School boards of trustees may also apply the Ministry procurement framework as a good practice guide for non-property related procurement.
- Procurement process for school property projects
- Stage 1: Initiate the procurement
- Stage 2: Identify the needs of the procurement and analyse the market
- Stage 3: Specify the Statement of Requirements
- Stage 4: Plan approach to market and evaluation
- Stage 5: Approach the market and select
- Stage 6: Negotiate and award
- Doing an emergency and urgent situation procurement
- Getting approval for a procurement exemption
- Procurement guides and templates
Procurement process for school property projects
The processes set out on this page and in the associated guides and templates must be applied for all school property related procurement for projects starting from 1 July 2015.
You can also use this quick guide to procurement which is designed for anyone involved in school property procurement including project managers, property advisors, school principals and board of trustee members.
Quick guide to school property procurement
Completing older projects
For procurements currently underway continue with the old process. If you need to access any of the old forms contact the Ministry’s Education Infrastructure Service Commercial Procurement Team at eis.procurement@education.govt.nz .
Do not re-tender procurements if they started before 1 July 2015.
Procurements starting after 1 July 2015
This applies to:
- boards of trustees acting as project managers when managing their own projects
- project managers managing projects on behalf of a board of trustees
- project managers engaged on Ministry-managed school property projects.
School property procurement includes procuring:
- property planning and project management services
- construction design, engineering and quantity surveying services
- construction works
- building services and facilities maintenance.
For each procurement, the person assigned the role of procurement officer (usually the project manager) is responsible for managing the procurement process. Find out more about procurement roles .
Procurement guides and support
Download the guides and templates at the bottom of this page for detailed guidance. For further procurement support, contact the Ministry’s Education Infrastructure Service Commercial Procurement Team at eis.procurement@education.govt.nz .
Stage 1: Initiate the procurement
- Confirm that you need to undertake a procurement.
- Is there a genuine need for the procurement?
- Is there an existing contract or supply arrangement that could be used? (such as supplier panels).
- Confirm that you have written approval to undertake the procurement (for example a business case or the school’s 10 Year Property Plan and approved 5 Year Agreement).
- Prepare a high level description of what is required. This is called a Statement of Requirements.
- Determine the procurement value. This is the maximum value of all spending that may result from the procurement.
Stage 2: Identify the needs of the procurement and analyse the market
- Allocate roles for the procurement:
- Procurement officer – manages the procurement, for example the project manager.
- Procurement owner – represents the buyer, for example the school principal (or Ministry Case Manager if it is a Ministry-run project)
- Procurement sponsor – has overall responsibility for the procurement. This is the person, usually a board member, with the Delegated Financial Authority.
- Evaluation team – evaluates and scores responses and selects preferred respondent.
- For a procurement with a value of $50,000 or more, get Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Agreements from everyone when they become involved in the procurement.
- It is important to have a clear understanding of what is required so that the market can deliver value for money and a solution that is fit for purpose. Conduct a needs analysis which may include analysing the market by:
- consulting with internal stakeholders
- conducting market research
- engaging with potential suppliers to encourage participation.
Stage 3: Specify the Statement of Requirements
- Develop a more detailed Statement of Requirements describing the:
- outcome sought and deliverables required, such as classroom space for 30 students
- capability and capacity required of the supplier
- intended contractual arrangement, such as the type of contract and key contract terms and conditions.
Stage 4: Plan approach to market and evaluation
- Reconfirm the procurement value based on the detailed Statement of Requirements.
- Select an appropriate ‘approach to market’ method. The diagram below sets out the minimum thresholds (based on the procurement value).
| Procurement value | Minimum approach to market method |
|---|---|
| Under $10,000 | Non-competitive purchase: written quote not required. |
| $10,000 – under $50,000 | Direct source: one written quotation |
| $50,000 – under $100,000 | Closed tender: 3 written quotations |
| $100,000 or more | Open tender: advertised on the Government Electronic Tender Service (GETS) |
These are minimum requirements. You should use a higher than minimum approach to market method when warranted by the risk and complexity of the procurement.
You must get a procurement exemption if you want to use an approach to market method with a lower threshold.
- For direct source and closed tender, identify the potential supplier or suppliers to be invited to submit a quote using a Request for Quote (RFQ).
- For open tender, decide whether to use a:
- single stage open Request for Proposal (RFP), or
- 2 stage open Registration of Interest (ROI) and closed RFP to shortlisted respondents.
- Draft the Procurement Plan, including the evaluation method to be used. You can download the appropriate Procurement Plan template at the end of this page. Send a copy of the Procurement Plan to the school’s property advisor not less than 2 business days before approval by the procurement sponsor.
- Draft and get approval for your approach to market documents from the procurement owner, ie RFQ, ROI and RFP. You can download these templates at the bottom of this page.
- The Procurement Plan and approach to market documents must be approved by the procurement sponsor before approaching the market (requesting quotes or advertising on GETS).
Stage 5: Approach the market and select
- Approach the market:
- For open tender procurement, advertise the ROI or RFP on GETS website - www.gets.govt.nz . See the GETs Procurement Officer Guide at the end of this page.
- For direct source and closed tender procurement, invite the potential suppliers you have identified to submit a quote by sending each a copy of the RFQ and providing equal and sufficient time to respond.
- Reply to any requests for clarification from potential suppliers. Update other potential suppliers with your response to ensure that all submissions are based on the same information.
- Evaluate responses submitted by potential suppliers (respondents) using the Evaluation Workbook (download at the bottom of this page) and select a preferred respondent. For 2 stage open tenders, select a shortlist of respondents to be invited to take part in the subsequent closed RFP process. Download the Open Tender Evaluation Guide and the Works Price Evaluation Guide at the end of this page.
- Draft the Recommendation Report to summarise the evaluation and recommend entering into contract negotiation with the preferred respondent. You can download the Report at the bottom of this page. A copy of the Recommendation Report must be sent to the school’s property advisor not less than 2 business days before approval by the procurement sponsor.
- The Recommendation Report must be approved by the procurement sponsor before awarding a contract and/or notifying respondents whether they have been successful or unsuccessful.
Stage 6: Negotiate and award
- As soon as practical, notify respondents whether they have been successful or unsuccessful. For procurement of $100,000 or more, you must notify respondents in writing and provide or offer a debrief. You may want to provide debriefs after the contract is awarded. Download a Preferred/Shortlisted Respondent Letter template and an Unsuccessful Respondent Letter template at the bottom of this page.
- Negotiate a mutually acceptable contract with the preferred respondent. There are standard contract templates to use for different procurement types and values.
- Get written approval from the procurement sponsor for the final form of contract.
- Execute the contract:
- the preferred respondent and procurement sponsor must sign 2 copies of the contract.
- one copy of the signed contract is held by the buyer (the school or the Ministry) and one copy is returned to the preferred respondent.
- For procurements with a procurement value of $100,000 or more, post an award notice on GETS.
- Contract starts.
- Provide debriefs as appropriate.
- Keep all procurement documentation for 7 years on the project file .
Doing an emergency and urgent situation procurement
There may be times when you need to procure goods or services quickly in order to respond to an emergency or urgent situation, without going through the full procurement process.
An emergency is a sudden unforeseen catastrophe resulting in injury, loss of life or critical damage to property or infrastructure, such as a major earthquake.
An urgent situation is an unforeseen event or circumstances resulting in immediate risk of injury, loss of life or significant damage to property or infrastructure that would lead to closure of all or part of the school.
Use the following process in emergency or urgent situations:
- Contact the school’s property advisor and get verbal approval to go ahead with the procurement. Follow this up with an email confirmation.
- Get a quote, estimate or rates (verbal or written) from your intended supplier and evaluate it to make sure it is reasonable.
- Engage the supplier for only the minimum quantity/term required to alleviate the situation.
- Once the situation has been alleviated, submit a Procurement exemption request to the school’s property advisor for Ministry approval.
Learn more about:
- urgent health and safety work at schools
- the Ministry’s School Building Insurance Funding Programme which pays for repairs to damaged school buildings.
Getting approval for a procurement exemption
An approved procurement exemption is required:
- to use a lower threshold approach to market method. For example direct source instead of open tender for a procurement with a value of $100,0000
- to increase the value of a procurement beyond the threshold for the approach to market method originally used. For example the value is increased (for example, due to finding structural problems) to over $100,000 (open tender threshold) and a closed tender approach was used
- if there is a material change to the requirement or scope of a contract, beyond what was described in the approach to market.
This may be because:
- there is an emergency or urgent situation
- there is only one supplier for technical/intellectual property reasons
- there are additional requirements, however a change of supplier cannot be made for technical reasons or because it would result in significant inconvenience or significant duplication of cost.
Complete the Procurement exemption request form (download this at the bottom of this page), get it signed by the procurement sponsor, and send it to the school’s property advisor. For procurement values under $100,000 the property advisor can approve the exemption. For bigger values, they have to send the request to us.
For all procurements irrespective of an exemption, one or more quote or proposal must be evaluated. You cannot engage someone without considering a quote or proposal.
Procurement guides and templates
Note: There are both works and non-works versions of the Full Procurement Plan, RFQ, ROI and RFP templates. Use the works versions to procure services for construction works, such as the main building contractor.