Compliance frameworks

Step 2: The estimate: Compliance frameworks

"There is a duty upon the University not only to ensure that the funding it receives is spent wisely, but also to ensure that it is compliant with procurement rules as set out by the European Commission, together with the University's own Procurement Policy.

Therefore any spending on goods and services over a set threshold must be competitively tendered. This whole process can take a great deal of time, so the University arranges to have frameworks in place, whereby we pre-qualify companies and award a framework contract for up to four years. This in turn means that the tendering process for each piece of work is reduced to a very basic level, ensuring that orders for work can be placed quickly with minimal cost to the University, as the major pre-qualification has already taken place.

By using frameworks, and so having a set number of companies to carry out work for us, this means that we not only build up a relationship with these companies, but they quickly get used to the University's way of working and vice versa."