Official UK procurement notice
DoF EU Division - European Structural and Investment Funds Computer System
Authority: Department of Finance (Northern Ireland) (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionIt is necessary to take up the extension option for a 4 year period from the end of 2021 since functionality of the Database will be required until closure of the ESIF Funding period at the end of 2025. The existing contractor has designed and developed this bespoke Database, it would not be practical or cost effective to engage a different supplier for further enhancements and system support up to the end of the contract period. To do so would result in the requirement to re-train all existing users, have the system re-designated by the Audit Authorities and have the system accredited again to ISO27001 security standard – an accreditation the current system has until 2023.
CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Software package and information systems
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1This contract is for the development and maintenance of a European structural…
This contract is for the development and maintenance of a European structural investment Funds Database for the EU Division. This contract has an initial end date of 31.12.2021 with the option to extend for 2 optional 2 year periods. It is necessary to take up the extension option for a 4 year period from the end of 2021 since functionality of the Database will be required until closure of the ESIF Funding period at the end of 2025. The existing contractor has designed and developed this bespoke Database, it would not be practical or cost effective to engage a different supplier for further enhancements and system support up to the end of the contract period. To do so would result in the requirement to re-train all existing users, have the system re-designated by the Audit Authorities and have the system accredited again to ISO27001 security standard – an accreditation the current system has until 2023.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Negotiated without publication of a contract notice
- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Awarded
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 28 Sept 2021, 10:25 BST
- Last source update
- 28 Sept 2021, 10:25 BST
- FTS notice number
2021/S 000-024023- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-02e547Find a Tender
- Why no open competition
- No tenders or no suitable tenders/requests to participate in response to open procedure
- Published justification
The value of this contract and proposed modification (at £1,163,423) is above the EU threshold therefore the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended) apply.
The current contract (DAC 150/16) was put in place for an initial period of 5 years with two optional extension periods of 2 years each due to unforeseen events.
Two public tender competitions had failed to deliver a multi-function database for use by Department for the Economy, Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs and the Special European Union Programmes Body as required by European Commission Regulations to comply with e-cohesion principles and enable the drawdown of €1 bn+ EU funding to Northern Ireland during the 2014 – 2020 round of European Structural and Investment Funds.
The contractor appointed following the most recent open competition was unable to deliver the requirements specified in the tender SOR resulting in the contract being terminated on 13th June 2016 due to default.
This created an urgent requirement to have a functioning database in place by the end of 2016 to meet Commission requirements. As the scheme continues after the initial 5 year period CPD held a number of discussions with EUD on requirements going forward following exit from EU.
The scheme will close in 4 years’ time and EUD have negotiated with the contractor (RMA now under Fluent Technology) to aggregate the extension periods into one 4 year deal to provide best vfm. This included social value considerations which were incorporated into the original contract. In addition to support and maintenance costs, these costs include a software refresh which is necessary to continue to meet current security standards and archiving of the data at the end of the contract.
The Regulations permit the modification of a contract where the changes proposed meet one or more of the prescribed tests as set out in Regulation 72. Having considered the information provided there would appear to be convincing reasons to modify this contract in accordance with Regulation 72(1)(b); that is additional services “have become necessary” and were not included in the initial procurement and a change of supplier would not be practicable for economic or technical and would involve substantial inconvenience/duplication of costs - provided the change does not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract.
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| RMA SYSTEMS And SERVICES LTDSME | £1,163,423 † | — | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract 024023-2021-1 · RMA SYSTEMS And SERVICES LTDSME
- Signed
- 13 Oct 2016
- Value
- £1,163,423
- Status
- active
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
2 public bodies on the noticeOther public bodies
- European UnionFunder
Dispute resolution & review bodies
- The UK does not have any special review body with responsibility for appeal/mediation procedures in public procurement competitions. Instead, any challenges are dealt with by the High Court, Commercial Division, to which proceedings may be issued regarding alleged breaches of the PCR 2015Review body
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- RMA SYSTEMS And SERVICES LTDAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.