Selling to us

Contracts valued over £30,000 

We publish all tenders over £30,000 on eSourcing NI (link opens in new window). It is free to register on this site to receive email alerts every time a tender is advertised that meets your criteria.  

If you have queries or experience any problems with eSourcing NI, call Jaggaer on 0800 069 3630 or email [email protected].

Submitting a tender 

If you have questions, seek clarification by eSourcingNI messaging. Our responses might help you submit a better bid. Unless the question is considered commercially sensitive to your bid, the question and answer will be circulated to all potential suppliers to ensure there is no unfair advantage.

Answer all questions in the Qualification, Technical and Commercial sections and attach supporting documentation if requested.  Make sure you answer accurately and precisely and provide support and evidence for statements made in your tender.  If you don’t provide all the relevant information, your submission may be rejected. 

Your answers and supporting documentation must be submitted before the closing date and time specified in the contracts notice.  Once the deadline has passed the portal will close and you won’t be able to submit.

Thresholds for contract values

The UK thresholds for contract values are:

• supplies and services contracts, £219,904
• works contracts, £5,372,609

Contracts over these amounts will be published on Find a tender (link opens in new window). If you want to bid for a contract over the threshold, your must register on Find a tender and provide core information about your business.

How are tenders evaluated? 

All tender submissions will be evaluated by the appropriate council officers (individually and then by consensus agreement) against the evaluation criteria outlined in the procurement documents.  

Contract award 

Internal approvals will be sought prior to proceeding to award of the contract, at which stage unsuccessful bidders will be provided with feedback and successful bidders will be notified of contract award. 

Contract management 

A Belfast City Council contract manager will be responsible for the administration of the contract.  All contracted suppliers are subject to performance reviews as set out within contract.  The supplier must ensure that quality and performance stated in the contract are maintained (or improved) throughout the contract period. 

Contracts valued up to £30,000 

These opportunities are not usually advertised. We seek bids from potential suppliers directly.  To help identify potential suppliers, a procuring officer may consult our internal supplier database.

You should add your company's details to our supplier database. We are updating our database and will archive all suppliers who registered before 1 January 2010. If you registered before this date and wish to remain on the database, please re-register on our company registration form: 

Complete our company registration form (link opens in new window)

Selected suppliers will be emailed an ‘Invitation to quote’. If you have questions, you can seek clarification from the contacts named in the quotation documents. 

The procurement documentation issued will contain items such as: 

• Instructions to bid and how your bid will be evaluated, including any schedules for your completion 
• A specification of requirements 

After the closing time, the submissions will be evaluated against the criteria and scoring mechanism set out in the quotation document. All suppliers are notified of the outcome.

Bidder top tips

• Before completing your quotation or tender, make yourself familiar with our terms and conditions and policies. 
• Read the instructions included in the documentation which will set out how to bid 
• Read the specification carefully to ensure you understand what is required. 
• Make sure you can match the technical, skill and experience requirements.  
• We can only evaluate what you have submitted. We cannot refer to any previous knowledge or experience it has had with a supplier unless it is in your submission – do not make any assumptions about what we may or may not know about your or your company.