Public procurement notice: Modification Of A Contract/Concession During Its Term
Published: 2024-01-24
Buyer: Road Safety Authority
Country: IE
Contract type: Works
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 22450000 | 22454000 | 22456000 | 30162000 | 30233300

Technical requirements: The Road Safety Strategy 2007-2012 set out a commitment for Ireland to introduce driving licences as polycarbonate cards, as required by EU Directive 2006/126/EC of 20 December 2006 on Driving Licences. The target date for the first issue of the polycarbonate Driving Licences was 19 January 2013. At the request of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, RSA agreed to take the lead in introducing the new driving licences along with a programme of changes to improve the overall Driver Licensing Service.
RSA commissioned Accenture in July 2010 to carry out a review of the existing Driver Licensing Service in Ireland, to understand how a new licence could be delivered in a secure, efficient and customer friendly manner. This review recommended the delivery of the polycarbonate driving licences via a centralised Plastic Card Delivery Unit (PCDU). The obligations of the PCDU were to be identified by the Driver Licensing Transformation Programme and the successful tenderer for the PCDU Contract was also expected to produce and deliver digital tachograph cards from December 2014.
Following a competitive tender process, a contract was awarded to Credit Card Systems Ireland Limited.
RSA is invoking Article 72(1)(b) of Directive 2014/24/EU in respect of this modification, as set out at VII.2.2 of this notice. However, the RSA is also satisfied that there is sufficient justification for this modification under Article72(1)(c) of Directive 2014/24/EU. Specifically, due to the unforeseeable impact of Covid-19 and the unforeseeable impact of the multiple licence extensions imposed as measures to combat the pandemic, the work to identify the future service delivery model for the NDLS was delayed until late Q2 2022. This work is ongoing and will provide the future road map and procurement plan. As a result, the PCDU Contract needs to be extended beyond its current term to ensure continuity of services until the procurement process for an amalgamated NDLS contract is complete.
A contract was awarded to Credit Card Systems Ireland Ltd in 2012 for an initial period of 5 years with an option to extend for a further two periods, each up to a maximum of three years, at the discretion of RSA (i.e. a total duration of 11 years). Since then, the contract was extended by a period of 3 years initially (in line with the first extension option). The contract was then further extended by a period of 2 years using the second extension option (bringing the total contract duration prior to modification to a total of 10 years). However, for the reasons set out in section VII.2.2, a need has arisen to extend the contract for a further period of up to 48 months bringing the total maximum contract duration to 168 months.
The need for additional services arises from the fact that there is an ongoing process within the RSA for the amalgamation of all contracts falling under the NDLS into one contract. The procurement process for this amalgamated NDLS contract was due to start in Q1 2020, however, due to the impact of Covid-19 and impact of the multiple licence extensions imposed as measures to combat the pandemic, the work to identify the future service delivery model for the NDLS was delayed until late Q2 2022 and is still ongoing. As a result, the PCDU Contract needs to be extended beyond its current term to ensure continuity of services until the procurement process for the amalgamated NDLS contract is complete.In addition, a change in contractor would cause both significant inconvenience and substantial duplication of costs for the RSA. In particular, a change in contractor would disrupt continuity of service and would compromise the RSA's ability to carry out the NDLS.


Winner: Credit Card Systems Ireland Ltd