General Instructions and Tender Competition Rules Central Digital Platform and ETendersNI

  1. Suppliers participating in Buyer tenders will be required to register on the Central Digital Platform (CDP).  The CDP is available at the Government Find a Tender website. 

    Suppliers must submit up-to-date core supplier information on the CDP prior to the submission deadline and share this information with the Buyer via the CDP (either a share code or PDF download if required).  This includes the supplier’s: 

    a. basic information 

    b. economic and financial standing information         

    c. connected person information (these are persons with the right to exercise, or who actually exercise, significant influence or control over the supplier, or over whom the supplier has the right to exercise, or actually exercises, significant influence or control over, for example: directors, majority shareholders and parent and subsidiary companies) 

    d. exclusion grounds information

    It is the supplier’s responsibility to ensure the information submitted via the CDP is up to date and accurate for each and every tender.

    Further guidance for suppliers on how to register on the CDP can be found at How to Register your Organisation Guide.

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) relating to Public Procurement Organisation Numbers (PPON) and Share Codes on the CDP can also found on our website at Public Procurement Organisation Numbers and Share Codes | Education Authority Northern Ireland.

    Where a supplier intends to rely on other suppliers (perhaps consortium members or sub-contractors) to specifically meet a condition of participation, they must ensure that these other suppliers submit and share their basic, connected person and exclusion ground information via the CDP prior to the tender submission deadline as well.

    Where a supplier intends to sub-contract the performance of all or part of the contract, the supplier must provide a list of all these sub-contractors, which will be checked against the published debarment list.  Sub-contractors, unless they are associated persons, do not need to register or submit core supplier information on the CDP.

  2. Responses to all other stages of this procurement competition must be submitted on eTendersNI by selecting the “Tenders” option in the relevant Call for Tender (CfT).  Once selected, associate the users in your organisation with the CfT.  You will then see the button “Create your tender online”.
    1. The Education Authority (EA) Commercial Procurement Service website contains a link to eTendersNI guides for various stages of the tender process.
  3. Detailed instructions on how to submit a tender are provided in the ‘Supplier Walkthrough Help Guides’ and the Simple Tender Preparation document in the Help Section, links to which are located at the bottom of the screen on the eTendersNI website.
  4. Suppliers are responsible for ensuring that they have the technical capacity and allow sufficient time for the preparation and submission of tenders to the eTendersNI site before the stated deadline.
  5. The total size of your submission must be less than 100Mb.
  6. Please note that every tender opportunity includes by default a file called "Tender Structure XML".  It is NOT necessary to download and use this file, unless you decide to submit a Tender on the system using the "offline Tender preparation" functionality, which is not described here.  For online tender submission this particular file is not needed, please ignore it.
  7. Additional detailed guidance on the system functionality can also be accessed via the Help button available on each screen within eTendersNI.  The Helpdesk can be contacted on 0800 240 4545 or via email to ni-eproc-helpdesk@eurodyn.com
  8. Tenders must be uploaded within the eTendersNI portal via the relevant Call for Tender (CfT).
  9. When uploading attachments, the eTendersNI naming convention dictates that they should not contain the following special characters   \ / - ~ # & * ? % ( ) { } < > + “ : . _
  10. Please note that suppliers are advised to allow sufficient time to submit their tenders in case any problems occur with their computer or internet connection.  Allowing sufficient time will also provide suppliers with the opportunity to take advantage of the helpdesk if they are not sure how to proceed.  Offers submitted early remain confidential as the Buyer does not have access to them before the closing date and time of the tender.  Please remember that late tenders will not be accepted.