Selling to the council

In this section you will find information about:

adding your company's details to our suppliers database
departmental contacts
how the process works - value of the contract
select lists and tenders
evaluating tenders.

Register your company

Adding your company's details to our supplier database is quick and easy.

All you have to do is fill out the form below and email it to tenders@belfastcity.gov.uk

Download Company Registration Form (Word - 43KB)

Departmental contacts

Each of our six departments is individually responsible for most of their own purchasing.

Contact details
Department	Contact name		Telephone number
Chief Executive’s	Beverley Bothwell		028 9027 0561
Development	Mandy Pryce	Development	028 9091 8792
Development	Neil Williams	Development	028 9027 0605
Finance and Resources	Irene Murray	Financial Resources	028 9027 0249
Health and Environmental Services	Annette Grimes	Waste Management	028 9027 0567
	Albert Magill	Waste Management	028 9032 0202 (extension 3347)
	Liz Kelly	Environmental Health	028 9032 0202 (extension 3295)
	Cherry Saunders	Environmental Health	028 9032 0202 (extension 2377)
	Donna Walsh	Cleansing	028 9032 0202 (extension 5266)
	Stephen Hewitt	Building Control	028 9027 0287
	Mattelle McCartan	Building Control	028 9050 0520
Parks and Leisure	Pearse McCormick		028 9027 3426
Property and Projects	Janice Hanna		028 9027 0594

How the process works - value of the contract

Up to £3,000 (excluding VAT) no written quotations are required.
For costs between £3,000 and £8,000 (excluding VAT) a minimum of three written quotations will be invited.
For costs between £8,000 and £30,000 (excluding VAT) a minimum of four written quotations will be invited.
For costs more than £30,000 (excluding VAT) we have to invite tenders in line with council Standing Orders, which will be advertised in the local press and on our website.

The EC Procurement Directive has been incorporated into UK law. It applies to contracts above certain levels:

£156,442 in respect of contracts for goods and services
£3,927,260 for works contracts.

When contract values are over the above thresholds then the tenders are subject to EU rules. These tenders must be advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) and follow the EU Public Sector Timescales from dispatch to OJEU. EU thresholds can be subject to change every two years.

Select lists

On some occasions, instead of immediately advertising a tender to all companies, we might decide to add a first step where we ask companies to initially apply to join a select list for the specific contract.

There will be a public invitation to join this list and we will then carry out a selection process (in the same way as we do for a tender). Once the list is agreed we then ask only these short-listed companies to quote for the tender. (Please note - these lists are only used for the specific tender and they don't become an official list of suppliers. We don't keep general select lists of companies.)

Tenders

The specification for a tender will usually include:

- Precise details of the good or services required
- The selection criteria that will be used to select the winning quotation
- Contact names, telephone numbers and email addresses
- The deadline for submission

On some occasions, particularly when the tender is likely to be quite complex, we might seek advice from a number of suppliers about the content of the specification.

After the deadline, all of the tenders are evaluated by a member of staff who then makes a recommendation to the Head of Service.

A report is then presented through our committee system and finally ratified by a full meeting of the Council. (This can be quite time-consuming and a winning supplier might not be confirmed for a few weeks.)

Evaluating tenders

There are a number of criteria that are considered when tenders are being evaluated:

- Financial stability of each company
- The company's technical capability
- The commitment of the company
- The company's environmental management

It is important to remember that we are very strict about the deadline and your submission will not be accepted even if it is one minute late.

The successful and unsuccessful suppliers will receive a letter explaining the decision.

There is an opportunity at this stage for unsuccessful candidates to get some feedback from the member of staff in charge of the process. If you have questions, we encourage you to contact us.