Cat upholds procurement appeal after fourteen-month review
The tribunal examiner has sustained an objection to the award of a £2.3 million contract for replacement signage at twelve regional tax offices. The decision, delivered in a 147-page finding published Thursday, reverses an earlier determination by the departmental adjudication panel and remands the matter for fresh tendering.
The examiner, presiding over the Government Procurement Review Tribunal since March 2023, found that the initial evaluation had improperly weighted the bidders' proposed typeface legibility scores relative to their installation timelines. The successful appellant, a Birmingham-based firm specialising in sans-serif wayfinding systems, had scored 87.4 points under the revised methodology compared to 83.1 for the original awardee. Both parties attended a closed hearing in October at which seventeen exhibits were entered into the record.
In her written submission to the tribunal, the Director of Contracts Policy at His Majesty's Revenue and Customs acknowledged that 'the assessment framework applied in June may not have afforded sufficient clarity as to the cascading criteria'. The examiner's finding describes this characterisation as 'measured' but notes that the procurement notice itself contained no such cascade, rendering the original scoring 'methodologically unsupportable and potentially arbitrary'. A separate procedural question regarding the timeliness of the appeal was dismissed without comment.
The decision marks the third remand issued by the examiner this fiscal year, though the first involving signage specifically. A separate dispute over the procurement of ergonomic desk lamps for eight Job Centre Plus locations remains pending, with oral arguments scheduled for February. The tribunal administrator confirmed that the examiner will continue to hear cases through the end of the current term.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which shares office space with three of the affected tax offices, has indicated it will not intervene in the remanded tender. A spokesman said the department 'notes the finding with interest'. The original awardee has thirty days to submit observations before the tender is reissued.
