Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2018-01-23
Buyer: Sykehuspartner HF
Country: NO
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 48810000: Information systems | 48822000: Computer servers | 72310000: Data processing services
Estimated value: 8250000 NOK

Technical requirements: Services for Sensitive Data (TSD), which is offered by the University´s center for information technology (Usit), at the University of Oslo (UiO), is used by publicly supported research projects in order to fulfil the requirements in the Health Register Act and the Personal Information Protection Act for the storage and processing of personal information used for research purposes.
In September 2016 HSØ signed a contract, after an intention notice, for the procurement of a share of the TSD system´s services. HSØ would now like to enter into a direct contract with UiO/Usit for an increase of the current procurement scope.
Services for Sensitive Data (TSD), which is offered by the University´s center for information technology (Usit), at the University of Oslo (UiO), is used by publicly supported research projects in order to fulfil the requirements in the Health Register Act and the Personal Information Protection Act for the storage and processing of personal information used for research purposes.
In September 2016 HSØ signed a contract, after an intention notice, for the procurement of a share of the TSD system´s services for NOK 1.5 million per annum excluding VAT. HSØ would now like to enter into a direct contract with UiO/Usit for an increase of the TSD system for a total of NOK 4.3 million per annum excluding VAT.
The TSD platform is operated by UiO in UiO´s network and has strong security mechanisms and a strong separation between different research projects. Users use 2 factors authentication for project access and each project in the system has its own virtual network and file system. Secure data collection and supercomputing for the research project´s data as well as user support from personnel who have research competence are also distinct qualities of the TSD system.
HSØ plans to procure a system itself in a few years that has comparable functionality as the TSD system.
The increased operational contract will last until September 2019, whilst the contract will last until November 2020 for a subset of the system. HSØ´s procurement of a significant share of the TSD system´s production and user support and not only one and one service in a price list supports the exceptions below.
— the contracting authority believes that the exception for real self-management applies, as the procurement and sale between 2 governmental entities are according to Norwegian law, to be seen as a procurement in real self-management as the government constitutionally, procedurally and formally is one unit. this has been tested in KOFA in the cases 2012/188 and 2005/251.
— it is also the basis of the Ministry of Trade and the Fisheries´ (then FAD) interpretation statement dated 18 January 2005. There is the same basis in legal theory by Thune with others (2013) and Dragsten (2013).
— on certain terms, public bodies can cooperate in carrying out public assignments so that they fall outside the procurement rules.
— TSD use supports medical research that is carried out in Helse Sør-Øst RHF. This type of research and education is a public assignment carried out in the community´s interest.
— only public bodies have a contract with UiO for using TSD. Consequently, the requirement for 80 % activity is fulfilled.
— the legal basis for the exception from the announcement obligation is in the regulation § 13-4 letter b points 2 and 3, where a contracting authority can use a negotiated procedure (direct procurement) without announcing a competition when the prerequisites are fulfilled.
There are no similar services in the current market, the security level is particularly unique in the service that the system provides, including a scaling-up of the number of projects.
In concrete, ISD isolates data from independent research projects and the isolation is complete in all the functionality in the TSD system; data collection, data processing including supercomputing. Researchers require services that have many choices and TSD offers DaaS (Desktop a Service) with both Linux and Windows operative systems.


Winner: Universitetet i Oslo
Award value: 8250000