Context:
A foreign public-sector client wanted to acquire a large number of vehicles, systems and naval vessels in order to protect part of its territory.
Requirement:
To that end, the client, which had carried out an initial in-house exercise to identify the end goals and pool those objectives across its various departments, needed support to translate this statement of requirements into an operational scenario and then into an acquisition programme, including the associated contract strategy.
Prime Conseil’s involvement
A pair of contract managers with complementary profiles and backgrounds (a former lawyer and a former engineer), both with sector knowledge in defence and in major public acquisition programmes, was deployed within a task force at the client. This pair carried out the following work:
- Drafting upstream documents (internal note on the various public purchasing strategies, scope of work, executive summaries)
- Proposing a detailed contractual acquisition structure (contract structure, potential tender respondents, multi-year maintenance plan, purchase of spare parts, etc.), in compliance with the regulatory framework and in particular with the public procurement provisions applicable in the country concerned
- Contractual support in drafting the documents making up the tender pack (specifications, technical requirements, compliance matrices, etc.)
- Setting up the bid evaluation arrangements and training the public client’s teams in the selection of suppliers and service providers.
- Bid analysis, including risk and opportunity assessment matrices
- Support in negotiating the contracts, and in updating the risk and opportunity assessment
Outcome:
The acquisition programme, worth more than €800m in total, was finalised and the tender launched by the government concerned within the 12 months following the start of the assignment, with the contractual structure (client-side project ownership, project management and subcontracting arrangements) previously defined with the Prime Conseil teams.