How do public evaluators actually score?
Against the published criteria, to an evaluation plan, in a committee that has to be reconstructable later. That is why extra pages get ignored, why a relationship cannot be a row, and why a beautiful methodology on a 10 percent line will not rescue a 40 percent fail. Probity is the name of that constraint. See probity.
You will not see the full internal plan. You will see the criteria and weights in the pack. Believe those. The cover letter is not the score.
What should the gate do with the weights?
Write them down. Against each: evidence held today, evidence you would invent, evidence only the incumbent has. Invented is a no. Incumbent-only is a strategy question. Held is the only kind that counts. A day-one page, not a model.
If the weights sit outside what you do, you are not bidding to win. You are bidding to stay visible. Visibility is not a criterion. A conforming bid you cannot win still costs the week. Cost it.
How is this different from private scoring?
Private buyers can change their mind in the room. Public evaluators are not allowed to. That is slower and more documented, and it is why a wired pack is still scored as written. If the criteria describe one firm’s stack, see wired for the incumbent. You can lodge. You will still lose. That is allowed. It is also a reason not to spend the week.
Value for money in the CPRs is given effect through these weights, not through a paragraph you argue after. Do not hope they will look past a mandatory. They cannot.
What does a debrief add?
How you were scored against those same criteria. Not a rerun. Use it to test the next gate: we will not bid this category until X is true. Debriefs are the instrument after a loss. Without them you will bid the same weights the same way.
The sector page is conforming first, compelling second. Compelling only happens on the lines that have weight. This spoke is those lines, on the gate, before a template opens.