Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2017-07-11
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Combat Air, Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) Team
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated procedure
CPV classification: 79419000
Estimated value: 2000000 GBP
Submission deadline: 2017-08-04
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Software & Complex Electronic Hardware Designated Engineering Representative Support for MQ-9B Protector.
Evaluation consultancy services. The Contractor shall conduct audits, provide report findings and aid understanding of safety and airworthiness requirements to enable the UAST to assess compliance to certification and design standards. Main place of performance shall be in the US.The support shall normally be in the form of attendance at key Software and Safety meetings in Poway, San Diego, US, review of UAST and Contractor documentation and independent audit of their development processes.
Software & Complex Electronic Hardware Designated Engineering Representative Support for MQ-9B Protector is required from 1.9.2017 to 31.8.2019 with an option to extend the contract for a further two years.
If a group of economic operators submits a bid, the group must nominate a lead organisation to deal with the Authority. The Authority shall require the group to form a legal entity before entering into the contract.
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 a Security Aspects Letter, the Authority reserves the right to amend the terms of the Security Aspects Letter to reflect any changes in national law or government policy whether in respect of the applicable protecting marking scheme, specific protective markings given, the aspects to which any protective marking applies or otherwise. Applicants shall be appropriately cleared to handle ITAR information and Security Classification up to US Secret.
The Authority will apply all the offences listed in Article 39(1) of Directive 2009/81/EC (implemented as Regulation 23(1) of the Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations (DSPCR) 2011 in the UK) and all of the professional misconducts listed at Article 39(2) of Directive 2009/81/EC (see also Regulation 23(2) in the DSPCR 2011) to the decision of whether a Candidate is eligible to be invited to tender.
A full list of the Regulation 23(1) and 23(2) criteria are at http://www.contracts.mod.uk/delta/project/reasonsForExclusion.html#dspr
Candidates will be required to sign a declaration confirming whether they do or do not have any of the listed criteria as part of the pre-qualification process.
Candidates who have been convicted of any of the offences under Article 39(1) are ineligible and will not be selected to bid, unless there are overriding requirements in the general interest (including defence and security factors) for doing so.
Candidates who are guilty of any of the offences, circumstances or misconduct under Article 39(2) may be excluded from being selected to bid at the discretion of the Authority.
The Authority shall seek a declaration of Good Standing in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire or separate Statement of Good Standing
The Authority may wish to ensure that any sub-contractor has not committed a criminal offence in the conduct of its business or an act of grave misconduct.
The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement.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
Suppliers must read through this set of instructions and follow the process to respond to this opportunity.