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Sample OCDS data for framework call-offs

This repository contains sample data for how the various stages of a framework agreement may appear in OCDS data. OCDS currently provides support for direct call-offs and mini-competitions in framework agreements.

This example will address the following scenarios:

  1. A framework agreement established for multiple buyers, published by a single publisher.
  2. A framework agreement where the OCDS data is published by multiple publishers. This may occur when one publisher establishes a framework agreement, and then other publishers release OCDS data representing the call-offs from this.

Types of Call-offs from Frameworks

There are two types of call-offs made from framework agreement. These terms will occur throughout the guidance.

A direct call-off occurs when goods or services are procured directly from a supplier on an existing framework agreement without any further competition. For example a framework may be established to supply an office with stationery and a direct call-off may be made to purchase items from this.

A mini-competition is held when a buyer wants the suppliers on the framework to submit bids. It resembles a regular procurement process, with the key difference that the participants are limited to suppliers that have previously been awarded a position on the framework agreement.

Required extensions

Framework agreements may represent many-to-many relationships between a variety of Buyers and Suppliers. This has implications for the structure of the OCDS data as buyer is declared at release level and suppliers are listed in award/suppliers; whereas each call-off from a Framework Agreement might involve a different buyer procuring from a different supplier. There are two extensions available to publishers to allow them to publish accurate Framework data as valid OCDS:

  • Multiple Buyers - Contract Level Extension adds a buyer reference field to the Contract block; allowing the buyer for each direct call-off to be associated with the purchase. This is only required if the framework agreement is established for the use of multiple buyers. If only a single buyer will be making call-offs, use release/buyer to model the buyer.
  • Contract Suppliers Extension adds a suppliers array to the Contract block; allowing the supplier for each direct call-off to be associated with the purchase.

These should be declared appropriately in the package metadata:

extensions_block.json

Framework agreement for a single publisher with multiple buyers

It is common for a framework agreement to be established by a large party such as a national government and then used for procurements by smaller parties underneath this such as local or municiple governments.

The following examples represent the creation of a framework agreement by the national-level Scottish Government for use by multiple local governments (called "Councils"). In this scenario, the publisher responsible is Scottish Government using their registered prefix of ocds-r6ebe6.

Starting the process - publishing the tender

The framework is established by first publishing a tender release opening up the procurement process as any normal contracting process published under OCDS.

Release Metadata The tender release has the following metadata

sample 001_framework_tender

Scottish Government is the one establishing the framework, so they have an entry in the parties array. They have the role of procuringEntity since they are the party establishing the framework.

sample 001_framework_tender

The tender block is populated normally, with information about the framework tender. For frameworks, tender/value should represent the total estimated upper value of the framework. Scottish Government is the procuring entity so they are referenced in procuringEntity.

Tender Block The tender release has a populated tender block with the following information

sample 001_framework_tender

Establishing the framework agreement - awarding suppliers a position on the framework

When a supplier is awarded a place on the framework, a release is made for the award award stage like a normal contracting process. The successful suppliers will be updated with the role of supplier. In this example Gamma Corp, Valkyrie Navigations, and Seaway Intelligence have each been awarded a position onto the framework.

Releasing an Award -- parties array A release is made adding the parties to the parties array

sample 002_framework_award (parties array)

The release must also be published with the relevant information about the award by adding an entry to the awards array. In the award references to the Suppliers are made in the suppliers array. Frameworks list all suppliers on a single award notice, with the value representing the total possible value of the framework and covering all suppliers with a place on it.

Award block The award block is included in the release. It includes OrganizationReferences to the suppliers in the suppliers array and details of the award.

sample 002_framework_award (award block)

The framework is now established, and call-offs may now be made.

Making direct call-offs

In our scenario the framework agreement is established by Scottish Government and now Edinburgh make a direct call-off to procure items from Gamma Corp. A release is made with the appropriate release metadata:

Release metadata The release for the direct call-off has the following metadata.

sample 003_first_call-off (metadata)

Edinburgh are a new party from the data's perspective. They are added to the parties array with the role of buyer (since their budget is being used to pay for goods).

sample 003_first_call-off (parties array)

A contract item is added to the contracts array with the details of the call-off, including the supplier and buyer information. This is where the Multiple Buyers - Contract Level Extension is used to reference the buyer using the contract/buyer field. Similarly, the Contract Suppliers Extension is used to reference the specific supplier(s) involved in the call-off using contract/suppliers

sample 003_first_call-off (contract block)

For each subsequent call-off this process is repeated with a new release published to add the relevant buyer information to the parties array and populate a new item in the contracts array. A second example for a call-off can be found here wherein Glasgow City make a call-off from the same framework established in this scenario.

Framework agreement across multiple publishers

Framework agreements may sometimes span data published by two or more different publishers. For example a framework agreement established and published by the UK National Government may be called off by buyers that are published by the Scottish Government or a regional publisher.

There is very little difference in the OCDS representing a framework agreement handled by a single publisher, and a framework agreement with which multiple publishers interact. Since the OCID is globally unique it is used by both the publisher representing the framework setup and the publisher representing the call-offs from the framework.

In the following samples, the framework agreement is published by Crown Commercial Services using their registered prefix of ocds-b5fd17. The purchases from the framework are made by entities published by Scottish Government using their registered prefix of ocds-r6ebe6.

Considerations for integrating systems

To publish accurate OCDS data spanning multiple publishers, considerations must be made to integrate the data across multiple systems.

System integration should cover:

  • ocid - to link direct calls offs to framework establishments and to link mini-competitions to framework establishments
  • award.id - to link direct calls offs to framework establishments
  • parties.id - to keep consistent organisation identifiers between publishers
  • contracts.id - to avoid clashing contract ids for direct call-offs

Publisher 1 sets up the framework (Tender and Award)

The first stages of the framework agreement are very similar to that when it only concerns a single publisher. In this sample, Crown Commercial Services establishes a framework agreement:

Release Metadata The tender release has the following metadata.

multi_publisher/001

They are the procuring entity of the framework so they are referenced under tender/procuringEntity:

Tender Block The tender release has the following information in the tender block

multi_publisher/001

Next the Suppliers are awarded a place on the framework agreement. Supplier 1, Supplier 2, and Supplier 3 have made it into the framework. The tenderers are included as part of the award release:

Awards The awards release has the following information in awards.

multi_publisher/001 (awards)

Remember to update the entries under release/parties as well!

The framework is now established, and call-offs may be made from it.

Buyers under a separate publisher make direct call-offs (Contract)

With the framework agreement in place and published by Crown Commercial Services, it becomes possible to represent direct call-offs made by another publisher.

A direct call-off is represented by a contract block; so an OCDS release is published by Scottish Government containing the details of the Call-Off. To guarantee its uniqueness Scottish Government preface the release ID with their registered prefix:

Release metadata The direct call-off has the following metadata.

multi_publisher/003

The buyer is also added to the parties array with the appropriate role, in this case East Ayrshire:

Parties Array The contract release representing the direct call-off has the following update to the parties array.

multi_publisher/003 (parties)

As before the contract section refers back to the awardID of the framework agreement published by Crown Commercial Services. This will require access to the Award ID and the OCID of the framework agreement:

Contracts References The contracts section refers back to the id of the award in awardID

multi_publisher/003 (contracts.awardID)

Remember to include the buyer and suppliers in this section, added by the extensions used:

Buyer and Supplier In Contracts The contract section has the following information stored in buyer and suppliers. The ids used for each supplier will need to match between publisher systems -- following good practices around organisation identifiers is recommended to assist in this.

multi_publisher/003 (contract.buyer contract.suppliers)

Running a mini-competition using relatedProcess

Mini-competitions involve a further competitive stage and therefore are represented in OCDS using a separate contracting process which is linked to the related process that established the framework.

This is achieved through the following steps:

  1. A new contracting process with a new OCID is created to represent the Mini-competition.
  2. In the new process the relatedProcesses array contains an entry referencing the OCID of the existing framework agreement.
  3. In the tender block of the new process, the procurementMethod is set to limited or selective to represent the fact that this was not an open tender.

Note: This is a new contracting process where the buyer is known and the suppliers will be determined by the award block. Therefore the schema changes made by Multiple Buyers - Contract Level Extension and Contract Suppliers Extension that apply to the Contract block are not necessary to model mini-competitions.

Following the previous example of the Glasgow City framework agreement; after making their direct call-offs Glasgow City hold a mini-competition between suppliers on the framework. A new contracting process is created with an entry in relatedProcesses referencing the original framework agreement:

Release Metadata A release for a new contracting process is begun with the following details.

example_minicompetition

Since this is a tender release the tender block contains information about the tender opportunity. The procurementMethod is set to selective to indicate that this is not an open tender.

Tender Block The new contracting process' tender block contains the following information.

example_minicompetition

From this point the contracting process continues as normal, with the award and contract stages being released under the new OCID created for the mini-competition.

Dynamic Purchasing Systems

A Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) is similar to a framework agreement with the exception that new suppliers may be awarded a position on the system at any time.

  • What implications does this have for our award model?
  • Create a new award for each supplier awarded a space on the framework.
  • Add them to the original award for the set-up of the framework.