Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2016-06-24
Buyer: Utility Regulator
Country: UK
Region: NORTHERN IRELAND
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 09310000 | 45315100 | 65300000: Electricity distribution and related services | 65310000: Electricity distribution | 71300000
Submission deadline: 2016-07-27
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: The purpose of this tender exercise is to appoint a suitably qualified contractor(s) for the provision of specialist engineering advice and regulatory consultancy. Tenderers are required to appoint a Project manager and Senior Consultant(s) to deliver the work required throughout the contract. Following tender evaluation the 1st 2 Tenderers with the highest overall score will be appointed under this Framework. If there is a conflict of interest or insufficient resources the contractor ranked 2 will be invited to undertake the commission on the same basis.
It is anticipated that this Contract will commence on the date of contract award for a duration of 1 year. The Client may at any time before the completion of the Contract Period invite the Contractor to agree to extend for any period up to and including 24 months commencing from the termination date of the original Contract Period.
Please note that this notice supersedes notice 2016/S 111-198051. Contract Monitoring. The successful contractor's performance on the contract will be regularly monitored. 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 Certificate of Unsatisfactory Performance and the contract may be terminated. The issue of a Certificate of Unsatisfactory Performance will 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 for a period of 12 months from the date of issue of the certificate. 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; (III) to award (a) contract(s) in respect of any part(s) of the services covered by this notice. and in no circumstances will the Authority be liable for any costs incurred by candidates.
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.