Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2019-08-30
Buyer: Education Authority NI
Country: UK
Contract type: Works
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 45214000: Construction work for education buildings
Estimated value: 2250000 GBP

Technical requirements: The award of a contract by Education Authority Northern Ireland (EANI) without prior publication of a call for competition in the Official Journal of the European Union, in respect of the continued provision of a term service contract for maintenance (M&E) and Minor Works in the Western Education and Library Board area (Area 1), contract Lot 3 as further described in OJEU contract notice.
Provision of planned and response maintenance and minor works for EANI across its property portfolio in the old Western Education and Library Board area, contract Lot 3 which includes but is not limited to controlled and non-controlled schools.
The contract set out in OJEU contract notice was entered into by EANI’s predecessor on 5.12.2013 as per the published Contract Award Notice (Contract). Under the Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2014, existing contracts for all Library Boards (including Western Education and Library Board) were novated to the EANI. The contract was initially for a period of 1 year plus an option to extend up to a further 3 years and has already been subject to a further extension with the natural expiry of the contract now being 30.9.2019 (expiry).
A procurement for a replacement contract was expected before the expiry, however, this has not proved possible. The reason being that organisational restructuring and analysis of performance requirements, through the survey and engagement with customers, resulted in delays to a new procurement exercise for contracts to commence circa 1.4.2020.
The extension value is circa 2 250 000 GBP based upon a 6 month extension. The scope will also be amended so that the contractor can carry work out if so required in other lot areas. The value of the previous extensions are not relevant.
Further additional services over a period of 6 months which were not included in the original procurement have become necessary and are permitted by Regulation 72(1)(b) of PCR2015.
(i) cannot be made for economic and technical reasons such as requirements of interchangeability or interoperability of services procured under the original procurement given the need to ensure continued access to the EANI estate including but not limited to controlled and uncontrolled schools. Given that the new contracts will commence 1.4.2020, commencement of a new contractor twice in 6 months would create unnecessary risk to stability and integrity of services and be unsettling for users, knowing that another transition was imminent whilst failure to have a contractor in place could result in partial or total closure of schools; and
(ii) would cause significant inconvenience and duplication of costs for EANI. Financially,any new contractor would have initiation/start-up costs in attempting to recreate the current service for 6 months which is very short compared to the normal lifetime, representing poor VFM, compared to extending the contract.
The upper estimate of the original contract was 8 000 000 GBP. As the 6 month extension is estimated to be approximately 2 250 000 GBP, it does not exceed 50 % of the value of the original contract.


Winner: Irwin ME Ltd
Award value: 2250000