Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2020-01-14
Buyer: Libraries NI
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 30213200 | 30213300 | 30232100 | 30234000 | 30236000
Estimated value: 33660000 GBP
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Libraries NI is placing this voluntary transparency notice to alert economic operators of its intention to modify the e2 contract in accordance with Regulation 72 (1) (b) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. It is intended that this modification will extend the current contract for a period of 29 months. This transparency notice does not place any obligation on the Authority to enter into this modification.
Provision of ICT support services to the regional public library authority in Northern Ireland (Libraries NI) including provision of the following: computer network providing public access and a secure corporate and (cabled and WiFi) at currently around 108 fixed locations (some of which currently are the department of education and the department for employment and learning offices) and 28 mobile libraries. A non exhaustive list of what the services should support is provided in Contract Notice 2011/S 198-322788.
In May 2013 the contract set out in Contract Notice 2011/S198-322788 was awarded to Fujitsu for a period of 5 years with options to extend for a further 2 years.
A procurement for a replacement contract was expected before the expiry, however, this has not proved possible. Libraries NI (LNI) now require a further 29 month extension period. The term is the only amendment, however, over the course of the extension some services may be terminated as they are transferred to Enterprise Shared Services(ESS).
This extension is seen as a modification under the provisions outlined in Regulation 72 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
Regulation 72 provides that contracts may be modified without a new procurement procedure in any of a number of cases, including:
‘(1) (b) for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor that have become necessary and were not included in the original procurement, where a change of contractor —
(i) cannot be made for economic or technical reasons such as such as requirements of interchangeability or interoperability with existing equipment, services or installations procured under the initial procurement; and
(ii) would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs for the contracting authority;
(iii) provided that any increase in price does not exceed 50 % of the value of the original contract;
(i) complex transitional requirements and need to ensure continued system delivery which is vital to LNI’s functionality. The incumbent designed the ICT infrastructure and developed it to integrate the full portfolio of local, data-centre and all line of business services for 1 300 Public Access Computers and 800 corporate users on a 24/7/365 basis. The software licencing is tied into the current agreement and will take considerable time to replace whilst sustaining system functionality. Procuring an interim system and switching to partial ESS service delivery in 29 months isn’t possible as the system and licences are not readily interchangeable or interoperable. Any attempt to transfer systems without an adequate transition period poses an unjustifiable risk of business disruption and total network failure;
(ii) the infrastructure needed to support an interim contract would present substantial challenges to other suppliers. The potential complex system and integration requirements with ESS make it impractical to introduce an interim contractor. Otherwise LNI would suffer a difficult transition, followed by a further transition 2-3 years later, both of which would cause significant risk and inconvenience to everyone all parties involved.
Financially,any new contractor would have significant initiation/start-up and due-diligence costs in attempting to recreate the current service for 2-3 years which is very short compared to the normal lifetime, representing poor VFM, compared to extending the contract.
(iii) A modification up to 12 050 000 GBP does not exceed 50 % of the value of the original contract.
The date shown in this voluntary transparency notice Section V.2.1) is defaulted at the date the authority issued the notice to the journal.. However this date is not the date for conclusion of contract, the proposed date for the modification would be 1.5.2020 if the. Authority proceeds as intended.


Winner: Fujitsu
Award value: 33660000