Doing Business with Cheshire East Council

This section will give you guidance on how you can become a supplier to the Council, details of our contracts and current tender opportunities.

The Authority has a devolved procurement structure and as such the sourcing, tendering and purchasing, of goods and services are decentralised. Cheshire East does not operate an approved supplier list; however some services do operate select lists.

The Authority has to follow its Financial procedure rules (PDF, 984KB), which regulate how it conducts its business. In addition as a public sector body we are bound by the EU Procurement Directives for those contracts exceeding the thresholds above which we are obliged to publicly advertise our contracts throughout the European Union.

Tendering Process

Depending on the price of the purchase the council's procurement procedure varies:

Purchases below £10,000

The Council will require at least 3 emailed or telephone quotations.

Purchases below £50,000

The Council requires at least 3 competitive written quotations.

Purchases above £50,000

Tenders will be advertised on the tender opportunities section. The Council will carry out a rigorous tendering process and if the value exceeds the current EU thresholds will be in accordance with European Procurement Rules.

Large volume, low price consumables e.g. stationery, paper and educational supplies are purchased by CBS Supplies and held in a Central Stores in Runcorn. They too will purchase within the same rules and processes.

Tender Opportunities

Details of current procurement opportunities  with a value of £50,000 or more can be found on The Chest website. Tenders with a value that exceeds the current EU threshold will also be advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union.

For further advice and guidance on tendering to the public sector, please refer to our Business pages and the Business Link Northwest website.

Oracle iSupplier Portal

Cheshire Shared Services provide Suppliers with the option of using the Oracle iSupplier Portal module to connect to our eBusiness System to do the following:

• Purchase Order:
  • View / Print Purchase Orders
  • Search for old Purchase Orders
  • View Purchase Order "Lifecycle" - track if an order has been receipted / paid etc.
• Invoices / Payments:
  • Drill down against a Purchase Order to check if it has been invoiced / paid
  • Search existing invoices against Invoice Number / Purchase Order Number / Invoice Date etc - check if your invoice has been paid yet
  • Support

Support for the system is provided through the iSupplier User Guide (PDF, 504KB). If, after having read the userguide, you find that you need to speak to someone at Cheshire Shared Services for additional support (e.g. you have your password reset, or to report an issue with iSupplier), please call 01244 977140.

Payment to Suppliers

Automated payment direct into your bank account (e.g. payment by BACS - Banker Automated Clearing Services) is the Council's preferred method of payment as it is cost effective, efficient and secure. To apply for payment by BACS please submit your banking information on your organisation’s letterhead, signed (with an original signature) and dated by an authorised officer.

NB. We do not accept scanned/photocopied/computer generated or faxed signatures.

This must be ink.

Please send these details to:

Cheshire East Council
PO Box 3655
Chester
CH1 9PP