Extension to Enquiry Handling Service for the Go For It Programme

CPV: Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security · Call centre · Postal and telecommunications services · Telephone-answering services

Procedure method

Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition

Legal basis

CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)

Procurement category

Services

Notice status

Awarded without competition

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Direct award (no call for competition)

GPA / WTO covered

Unspecified in notice

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

3 May 2023, 12:12 BST

Last source update

3 May 2023, 12:12 BST

FTS notice number

2023/S 000-012637

Classification (CPV)

Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and securityCall centrePostal and telecommunications servicesTelephone-answering services

Delivery area

Northern Ireland (UKN0E)

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-03c5f1 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive

Published justification

The overall Go for It Programme has been extended while the contracting authority awaits a new 11 council programme to begin. This has necessitated an extension of the enquiry handling contract with Teleperformance for a 6 week period.

The extension with Teleperformance is required pursuant to Regulation 72 (1) (b) and Regulation 72 (1 (c) of the PCR 2015 as a replacement contractor would require considerable time to familiarise themselves with the complexities of the requirements of the contract which would be costly for the programme - especially as the timeframe is brief. The programme is operating in a difficult economic environment and a good level of knowledge is required to fulfil the requirements of the scope of the tender.

Regulation 72 (1) (c) permits this extension due to unforeseen circumstances which a diligent contracting authority could not have foreseen, the overall nature of the contract is not altered and the Modification value does not exceed 50 % of the original contract value.

The original procurement of the contractor envisaged that the current contract would complete in March 2023 and it was planned that European Regional Development Funds would be exhausted at that point. The contracting authority has planned for the Entrepreneurship Support Service (ESS) to support the Northern Ireland Business Start-Up Programme (NIBSUP). However, the main funding for ESS shall come from the Shared prosperity fund (SPF) in Northern Ireland. The contracting authority could not have foreseen the delay to the roll out of SPF and this has resulted in a new start-up date for ESS of 1 October 2023. This necessitated an unplanned extension of NIBSUP to 15th August 2023.

Regulation 72(1) (b) further permits this extension: as additional services by the original contractor have become necessary and were not included in the initial procurement, where a change of contractor -

(i) cannot be made for economic or technical reasons such as requirements of

interchangeability or interoperability with existing equipment, services or installations

procured under the initial procurement; or

(ii) would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs for the

contracting authority, provided that any increase in price does not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract.

If the contracting authority was required to engage a new contractor to provide the marketing services of the Go for It Programme, this would lead to a significant inconvenience and duplication of costs for the contracting authority as there is a significant transitional period from the termination of the existing contract to the date that a replacement contractor would fulfil the services, this would lead to significant inconvenience and the contracting authority would be required to substantially duplicate its costs to ensure a 6 week contract would be commercially viable for a replacement contractor.

The existing contract shall be extended until 15th August 2023 on the same terms and conditions. There shall be no increase in the tendered rates paid to the contractor

• Teleperformance LimitedAwarded supplier Bristol, LondonContact emailShow contact details

No document links were published on the notice.