Tweed Shire Council has launched an eTender facility to streamline its tender process in line with other benchmark councils.
Tweed Shire’s first venture into eTendering was developed in-house and added to the council’s website. It is expected to bring major improvements in the way tenders can be submitted.
The eTender facility consists of a secured locked box process, to support council’s two tender boxes at the civic centre and the depot.
A separate authorised access group with unique logins and passwords manages each electronic box. Dual authentication ensures staff from Council’s contracts and governance units are present at tender opening.
The system provides facilities for registration of tenderers, upload of tender documents, automated notification of tender submission, secure tender box opening, preparation of tender submission lists and notification and access to uploaded tenders to the evaluation panel.
The facility has been tested for integrity and probity to council’s satisfaction, and the process was extensively peer reviewed.
Tweed Shire Council has called for more than 250 tenders and quotes for 2012, with a combined value of $35 million.
The eTender facility was developed following a Council review of procurement processes, which remain a challenge for all tiers of government.
Key outcomes of the review were:
