I want to know what discretion a UK local authority has in accepting a
bid for services that was delivered late. The procurement is through
European procurement rules. The Council's Standing Orders apply. The
bid document says 'Invalid bids will not be accepted' and an invalid
bid is defined as one that was not delivered on time. It appears
however that there might be some discretion on the part of the council
to vary their Standing Orders. I really need some specific guidance,
precedents and case examples where this has happened. Details
responses required as soon as possible.

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Clarification of Question by nelatsea-ga on 30 May 2005 02:01 PDT

This may require legal interpretation of the terms that the
procurement was issued (ie under notice in the OJEU) but I believe it
nore likely to be within the local authorities control under their
standing orders. Examples of where this has happened before in the UK,
under what circumstances and what procedures were required to gain
acceptance of the late bid will give credence to any answer.

nelatsea-ga,
The price on your question indicates the seriousness of your interest,
so I am very diffident about suggesting that the council may have
overseen or knowingly breached its own Standing Orders, but this does
happen elsewhere, maybe not in England but in Germany, where
procurement procedures are also clearly defined.
You probably don't need an explanation of the possibilities:  that the
cheapest offer was not accepted because of some very tenuous argument
that it did not fulfil the standards specified; or that late offer (as
in your scenario) was accepted, on the basis that it was the cheapest
one and absolutely met the standards, which could let one think that
information about the other offers had been revealed by someone, so
that it was easy to slip in a late bid that met the standards and
undercut the price, suggesting even that the bidder could have
recieved information about the other bids.

It all has happened, but you need documented cases from the UK.  Sorry.

Myoarin