Word choice: Avoid procurement terminology with inconsistent semantics

[jpmckinney]

Different jurisdictions use the same terms in contradictory ways.

This issue has no action as yet. For now, it just serves to catalog terms whose interpretations are too inconsistent to be used in the documentation (without major caveats and clarifications).

For example:

• In some jurisdictions, a Request for Information (RFI) is not aimed at concluding a contract, and it may even be forbidden to procure using an RFI. In others, an RFI can be used to conclude a contract.
• In some jurisdictions, an Expression of Interest (EOI) is the same as a request to participate. In other jurisdictions, the term can also be used for Prior Information Notices (PINs) or market consultations (market engagement/information gathering).

Request for Information

RFIs that are invitations to participate:

• UK SBS RFI.
  • This RFI sets out the information which is required by the Authority in order to assess the suitability of Potential Providers in terms of their technical knowledge and experience, capability/capacity, organisational and financial standing to meet the requirement. This also known as ‘Pre-qualification’.
  • The object of the qualification process is to assess the responses to the RFI and select Potential Providers to proceed to the Award stage of the procurement.
• UK SBS RFI.
  • “Request for Information” or “RFI” means the document completed by Bidders at an earlier stage in the procurement used to shortlist Bidders under the Restricted procedure. This document is aften referenced within other organisations as a Pre Qualification Questionaire (PQQ)
• Telehandler and Excavator Maintenance RFI.
  • The procurement will use a 2 stage request for information (RFI) and request for proposal (RFP) procedure. The RFI must be completed first and submitted by bidders, the RFP will be issued together with the RFI to all bidders that accepted the invitation to participate to this event, as 'read only'. The editable RFP shall be issued to the bidders that qualify from the RFI stage to the RFP stage. https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:394612-2018:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0
• Request for Information: Baggage Strategic Partnership.
  • This notice is a call for competition
  • Please register to www.procurement.heathrow.com and refer to the listed RFI on this requirement for further details and to express interest.
  • All interested suppliers must access the PQQ/RFI/PQQ by logging in and from the dashboard page, clicking ‘My RFI/PQQs’ then ‘RFI/PQQs Open to All Suppliers’.

Expression of Interest

Expressions of interest that are not invitations to participate:

• NHSE552 — HMP Buckley Hall Dental Services.
  • The Contracting Authority is issuing this prior information notice (PIN) as a request for expressions of interest (EOI) to engage with the market and to gather information in order to gain a better understanding of both the capacity and appetite of the market in delivering the proposed services, and to alert the market to a future tender opportunity.
  • It should also be noted that this PIN invites individuals and organisations to express an interest in this EOI exercise only, and it is not a pre-qualification questionnaire, and is not part of any pre-qualification or selection process.
• Prior Information Notice — General Dental Services for Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
  • Please note, this expression of interest has been designed to allow the market visibility of the proposed opportunity, support early engagement and, support NHS England and NHS Improvements informed decision making on the potential options on the future commissioning of these services.
  • This is purely a market engagement exercise; any subsequent procurement will be advertised separately and all organisations wanting to participate will need to respond to the procurement advertisement as and when published.
• Community MSK Service
  • NHS Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (the commissioners) invites expressions of interest (EOI) from suitably qualified and experienced providers to provide community MSK services across Oxfordshire.
  • This notice is an information gathering exercise rather than a call for competition in its own right, and therefore publication or response does not commit Oxfordshire CCG or respondents to a future procurement, nor provide any process exemptions or preferential treatment to any parties expressing an interest.

[jpmckinney]

Thanks @duncandewhurst for compiling the UK examples above.

[jpmckinney]

CRM-7343 also has a list of opportunity types with overlapping semantics.

[JachymHercher]

"Contract notice" would be another example of inconsistent semantics. In Australia it's a notice about awarded contracts, in the EU about business opportunities.

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Expressions of interest that are not invitations to participate:

What are the examples when "expressions of interest", or rather "requests for expressions of interest", would also be an "invitation to participate"? The examples above are consistent with the EU directives, which (somewhat unclearly) distinguish an expression of interest (EoI) from a request to participate (RtP). EoI can potentially be as simple as an email "Yep, sounds like an interesting opportunity, let me know when you have more plans" and the crucial difference is that on the basis of an EoI you cannot qualify, while a RtP already does contain the information to get qualified.

[jpmckinney]

I think an EoI is sometimes used as the first stage of a two stage procedure, but I can no longer remember an example.

Internal reference: CRM-6947

[JachymHercher]

Just to clarify my previous post: a buyer requests an EOI from the companies; later on, he requests "requests to participate" or "bids" from the companies. Depending on what your definition of stage is (see https://github.com/open-contracting/standard/issues/1395#issuecomment-907456874), this would make requesting/submitting an EOI either a "step" (if we define a stage as "eliminates organizations") or a "stage" (if we define a stage as "important step" or something like that).

[jpmckinney]

This issue has no action as yet. For now, it just serves to catalog terms whose interpretations are too inconsistent to be used in the documentation (without major caveats and clarifications).

To close this issue, I think we can add a sub-section to Word choice about phrases to avoid in the docs.

• Request for Information
• Expression of Interest
• Contract notice (OCDS 1.2 uses "contract signature notice")

The docs currently use "contract notice" but only in the case of examples using EU buyers, with links to the notices, and in documentType.csv (where it explicitly mentions EU and Australia).