the authority undertaking a fourth, non-ECF funded, eAuction.  Full details will need to be reported in the same format as before and the authority will be expected to include a clause in their procurement strategy to the effect that eAuction must be considered for all major procurement exercises.

3. ECF can only be used on a matched funding basis to sponsor first time eAuction events.  OGC will only provide funds for those public sector bodies that have never previously undertaken an eAuction.  However, if any of the participants in a collaborative eAuction have not undertaken an auction before, the lead authority may still be eligible for funding.

4. ECF cannot be used to subsidise any existing eProcurement programmes in use by PSBs.

5. All local authorities should make their initial request for ECF to their respective Regional Centre of Excellence (RCE).  The RCE will co-ordinate eAuction events through the nominated RCE lead and report the results to CSePT.

6. Requests from the education sector for eAuctions funding will need to be made to the education Centre for Procurement Performance (CPP) in the first instance by contacting Debbie Oliver on 0114 259 1061.  The CPP will co-ordinate eAuction events and report the results to CSePT.

7. All requests for ECF funding for eAuctions by police forces should be routed to CSePT until further notice.