Conference Chairperson & Opening Remarks

Ross McCarthy, CEO, Keystone Procurement

When a Procurement Starts to Go Wrong: Early Warning Signs and Lawful Intervention Points

• Common points where otherwise compliant procurements begin to create legal, audit or challenge risk
• Warning signs in specifications, clarification responses, evaluation records, bidder queries and award decisions
• Distinguishing a correctable procedural issue from a material problem that may require cancellation or restart
• When it may be lawful to clarify, correct, pause, abandon or re-run a competition
• Internal escalation, legal input, decision records and protecting the authority’s position before a complaint or challenge emerges

Choosing the Right Route to Market: Lawful Procedure Selection and Market Consultation

Speaker: Ross McCarthy, CEO, Keystone Procurement

• Selecting the correct procurement route in line with the nature, value and complexity of the requirement
• Using preliminary market consultation without giving any supplier an unfair advantage
• Reaching suppliers beyond those already active on eTenders while maintaining transparency and equal access
• When a DPS, framework, open procedure, restricted procedure or standalone tender maybe most suitable
• Designing the route to market around competition, proportionality, supplier capacity, specification maturity and contract duration

Managing Multi-Supplier Arrangements When the Market Does Not Behave as Expected

Speaker: Fergal Ruane, Partner, Head of the Projects, and Infrastructure team at Byrne Wallace Shields LLP

• What happens where a multi-supplier framework no longer operates as originally expected
• Dealing with supplier withdrawal, refusal, poor performance or reduced availability within the published framework rules
• Failed lots, single-supplier outcomes and reduced competition over the life of frameworks
• Cascade, rotation and mini-competition models: applying the rules as advertised and avoiding informal workarounds
• Practical drafting lessons for future framework agreements and DPS arrangements so that call-off rules remain clear, objective and workable

Lawful Call-Offs and Mini-Competitions: Staying Within the Original Competition

Speaker: Eoin Ó Cuilleanáin, Barrister At Law, The Bar of Ireland

• Distinguishing lawful refinement from an unlawful change to scope, award criteria or competition rules
• What can be specified at call-off stage where the original framework documents clearly allow it
• Managing conflicts of interest, security requirements, staffing controls and delivery conditions where these are linked to the original procurement documents
• Limits on changing award criteria, weightings, sub-criteria or minimum requirements at mini-competition stage
• Drafting framework and call-off documents so that any future refinements are transparent, objective and foreseeable

Bidder Clarifications and Non-Compliant Tenders: Managing the Difficult Middle Ground

• Handling vague, incomplete, qualified or contradictory tender responses
• When clarification may be appropriate and when it risks allowing a tenderer to improve or materially change its tender
• Managing post-deadline explanations, arithmetical corrections and attempts to reshape a submission
• Distinguishing minor errors from material non-compliance
• Recording the decision to admit, clarify, score down or exclude a tender in a way that supports equal treatment and transparency

AI-Assisted Procurement: Disclosure, Evidence and Accountability

• Whether tenderers should be asked to disclose AI use in preparing tenders, and how this can be done proportionately
• How contracting authorities should approach AI use in drafting, market analysis, evaluation/scoring support or contract monitoring
• Risks around confidentiality, data protection, bias, accuracy, intellectual property and over-reliance on AI-generated material
• Supplier use of AI after award in service delivery, reporting, drafting or technical outputs
• Practical wording for tender documents, declarations, evaluation guidance and contract clauses that supports transparency, accountability and human decision-making

Building Records That Survive Challenge: Evaluation Notes, Moderation, Standstill Letters and Award Notices

Speaker: Dorit McCann, Partner, Mason Hayes and Curran

• What evaluators should record during individual scoring, consensus scoring and moderation
• Avoiding generic notes, unexplained score differences and unsupported moderation outcomes
• Ensuring evaluation/scoring comments and award decisions are linked to the published criteria
• Managing tension between price, quality narratives and final ranking
• Drafting contract decision notices, standstill letters, regret letters and non-compliance notifications that are clear, consistent and defensible
• Managing Contract Award Notices, below-threshold CANs, eForms, estimated values and publication records as part of the wider procurement audit trail

Abnormally Low, Unbalanced and Strategically Priced Tenders: Lawful Investigation and Decision-Making

• Practical triggers for reviewing abnormally low tenders
• The difference between low pricing, aggressive pricing, unbalanced pricing and potentially unsustainable pricing
• How incumbents, poorly scoped requirements and missing cost assumptions can distort pricing
• Structuring clarification questions without inviting revised tenders or post-deadline negotiation
• Recording the contracting authority’s reasoning where a low-priced tender is accepted or rejected

Live Contract Problems After Award: Regulation 72, Supplier Change, Scope Creep and GPP Delivery

• When operational changes become procurement law issues
• Scope creep, added services, extensions and increased contract value
• Applying Regulation 72 and the rules on modification of contracts during their term without creating a material change risk
• Step-in arrangements, replacement suppliers, takeovers and organisational restructuring
• Internal approval records, modification notices and deciding when a fresh procurement may be required
• Managing Green Public Procurement obligations through specifications, award criteria, contract performance conditions, verification, contract monitoring and supplier reporting