GETS Tender Process Guide
Abbreviations and Terms
BoT
DFA
ET
MoE
RFQ
SPA
Board of Trustees
Delegated Financial Authority
Evaluation Team
Ministry of Education
Request for Quotes
School Property Advisor
Approach to Market
Buyer
Tender
Respondent
COI
EIS
GETS
RFP
ROI
Conflict of Interest
Education Infrastructure Service
Government Electronic Tender Service
Request for Proposals
Registrations of Interest
The process of advertising or inviting responses to an RFP/ROI/RFQ.
The recipient of the procurement (EIS or a BoT).
A contract opportunity described in an RFP/ROI/RFQ
A potential supplier that has submitted a response to an Approach to Market.
This guide should be read in conjunction with the Open Tender Guide or Direct Source/Close Tender Guide.
For more information go to “Procurement for School Property Projects” web page at www.education.govt.nz (search for
“Procurement”).
Background
GETS is the system/website used by government agencies to openly advertise (publish) tenders. The Ministry of Business,
Innovation and Employment owns and operates GETS (including the provision of technical help). GETS functionality includes:

tenders are advertised on a public website (www.GETS.govt.nz)

potential suppliers registering for specific category/region codes receive automatic email notification of tenders that
are likely to be of interest

Potential suppliers’ requests for clarification for specific tenders and Procurement Officers’ responses and other
notices are communicated via GETS (either to individual potential suppliers or all potential suppliers that have
subscribed to the tender) and a record of all communication is retained

Respondents submit their responses (e.g. proposals) electronically via GETS to an e-tender box.

The e-tender box cannot be opened until after the tender deadline.

Respondents are individually notified of the outcome of each tender via GETS in addition to the publishing of a
Tender Award Notice

GETS can be used to undertake closed tenders with specific potential suppliers (they must be registered as GETS
Suppliers).
Government agencies that use GETS each have a GETS agency registration. For school property/construction related
procurement these are either:

Ministry of Education (MoE) EIS funded procurement (e.g. Building Improvement Programme), OR

Ministry of Education – Regional (MoE-Reg) BoT funded procurement (e.g. 5YA)
The EIS Procurement Team is responsible for coordinating all tenders published on GETS to MoE and MoE-Reg.
Procurement Officers who publish tenders for EIS and/or a BoT must be registered in GETS to MoE and or MoE-Reg (may
require two registrations). Private sector project managers wishing to respond to tenders published on GETS as a supplier
must have a separate GETS supplier registration.
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GETS Procurement Officer Registration
To register to be a GETS Procurement Officer, email [email protected] with the following information:

Name and contact details

(If a third party Project Manager) Name of your company/organisation

Whether Registration for MoE (EIS procurement) or MoE-Reg (BoT procurement)

The school(s) and/or EIS Business units you will be procuring on behalf of.
Logging onto GETS
To log onto GETS as a Procurement Officer (Purchaser):
1.
On the GETS homepage, click “Purchaser Login”
2.
Enter your username and password, use the “Choose file” (Chrome) or “Browse” (Internet Explorer) to search
for your personal key and select Login.
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3.
You will get a screen showing your RFxs (all RFP and ROIs). On the left hand side, you will be able to filter
based on the stage of the process.
Proc. Detailing are RFxs which are still in draft
Published are RFxs which are open and waiting for responses
Closed are RFxs which have closed, but have not been unlocked
(i.e. responses cannot yet be seen)
Evaluation are RFxs which are being evaluated
Awarded are RFxs which have had their contract/s awarded and the
notice of award published.
Cancelled are RFxs which have been cancelled after they were
published
Deleted are RFxs which were deleted prior to being published.
Posting a Tender on GETS
1.
Log onto GETS as a Procurement Officer under the appropriate GETS agency registration (MoE or MoE-Reg) (as
above)
2.
Click on the “Add RFx” button (top left under “RFx Search”)
3.
A pop up box will ask for the RFx Title and the RFx Type: select Request for Proposals from the drop down list and
click Save
Important: select the RFx Type "Request for Proposals" regardless of whether it is an ROI/RFP or RFQ (The
GETS Coordinator will change this to the correct RFX type when it is posted publically and following review.
Your new RFx will be created in a new tab. If it doesn’t appear, check that you do not have pop-up blockers turned on.
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The Department drop down contains the different
Groups within the MoE – please select EIS (not
applicable for MoE -Reg (Board of Trustees)
The Reference number is the Ariba workspace
number unique to the Ministry - leave blank if
unknown
The price band is the range of the amount that the
RFx falls between
Tender Coverage looks at whether you are going
out to RFx just for the Ministry, or whether this is a
multi-agency or syndicated agreement - it should be
Sole Agency for all tenders
Select Add or Edit to choose RFx Categories and
Regions (see below)
Leave the Alternate Physical Tender Box blank as
all responses must be submitted electronically via
GETS
4.
Complete the fields in the RFx Details Tab:

Department: EIS (not applicable for MoE-Reg)

Tender Coverage “Sole Agency” for all tenders,

Late Date/Time The open and close dates should match the RFx and procurement plan. The “Late Date” is a time
after the close of your RFx. During this time, the RFx stays locked (i.e. you cannot download any responses), but any
responses uploaded in this time are marked as late. This allows a bit of flexibility in the event of a respondent having
problems with the system. The late date and time are not visible to respondents. A full business day starts at 9am
and finishes at 5.00pm

Parent RFx: Selecting a parent RFx allows for the conducting a closed RFP to respondents shortlisted from an open
ROI. When an RFP is linked to a parent ROI the names of ROI respondents are pulled into the RFP. Shortlisted
respondents can then be selected to participate in the closed RFP. A closed RFP, while conducted through GETS,
will not appear as publically advertised on the GETS website.
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
RFx Categories
All property related tenders (works & professional services) must be coded as follows:
o
Works
72000000-Building and Facility Construction and Maintenance Services
o
Project Management services
72000000-Building and Facility Construction and Maintenance Services
and
80000000-Management and Professional and Administrative Services
o
Quantity surveying services
72000000- Building and Facility Construction and Maintenance Services
and
81000000-Engineering and Research and Technology Based Services
o
Design/architectural services:
72000000-Building and Facility Construction and Maintenance Services
and
94000000-Organizations and Clubs
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
RFx Regions Select the region code(s) that respondents are likely to be interested in/capable of supplying (e.g. For
a school in Taranaki, select Taranaki and possibly Waikato and Wellington). Do not select the “New Zealand” or
“International” codes (Potential suppliers that have only selected one or more specific region will not receive a notification
for these tenders.)
(Note: To see the region codes, click on
beside “International” and “New Zealand” in the “RFx Regions” window)

Alternate Physical Tender Box Delivery Address For all tenders, “Not Applicable” (all responses must be
submitted electronically via GETS)

Sole Source Exception Select “No” for all tenders

Overview Provide a brief explanation about the RFx including the nature of the project, the nature of the
services/works sought and the name of the school (e.g. The Board of Trustees is seeking a main building contractor
for the construction of a four classroom block at Bugtown School)

Contact Name For all tenders, “All communication with the Buyer must be made via the GETS tender
question/answer function”

RFx Contact Phone LEAVE BLANK for all tenders (prior to the tender deadline, all communications between
potential Respondents and the Buyer must be via the GETS question/answer function)

Site Information Name/Phone LEAVE BLANK for all tenders

Site Visit Instructions:
o
if there are to be no site visits, “No site visits”
o
if there are to be site visits; “Please use the GETS question/answer function to register for/request a site
visit”

Supply of Goods Information fields: “Not Applicable” for all tenders

Contract & Requirements Information: LEAVE BLANK for all tenders
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5.
When you have made changes, save (in the top right corner: you will be prompted if you have forgotten to save).
6.
In the Attachments Tab, Use Browse (Internet Explorer) or Choose file (Chrome)to select your file, and then Attach to
upload attach:

the RFP (including Response Form) as a pdf

the Response Form as a Word document

other relevant files (e.g. the proposed contract)
Important. You must wait for the screen below to appear before moving on – it can take longer than you think (If you
don’t get the Checksum, the document hasn’t
uploaded).
7.
Click the “Save” button (top right)
then the “Ask to Publish” button (top left).
When the confirmation message below appears, click OK.
Allow two business days for your RFx to be reviewed by a GETS Co-ordinator prior to actual publication.
Once the RFx has been published, you will see a notice at the top of the screen telling you that the status is published.
Once the start date has passed, it will say “Published (open to suppliers).”
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Following Publication
Following publication, the RFx will appear in the “Published” section of your side menu.
During the published phase, the Procurement Officer will be notified of Respondent questions by email. To read/answer
Respondent questions, click the link in the email to go directly to the question (you will need to log-in). Alternatively, you
can see all questions and answers by going to the menu on the left hand side of the screen.
When answering a question, the response may be public (to all Potential Respondents subscribed to the RFx) or private (to
only the Potential Respondent that has asked the question). Generally answers should be public to ensure that all
respondents have the same information upon which to base their responses. An answer should only be made private if
there is a good reason (e.g. the question relates to innovation that for which the Respondent would lose commercial
advantage if the answer were to be public). If in doubt advice the Potential Respondent that the answer will be made public
and offer them the option to withdraw the question.
Important – for answers made public, there must be nothing in either the question or the answer which identifies the
Potential Respondent asking the question. If the Potential Respondent’s question includes identifying information, then
respond privately to them, and then manually add another question and answer which does not identify the supplier.
You may wish to upload additional documents (for example a briefing presentation) after the RFx has been published. To
do this, go to the Addenda option. Here, you can give the addendum a title, put in information, and, after you have created
the addendum, you can upload a document.
Important – just as with uploading a document previously, you need to wait for the Checksum screen to confirm that the
document has been created.
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During the published phase, to obtain a report that details the number of subscribers to the tender and the number of
Responses submitted, select “Prospective Tenderer Report” in the “Choose Report” drop-down field (top left)
Opening the ETender Box
The ETender box can only be opened after the RFx deadline. It is a two-key process and requires both the Procurement
Officer and an ETCO (GETS Co-ordinator) to unlock this.
Once the ETCO has unlocked the RFX the Procurement Officer will be notified. The Procurement Officer will receive an email
notification. The Procurement Officer then clicks the unlock button (top left) and uploads their key.
The Responses and Award Contract options will then appear on the left hand side
From the responses screen, you will be able to download the responses individually, or download all files .
GETS Tender Award Notice
The Tender Award Notice is the “closing out’ of a GETS tender and is a public announcement notifying the market in general
of the outcome of the tender (under “Awarded Tenders” tab of the GETS home page).
To post a Tender Award Notice:
1.
click on the “Award Tender” tab in the GETS tender
2.
Select either “No Winning Responses” or “Award”
3.
If “Awarded”:



select the successful Respondent(s)
PO# and Value $ fields: LEAVE BLANK
the General Award Comment should state the Contract award date, start date and intended completion date (or the
term of the contract)
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4.
If “No Winning Responses”, the Reason must be one of the following:



No responses were received
No acceptable/compliant responses were received
The tender process was cancelled prior to awarding a contract
Closed RFPs following Open ROIs
The process for a GETS registered Procurement Officer conducting a closed RFP in GETS tender to Respondents shortlisted
from a previous on ROI is: Parent RFx: Selecting a parent RFx allows for the conducting a closed RFP to respondents
shortlisted from an open ROI. When an RFP is linked to a parent ROI the names of ROI respondents are pulled into the RFP.
Shortlisted respondents can then be selected to participate in the closed RFP. A closed RFP, while conducted through GETS,
will not appear as publically advertised on the GETS website.
Notes:
1.
All GETS tenders must have a tender document (either RFP or ROI) attached along with all other relevant tender
documents.
2.
No contact information is to appear in the GETS tender notice, RFP or other attachments (prior to the tender deadline, all
communications between potential Respondents and the Buyer must be via the GETS question/answer function).
3.
All responses should be submitted through the GETS e-tender box function. In extenuating circumstances tenders may
be lodged by the Procurement Officer on behalf of a respondent (only when the tender is in the “Evaluation” phase. Go to
the “Responses” tab and select “Add Manual Response”
4.
Closed RFPs with Respondents shortlisted from an open ROI must be conducted through GETS. To do this, create a
new RFP tender notice in GETS and select the ROI as the Parent RFx to transfer all ROI Respondents to the Select
Suppliers Tab of the RFP. From the Select Suppliers Tab, shortlisted Respondents can then be selected to receive the
closed RFP.
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