Section one: Contracting authority
one.1) Name and addresses
Department of Finance - International Fund for Ireland
Seatem House, 28-32 Alfred Street
BELFAST
BT2 8EN
Contact
ssdadmin.cpdfinance-ni.gov.uk
ssdadmin.cpd@finance-ni.gov.uk
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
UK - United Kingdom
Internet address(es)
Main address
https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps
Buyer's address
https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps
one.2) Information about joint procurement
The contract is awarded by a central purchasing body
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
Body governed by public law
one.5) Main activity
General public services
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
DoF - International Fund for Ireland - Public Relations Services and Website Services
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 79416000 - Public relations services
two.1.3) Type of contract
Services
two.1.4) Short description
The International Fund for Ireland requires a Supplier to provide a comprehensive public relations service to its Board of the Fund. The Fund’s latest Annual Report can be accessed on the Fund’s website www.internationalfundforireland.com. The service to be provided must cover strategic communication as well as operational communication. In addition, the Supplier will be required to host, maintain and support the Fund’s website which also has a secure members area. It should be borne in mind that, while the Fund is a single, integrated, international organisation which focuses most of its activity on the twelve northern counties of the island of Ireland, it has an office in Belfast which covers activities in Northern Ireland and an office in Dublin which covers activities in the six Southern border counties. The Supplier will be required to provide services to the Fund in both jurisdictions and this contract is, therefore, in respect of the Fund’s PR requirements North and South. The Supplier must deliver the following throughout the lifetime of the contract: Website Hosting, Content Management, Support and Maintenance contract and any website redesign.
two.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots: No
two.1.7) Total value of the procurement (excluding VAT)
Value excluding VAT: £656,667.99
two.2) Description
two.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
- 79416100 - Public relations management services
- 79416200 - Public relations consultancy services
- 79430000 - Crisis management services
- 72413000 - World wide web (www) site design services
- 72415000 - World wide web (www) site operation host services
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UKN0 - Northern Ireland
- IE0 - Ireland
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
The International Fund for Ireland requires a Supplier to provide a comprehensive public relations service to its Board of the Fund. The Fund’s latest Annual Report can be accessed on the Fund’s website www.internationalfundforireland.com. The service to be provided must cover strategic communication as well as operational communication. In addition, the Supplier will be required to host, maintain and support the Fund’s website which also has a secure members area. It should be borne in mind that, while the Fund is a single, integrated, international organisation which focuses most of its activity on the twelve northern counties of the island of Ireland, it has an office in Belfast which covers activities in Northern Ireland and an office in Dublin which covers activities in the six Southern border counties. The Supplier will be required to provide services to the Fund in both jurisdictions and this contract is, therefore, in respect of the Fund’s PR requirements North and South. The Supplier must deliver the following throughout the lifetime of the contract: Website Hosting, Content Management, Support and Maintenance contract and any website redesign.
two.2.5) Award criteria
Quality criterion - Name: Qualitative Criteria / Weighting: 75
Cost criterion - Name: Quantitative Criteria / Weighting: 25
two.2.11) Information about options
Options: No
two.2.13) Information about European Union Funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: No
Section four. Procedure
four.1) Description
four.1.1) Type of procedure
Open procedure
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes
four.2) Administrative information
four.2.1) Previous publication concerning this procedure
Notice number: 2023/S 000-034822
four.2.9) Information about termination of call for competition in the form of a prior information notice
The contracting authority will not award any further contracts based on the above prior information notice
Section five. Award of contract
Contract No
1
Title
Contract
A contract/lot is awarded: Yes
five.2) Award of contract
five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
6 March 2024
five.2.2) Information about tenders
Number of tenders received: 4
Number of tenders received from SMEs: 1
Number of tenders received from tenderers from other EU Member States: 0
Number of tenders received from tenderers from non-EU Member States: 1
Number of tenders received by electronic means: 4
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No
five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
OPEN STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED
Innovation Factory 385 Springfield Road Forthriver Business Park
BELFAST
BT12 7DG
Telephone
+44 7590227961
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
- UK - United Kingdom
Internet address
https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps
The contractor is an SME
Yes
five.2.4) Information on value of contract/lot (excluding VAT)
Initial estimated total value of the contract/lot: £900,000
Total value of the contract/lot: £656,667.99
Section six. Complementary information
six.3) Additional information
The figure indicated in Section V.2.4 represents an estimated contract value. This value reflects the potential scale of the contract, however, neither CPD nor the Authority can provide any guarantee as to the level of business under this contract. The successful contractor’s performance on the contract will be regularly monitored. Contractors not delivering on contract requirements is a serious matter. It means the public purse is not getting what it is paying for. If a contractor fails to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance they will be given a specified time to improve. If, after the specified time, they still fail to reach. satisfactory. levels of contract performance, the matter will be escalated to senior management in CPD for further action. If. this occurs. and their. performance still does not improve to satisfactory levels within the specified period, it may be regarded as an act of grave professional misconduct and they may be issued with a Notice of Unsatisfactory Performance and the contract may be terminated. The issue of a Notice of unsatisfactory Performance will result in the contractor being excluded from all procurement competitions being undertaken by Centres of Procurement Expertise on behalf of bodies covered by the Northern Ireland Procurement Policy for a period of twelve months from the date of issue of the Notice.
six.4) Procedures for review
six.4.1) Review body
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 2015 as amended.
United Kingdom
Country
United Kingdom
six.4.3) Review procedure
Precise information on deadline(s) for review procedures
The Contracting Authority complied with the requirements of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended) and incorporated a minimum 10 calendar day standstill period at the point information on the award of the contract was communicated to all Economic Operators. That notification provided full information on the award decision. This provided time for the unsuccessful tenderers to challenge the award decision before the contract was entered into.