Understanding Your Rights - Information and Challenge

There is a saying that 'information is knowledge and knowledge is power' and nowhere is this more true than in tendering.

Suppliers increasingly need quality market information to ensure that they maximise their tender success.

Knowledge about an authority's procurement procedures, evaluation and scoring processes and future procurement plans can allow a contractor to position their tender appropriately.

That knowledge can also indicate whether an authority has run a compliant or non-compliant exercise.

This half-day PASS Workshop will detail the various routes to gaining information from contracting authorities and how to use that information to enhance your submission or to raise a challenge if the contracting authority has failed to run a transparent and competitive tender process.

The workshop will identify both the routes to information and the ways in which you can challenge the actions of the public sector, and will include:

• Your Rights to a Debrief
• The Standstill Period
• Freedom of Information
• Raising a Complaint
• The EU Remedies Directive

From examining the scoring matrix of a tender exercise, to reviewing the tender documentation used the last time, to raising legal action through the High Court, this PASS Workshop will identify the many routes to gaining information and challenging unfair and discriminatory practices.

Who should attend?

Any company that:

• has been unsuccessful in tendering
• has received an unsatisfactory debrief
• wants to understand its target market better
• wants to position itself for future opportunities
• feels it was treated unfairly when tendering
• wishes to understand its rights to challenge

Why attend?

Any organisation bidding for public sector contracts should know their potential clients, including their needs and wants, while at the same time being knowledgeable enough to know if they are being treated fairly.

This half-day PASS Workshop will help delegates to identify the sources of information, how to use that information to your advantage and – if you believe they unfairly restrict your opportunities – how to challenge the actions of the contracting authority.

Delegates will also learn, through the use of case study, their rights to seek redress from the public sector by using legal and non-legal methods of challenge as provided for by courts and the European Union.