5 years ago I started publishing our “Christmas Grinch” series.
Essentially all we did was name names and point fingers at the procurement villains who were asking bidders for responses to bids during the Christmas holidays*.
It struck a chord probably because I was sufficiently cheesed off to name names and also because there is good data to show that tenders with less competition deliver less value for money and unsurprisingly these tenders got less competition.
Back when we started it was normal for contracting authorities to publish dozens of contracts between Christmas and New Year. Just two years ago Hull City Council hit ‘send’ on 66 different tenders with Christmas deadlines. Yet this year, in the UK at least, we’re seeing much more manageable numbers.
In fact, the highest number we’ve found is 11 tenders from the South Downs National Park Authority, next we have 8 tenders from Swansea Council and then there are three organisations with 7 tenders due over the Christmas holidays (Rhondda, Maidstone NHS and Global Green Growth Institute).
| Buyer name | Tender count |
|---|---|
| SOUTH DOWNS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY | 11 |
| CITY & COUNTY OF SWANSEA | 8 |
| RHONDDA CYNON TAF CBC | 7 |
| MAIDSTONE AND TUNBRIDGE WELLS NHS TRUST | 7 |
| GLOBAL GREEN GROWTH INSTITUTE | 7 |
| JV NORTH LIMITED | 6 |
| NHS ENGLAND | 4 |
| MINISTRY OF DEFENCE | 4 |
| LUTON COUNCIL | 4 |
| LEEDS CITY COUNCIL | 4 |
| ISLE OF WIGHT COUNCIL | 4 |
| HISTORIC ENGLAND | 4 |
| GREATER MANCHESTER COMBINED AUTHORITY | 4 |
| FOREIGN, COMMONWEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICE | 4 |
| CUMBERLAND COUNCIL | 4 |
| CHEMONICS INTERNATIONAL, INC. | 4 |
| BRITISH COUNCIL | 4 |
I seriously doubt that my passive aggressive publishing had anything meaningful to do with these changes, but I like to think we’re on the right side of this argument.
That said, there’s still something not right here, we’ve still got 397 tenders with holiday deadlines, 37 of which have a deadline of the 31st of January. Maidstone NHS have got 6 tenders with deadlines of New Year’s Eve which seems like an attempt to avoid competition rather than encourage it. One of the New Year’s Eve specials is the Legal Aid Agency’s civil legal aid services (a reopening of the 2024 contract) which must have lawyers up and down the country crying into their Christmas lunches.
A special mention must go to the Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust who’ve given us our first Christmas Day deadline for the UK. https://uk.eu-supply.com/ctm/Supplier/PublicPurchase/100241/0/0?returnUrl=ctm/Supplier/PublicTenders&b=UK
Outside the UK bidders are faring less well. Germany is serving up 1,546 holiday deadlines including 55 New Year’s Eve deadlines and France is providing 1,457 holiday deadlines with 81 on New Year’s Eve. Canadians can look forward to 199 New Year’s Eve deadlines to the USA’s 55. In terms of the most voluminous publishers of holiday deadlines, France’s Établissements de santé et médico-sociaux has published 65 tenders with holiday deadlines and the USA’s NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support Mech has published 57.
| Buyer name | Country | Tender count |
|---|---|---|
| ETABLISSEMENTS DE SANTÉ ET MÉDICO-SOCIAUX | FRANCE | 65 |
| NAVSUP WEAPON SYSTEMS SUPPORT MECH | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | 57 |
| AVENUE-WEB SYSTÈMES | FRANCE | 37 |
| MARKKINAOIKEUS | FINLAND | 34 |
| ETABLISSEMENTS ET ORGANISMES DE L’ENSEIGNEMENT SUPÉRIEUR, DE LA RECHERCHE ET DE L’INNOVATION | FRANCE | 31 |
| BUNDESAGENTUR FÜR ARBEIT | GERMANY | 27 |
| AUTRES ORGANISMES | FRANCE | 25 |
| SECRETARIA DE PAZ TERRITORIAL Y RECONCILIACIÓN | COLOMBIA | 21 |
| ŘEDITELSTVÍ SILNIC A DÁLNIC S. P. | CZECHIA | 21 |
| MINISTÈRE DE LA TRANSITION ÉCOLOGIQUE, MINISTÈRE DE LA COHÉSION DES TERRITOIRES, MINISTÈRE DE LA MER | FRANCE | 21 |
However this kind of analysis deserves some balance. It is easy to point at procurement teams and demand that they do better, but what is a sensible set of parameters here? Given any form of say in the matter suppliers would tell procurement teams to avoid deadlines during Christmas, Easter, the summer holidays, Passover, Ede, Ramadan, the Mexican Day of the Dead and probably harvest time as well. Not to mention avoiding submission dates that coincide with other bids and other pressing matters such as the World Cup.
We all need to be careful not to fall into the trap of lazily damning procurement teams who have a range of competing priorities to handle, including keeping the lights on, the rubbish collected, the planes flying and roads clear.
You get my drift.
As we head into Christmas, we wish all our customers huge success in their bids and if you’re looking for better data on bidding opportunities, look no further than @Open Opportunites.
* Christmas deadlines are defined as between the 20th of December and 7th of Jan and we’ve excluded countries in Asia and Africa from the research in order to focus on countries with Christian Holiday observance.
