Public procurement notice: Modification Of A Contract/Concession During Its Term
Published: 2024-02-02
Buyer: Office of the Attorney General
Country: IE
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 72300000 | 72310000: Data processing services | 72313000: Data capture services | 72317000: Data storage services | 72318000: Data transmission services

Technical requirements: Need for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor/ concessionaire (Art. 43(1)(b) of Directive 2014/23/EU, Art. 72(1)(b) of Directive 2014/24/EU, Art. 89(1)(b) of Directive 2014/25/EU)
Description of the economic or technical reasons and the inconvenience or duplication of cost preventing a change of contractor:
The RFT for provision of Electronic Legislation Publication Services for the electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB) was issued on the 26 July 2018. Preferred bidder status was awarded to Propylon Ltd. and a contract was signed between the AGO and Propylon Ltd. on 21st November 2018 to run for three years with the option to extend by a further two years. The final year of this two-year extension which expired on 31st December 2023.
Propylon Ltd. hold intellectual property rights to the scripts that are used to maintain and enhance the eISB websites which are utilised on an ongoing basis. Without these scripts the website would not be able to continue to function in a normal capacity.
After a detailed cost and technical analysis by the AGO, it was decided that it would not be viable for a technical or economic view point to run a new procurement competition in the circumstances and timeframe as:
•	Propylon Ltd. hold intellectual property rights to the scripts that are used to maintain and enhance the eISB websites which are utilised on an ongoing basis. The interoperability of these scripts with the existing setup is required for full functionality of the website.
•	Owing to the fact that Propylon Ltd. hold the intellectual property rights to the scripts, it is not tenable for another provider to take over provision of the service as it would require the new provider to design, build and test a new underlying script and migrate all existing data which would require a 6 – 8 month timeline at minimum.
•	The AGO has engaged with Propylon over the initial contract period to implement Pillars I – III of the European Legislation Identifier (ELI). To date, the AGO has partially initiated Pillars I - III and are looking to implement an additional service in Pillar IV along with subsequent amendments and enhancements. The additional Pillar IV service and all amendments / enhancements mentioned above would require changes being made to the scripts. Without access to the scripts, over which Propylon Ltd. hold intellectual property rights to, the additional changes to the European Legislation Identifier (ELI) service cannot be completed without significant delay and impact on the functioning of the AGO.
•	Furthermore, the eISB is the forum used to publish Acts of the Oireachtas in the public domain which is an essential service to the daily functioning to the AGO. The suspension of this essential service in order to seek an alternate solution is not a viable option for the AGO.
•	Changing vendor at this juncture would result in a duplication of costs for the AGO as it would be required to pay Propylon both for the rights to use their scripts and again for any amendments that are required to the scripts and additionally pay a new provider to publish the scripts and data. Accordingly would result in a substantial duplication of costs for the AGO.
On the basis of the above, it is deemed necessary to extend the contract with Propylon months under article 72(1)(b) of the Directive 2014/24/EU for a limited period of 12 months only. It should be noted that the AGO have planned to go to market with a new competition for the service in Q2 2024.”
Propylon Ltd. hold intellectual property rights to the scripts that are used to maintain and enhance the eISB website which are utilised on an ongoing basis. The interoperability of these scripts with the rest of the system is required for full functionality of the website. It is not tenable for another provider to take over provision of the service as it would require the new provider to design, build and test new scripts and migrate all existing data which would require a 6 – 8 month timeline. The eISB is the forum used to publish Acts of the Oireachtas in the public domain which is an essential service. The suspension of this in order to seek an alternate solution is not a viable option. Changing vendor at this juncture would result in a duplication of costs as it would be required to pay Propylon for the rights to use their scripts and for any amendments that are required and to pay a new provider to publish the scripts and data. This would result in a duplication of costs.


Winner: Propylon Limited