The Royal Borough of Greenwich has procedures in place called standing financial orders, which require us to invite quotations and tenders.

Potential suppliers are either invited as a result of shortlisting procedures or may be invited under open arrangements.

There are a number of tendering approaches that can be used in line with the Royal Borough's standing financial orders:

• open tendering
• restricted tendering
• negotiated tendering
• quotes.

In the tendering process each tender is evaluated according to predetermined criteria. These will usually be stated in the appropriate notice or the tender documents.

Open tendering

Open tendering is a one-stage bidding process in which all interested service providers responding to an advertisement will be invited to submit a tender.

The advertisement will state where interested parties may obtain tender documents and the last date when tenders will be accepted.

Open tendering is not normally used when an approved list already exists.

Restricted tendering

Restricted tendering is a two-stage bidding process in which potential contractors expressing an interest in bidding are evaluated first.

A shortlist is then drawn up from the evaluation exercise for the sole purpose of inviting bids.

The restricted process is likely to be applied when a large number of applicants is anticipated, allowing that number to be reduced to manageable list of tenderers.

The public notice will give details on what information must be submitted by the supplier or how to receive the necessary documentation to be able to express an interest in being shortlisted.

Negotiated tendering

This is when we, under certain limited circumstances, negotiate with one or more organisations of our choice.

The tendering process chosen is at our discretion and will depend largely on the complexity, size and technical nature of the goods or services being procured.

Quotes

For low value items or services in line with our standing financial orders, we may seek verbal or written quotations.