Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2019-07-16
Buyer: Department for the Economy
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Restricted procedure
CPV classification: 32412100 | 32412110 | 32420000 | 32424000 | 32425000
Estimated value: 200000000 GBP
Submission deadline: 2019-08-21
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: The Department for Economy requires a supplier to deploy its project stratum objectives and provide access to Next Generation Access (NGA) broadband services and promote the provision of gigabit capable infrastructure within the intervention area across all parts of Northern Ireland. This project is being procured as a single lot. It is anticipated that the contract will expire 7 years after successful completion of the deployment. Deployment must be completed no later than the 31.3.2024 from when all wholesale access products and services are made available, providing coverage via NGA qualifying technologies with a download speed of at least 30 Mbps and above to all end user premises.
Project Stratum is aiming to provide coverage to as many of the estimated 100 000 premises that remain in Northern Ireland without coverage with NGA broadband services. The solution must meet the objectives and requirements. of the Department for Economy as set out in the SQ documents. Tender documents will be issued to successful participants following evaluation of the requests to participate.
The figure indicated in II.1.5) and II.2.6) represents the potential value of the contract over the maximum contract term which ranges from 165 000 000 GBP to 200 000 000 GBP. This range reflects the potential scale of the contract and takes into account changes and potential modifications to the contract that may be required due to operational and technological developments and/or additional. funding and services that Project Stratum may be required to provide during the contract term. The successful contractor’s performance on this contract will be managed as per the specification and regularly monitored (see Procurement Guidance Note 01/12 — Contract Management — Procedures and Principles). Contractors not delivering on contract requirements is a serious matter. It means the public purse is not getting what it is paying for. If a contractor fails to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance they will be given a specified time to improve. If, after the specified time, they still fail to reach satisfactory. levels of contract performance, the matter will be escalated to senior management in CPD for further action. If this occurs and their performance still does not improve to satisfactory levels within the specified period, it may be regarded as an act of grave professional misconduct and they may be issued with a Notice of Unsatisfactory Performance and this Contract may be terminated. A central register of such Notices for supplies and services contracts will be maintained and published on the CPD website. Any contractor in receipt of a notice of unsatisfactory performance will be required to declare this in future tender submissions for a period of 3 years from the date of issue of the Notice. It may also result in the contractor being excluded from all procurement competitions being undertaken by centres of procurement expertise on behalf of bodies covered by the Northern Ireland Procurement Policy. ‘The Authority expressly reserves the rights:
(I) not to award any contract as a result of the procurement process commenced by publication of this notice;
(II) to make whatever changes it may see fit to the content and structure of the tendering competition; and
(III) to award a contract in respect of any part of the services covered by this notice; and in no circumstances will the Authority be liable for any costs incurred by candidates.’
This project will be used to progress the Government’s wider social, economic and environmental objectives.
CPD will comply with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and, where appropriate, will incorporate a standstill period (i.e. a minimum of 10 calendar days) at the point information on the award of contract is communicated to tenderers. That notification will provide full information on the award decision. This provides time for the unsuccessful tenderers to challenge the award decision before the contract is entered into.


Award value: 200000000