Last Minute Olympic Tender

With the 2012 London Olympics just around the corner, you would be forgiven for thinking that the well planned procurement of infrastructure and related services would be well under way. It may come as somewhat of a surprise to seasoned tender writers then that just last month,  27th July 20011, an Invitation to Tender notice was published by Transport for London (TFL) in the OJEU with a deadline of just 9 days.
With a deadline of 5th September, the time critical tender is listed under an accelerated restricted procedure and following the pre-qualification stage (PQQ), will be restricted to between 2 and four contractors.

What is most surprising about this tender notice is that the ‘launch date’ of the web-based system is 28th February 2012, with the tender being awarded prior, naturally, to the first inception meeting on 28th September 2011. This equates to just five months between contract start and finish for a bespoke IT system.

So what is it that is so urgent but wasn’t considered earlier? According to the Guardian, Transport for London declined to give the reasoning behind such a last minute, large project, nor would they reveal the costs involved. The tender itself, however, is for the design and development of a bespoke IT system - a website based Freight Journey Planner and Interactive Map to be used by operators to plan journeys around the Olympic Games by the optimum routes, taking into account road closures, vehicle sizes and various other logistical criteria. It will also be used to ensure minimum transport disruption throughout the capital for the duration of the Games and potentially, for up to three years after.

Accelerated, restricted tenders are quite a rarity in public sector procurement. This is primarily due to the challenges faced by contractors in preparing comprehensive, detailed and value added tenders, as well as being ready to go by the time the project is due to commence. It places significant pressure on tendering organisations to have policies and procedures already in place, as well as all required resources, including staffing and financial resources. For the buyer, the potential loss of value for such short notice issues is also a significant consideration – last minute demand usually commands a premium and leaves little time for negotiation of the price is not right from the start.

Tenders with such a short time limit from inception to launch are usually only used where there is an extreme sense of urgency. The flooding of St. Aidans water treatment facility on the outskirts of Leeds was one such example of an emergency accelerated, restricted tender.