Three companies bid to be the framework supplier. One was discarded on failure to meet minimum quality grounds, leaving Citibank and Taulia. CCS’s commercial finance accountant’s evaluation of Taulia’s Dun & Bradstreet score and a review of its accounts required it to nominate a financial guarantor. Taulia nominated Greensill Capital, which was identified as Taulia’s key subcontractor in its bid. CCS’s assessors initially excluded Taulia from the bidding in January 2018 in line with the published evaluation criteria, as they were concerned about what Taulia said in its bid response about its ability to grow the number of businesses involved in the scheme. Taulia, and Greensill Capital in its role as an identified key subcontractor, protested to CCS. Following a review, and having sought legal advice, CCS asked both bidders to clarify their responses and appointed a new assessment panel, which reinstated Taulia in the competition.12