Purchase of Consumable Items, Accessories and Equipment used for Non-Destructive Testing UK6

The DE&S Deca Managed Services Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence ("the

Authority"), intend to award a 3-year contract, with 2 option years, to Central Management

Catalogue Agency UK Ltd (CMCA), who are able to fulfil the requirement. The estimated

value of the contract is £750,000 excluding VAT (£900,000 including VAT). CMCA are not

an excludable supplier and are not on the Debarment list.

The requirement was previously competed in 2024 under Public Contract Regulations

2015 with no compliant tenders. The same requirement was again competed under the

Procurement Act 2023 (PA23) in 2025 with no tender responses.

The Authority has decided to switch the process from an Open Competition to a Direct

Award Contract, due to no tenders being submitted, under Chapter 3, Paragraph 43(1) of

the Procurement Act 2023, which states:-

43(1) A contracting authority may award a public contract directly to a supplier that is not

an excluded supplier ifa)

the authority has invited suppliers to submit tenders as part of, or requests to

participate in, a competitive tendering procedure in respect of the contract,

b) it has not received any suitable tenders or requests in response, and

c) it considers that award under section 19 is not possible in the circumstances.

The Authority has conducted thorough due diligence on potential suppliers to meet the

requirement and has determined that the aforementioned supplier is both suitable and

compliant. The process undertaken involved a review of questionnaire responses

following the second unsuccessful tender. Subsequently, the internal project team

reached a consensus to approach three suppliers directly.

As part of this internal process to identify the most appropriate suppliers capable of

providing the majority of the required equipment, only one supplier responded to the

request. CMCA has confirmed their ability to supply a portion of the required items and

has expressed their willingness to collaborate with the Authority to fulfil the contractual

requirements.