Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2020-03-09
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Land Equipment, British Forces Post Office (BFPO) Team
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 64110000
Estimated value: 1400000 GBP

Technical requirements: The renewal of the leasing of Horizon On Line (HOL) systems from Post Office Ltd (POL). This allows the British Forces Post Office to operate UK — equivalent standard postal services in its Forces Post Offices worldwide.
Through it’s network of Forces Post Offices (FPOs) worldwide, HQ BFPO is mandated to provide, for service personnel, families and entitled staffs, postal and banking services equivalent to that available in a high street Post Office in the UK. An electronic system via a networked terminal operated at each FPO, known as a Horizon On Line (HOL) terminal, facilitates the provision of these services. Single-source contracting shall be employed for this requirement, as HOL is wholly owned by Post Office Ltd (POL). There is no other system in existence that has the features and capabilities of HOL and further, HOL is the only system recognised by the Royal Mail Group, who licence BFPO to operate as a formal mail moving authority. The HOL systems are leased from POL via a 10-year contract and as already stated, the HOL terminals are unique to POL, meaning that the services they provide cannot be met by any other supplier.
The Secretary of State for Defence intends to award a 10-year contract to Post Office Ltd (POL), valued at GBP 1 million, for the provision of Horizon On Line (HOL) Post Office Counter systems. The British Forces Post Office (BFPO), part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), is mandated to provide an effective, efficient postal and courier service for the UK armed forces worldwide. As such, BFPO is required to replicate UK-equivalent integrated, electronic post office services to military personnel and other entitled staffs serving overseas. The Horizon On Line (HOL) Post Office Counter systems enables this UK-equivalent capability to be operated by Forces Post Offices (FPOs) worldwide.
It is considered therefore, that this contract can be awarded using the Negotiated Procedure without Prior Call for Publication under Article 50(c)(ii) of Directive 2014/25/EU (Regulation 50(1)(c)(ii) of the Utilities Contract Regulations 2016 No 274), on the grounds that competition is absent for technical reasons. Only Post Office Ltd can deliver the services required by the UK Ministry of Defence because Post Office Ltd are the only economic operator who create, supply and operate the required HOL systems for the UK Post Office network.
The authority reserves the right to amend any condition related to security of information to reflect any changes in national law or government policy. If any contract documents are accompanied by instructions on safeguarding classified information (e.g. a Security Aspects Letter), the authority reserves the right to amend the terms of these instructions to reflect any changes in national law or government policy, whether in respect of the applicable protective marking scheme, specific protective markings given, the aspects to which any protective marking applies or otherwise. The link below to the Gov.uk website provides information on the Government Security Classification.
Advertising Regime OJEU: this contract opportunity is published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), the MoD Defence Contracts Bulletin and www.contracts.mod.uk


Winner: Post Office Ltd
Award value: 1400000