Public procurement notice: Modification Of A Contract/Concession During Its Term
Published: 2021-04-02
Buyer: CPD — Supplies and Services Division
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 72253200: Computer systems support services | 72260000: Software-related services | 72300000 | 72510000: Computer-related management services | 79400000

Technical requirements: The Provision of Electronic Human Resource and Related ICT Services for the Northern Ireland Civil Service (e-HR Programme)
Following an open competition (advertised in the Official Journal of the EU in 2003), the Department of Finance (DoF) entered into a Strategic Partnering Agreement (SPA) with Fujitsu on 29 March 2006 for the provision of Electronic Human Resource and related ICT Services for the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) and a number of Non Departmental Public Bodies. The SPA (known as e-HR) provided an end to end fully managed solution for the provision of payroll and HR services. The system is heavily customised to align to its users' wide range of HR policies and procedures. The SPA expires on 29 March 2021.
The Provision of Electronic Human Resource and Related ICT Services for the Northern Ireland Civil Service (e-HR programme)
For completeness the Department of Finance published a voluntary transparency notice (ref 2021/S 053-134593) to alert economic operators to the Department's intention to modify contract ref P17980. The contract modification was concluded on 29 March 2021 and will extend the contract for a maximum of 6 years (4 years with 2 annual options to extend). The estimated value of the extension is GBP 58.2 million for 4 years; GBP 72.8 million for 5 years and GBP 86.8 million for 6 years.
The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended) do not include a formal review mechanism. Economic operators who wish to challenge the award of a contract or a contract modification can bring a claim to the NI Courts and Tribunal Service.
Following an open competition (advertised in the Official Journal of the EU in 2003), the Department of Finance (DoF) entered into a Strategic Partnering Agreement (SPA) with Fujitsu on 29 March 2006 for the provision of Electronic Human Resource and related ICT Services for the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) and a number of Non Departmental Public Bodies. The SPA (known as e-HR) provided an end to end fully managed solution for the provision of payroll and HR services. The contract expires on 29 March 2021.
The eHR Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) is a fully managed contract for the provision of payroll and HR systems and services. The system has been heavily customised over the last 15 years to align to its users wide range of HR policies and procedures. The SPA is an end to end HR and Payroll solution including the provision and management of hardware/software and services. The modification will extend the SPA from 29 March 2021 for a period of 4 years with 2 further annual options to extend. The original contract notice 2003/S 186-168054 showed the contract term as 10 years support from the point of the implementation of the services, with an option to extend the contract for a further 5 years. The contract notice stated that this period was subject to negotiation during the procurement phase. During the negotiation phase, it was agreed that the contract period would be 15 years (as opposed to 10 years with an option to extend for a further 5 years), however the contract award didn’t reflect the additional time for the implementation of services which had been intended in the original contract notice. The full implementation for all services under the e-HR contract took almost 4 years which is the initial period for this extension. The additional 2 annual options to extend will provide contingency for any delays during the procurement phase or implementation period for the replacement contract. The value of the 4 year extension is estimated at GBP 58.2 million. The accumulative value of the 5 years extension is estimated at GBP 72.8 million and the accumulative value of the 6 years extension is estimated at GBP 86.8 million.
The eHR Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) is a fully managed contract for the provision of payroll and HR systems and services. It has become necessary to maintain the current system and services beyond the contract's expiry date (i.e 29 March 2021). As such DoF has modified the contract with effect from 29 March 2021 in accordance with Regulation 72(1)(b) for the following reasons:
(i) the existing contractor provides a fully managed service for a broad and complex range of payroll, HR and related ICT services (including, without limitation, on-going management, operation and maintenance support), underpinned by computer hardware, software and associated products;
(ii) the Oracle solution has been heavily customised to align with the NICS HR policies and procedures and the current contractor has acquired the necessary intellectual property and know how to maintain and develop the system;
(iii) a change of contractor for this critical managed service, for a relatively short period of time, during which replacement contract(s) will be procured and implemented, would introduce an unacceptable risk of system failure and will cause substantial duplication of costs and significant inconvenience to the contracting authority and a potential disruption to public services.


Winner: Fujitsu Services Ltd