Invitation to negotiate for PFI

The invitation to negotiate for private finance initiative (PFI) projects is equivalent to the invitation to tender for traditional contracts. It sets out the project particulars and the specific requirements for bids. It may be a development of the information pack if one was issued to potential bidders with pre-qualification questionnaires.

The invitation to negotiate might include:

• Letter of invitation to tender (or invitation to negotiate).
• Instructions to tenderers explaining the tender process.
• Form of tender.
• Preliminaries
• Form of contract, contract conditions and amendments.
• The timescale for the tender process.
• An explanation of how queries will be dealt with.
• The evaluation process and any evaluation criteria.
• Policy in relation to alternative or non compliant bids.
• Policy for providing feedback to unsuccessful tenderers.
• Draft contract (including the payment mechanism).
• Pre-construction information.
• Site waste management plan.
• An output-based specification describing the clients objectives for the project.
• A description of what is required in response to the invitation to negotiate (including any requirements for method statements)
• A pricing schedule.

NB. Private finance initiative projects are generally tendered after the project brief has been prepared, without the benefit of design. However if a smart PFI route is adopted a concept design will have been prepared and so the invitation to negotiate might include drawings and prescriptive or performance specifications.

For a detailed description of the tender process for private finance initiative projects see the free work plan stage: Public project: PFI tender.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Invitation to tender
• OGC.
• Output-based specification
• PFI.
• Pre-qualification questionnaire.
• Procurement route.
• Public procurement.
• Tender.