Buyer profile

Like any business, Catalyst Housing Group buys a huge variety of goods, works and services from other organisations, ranging from every day office supplies to multi-million pound construction contracts, to help in delivering our strategic objectives.

Except for the very smallest purchases, these contracts are awarded through a competitive process, either by written quotations for minor expenditure, or through a more formal tendering process. For the largest, regulations laid down by the European Union determine the procedures we have to follow.

Our procurement strategy sets out our approach to ensuring we purchase fairly and efficiently. Delivering the procurement Strategy is the responsibility of the Group Procurement Manager, but every manager and member of staff whose duties involve making purchasing decisions is required to follow a detailed procurement policy which makes sure that:

performance standards and monitoring strategies are developed
cost information will be properly identified and collected
innovation will be encouraged
social values and Catalyst's policy objectives will be protected
probity, accountability and competitive neutrality will be ensured
the responsibilities and accountabilities of all parties will be clear in the contract.

Look in tendering opportunities to see details of the contracts we are currently advertising, and to track progress on tendering exercises.

If you are a contractor or supplier, and want to express an interest in one of the advertised contracts, you can download a pre-qualification questionnaire, which will need to be completed and returned together with copies of audited accounts by the stated deadline. The questionnaire is used to shortlist firms to be invited to submit tenders. Note: in some larger contracts, a contract-specific questionnaire may be required. In such cases an address will be given in the Tendering Opportunities page for obtaining a copy.

From time to time we will publish a long-term plan of forthcoming contracts. This plan is for information only; we are not able to provide any additional details, or accept expressions of interest, until the relevant package appears in Tendering Opportunities or is advertised publicly.

All contract notices for upcoming tenders which fall above the European Union thresholds (approx £143,000 for services and supply and £3.6 million for works) will also be advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union. An electronic version of this is updated daily on the Tenders Electronic Daily website.

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