Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2017-06-02
Buyer: The City of Edinburgh Council
Country: UK
Region: SCOTLAND
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Restricted procedure
CPV classification: 48812000: Financial information systems | 66520000 | 66521000 | 66523100
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: In order to administer the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) in Scotland, Lothian Pension Fund requires an integrated pension administration and payroll software system to provide benefit entitlement calculations and payments in compliance with relevant LGPS Regulations.
The Statement of Requirements document provides a detailed description, including technical requirements, of the proposed service.
The City of Edinburgh Council (The Council) is the administering authority of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) in Scotland for the Lothian area. Lothian Pension Fund (LPF), which is not a separate legal entity from the Council, carries out the specialist activities of investing the assets (approximately  6 000 000 000 GBP) and administering the benefits of three funds — Lothian Pension Fund, Lothian Buses Pension Fund and Scottish Homes Pension Fund — on behalf of over 100 contributing employers and over 80 000 members. Where stated ‘LPF’ this refers to all the three funds.
In order to administer the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) in Scotland, LPF requires an integrated pension administration and payroll software system to provide benefit entitlement calculations and payments in compliance with relevant LGPS Regulations.
The proposed contract is primarily intended for use by The City of Edinburgh Council, in its role as administering authority of the Local Government Pensions Scheme (LGPS) in Scotland for the Lothian region. However, bidders should note that The City of Edinburgh Council took the decision to offer all other Scottish LGPS's the opportunity to make use of the proposed service at some point in the future when their current arrangements expire.
The following other LGPS pension funds have indicated that they may wish to enter into an agreement with the successful supplier when their current arrangements end:
Bidders should note that, although the LGPS's named above have indicated an interest in possibly entering into similar agreements with the successful Contractor for delivery of the service when their current arrangements expire, they are under no obligation to do so. Similarly, in the event that, for any reason, the Contractor does not wish to participate in such an arrangement, they will retain a ‘Right of Refusal’ to enter into any such contract with any other Scottish LGPS.
Those bidders invited to stage 2 may wish to note than when submitting their price proposals they will be required to identify and include specific details of Lothian Pension Fund (LPF) ‘in house’ staff resources (by job role and hours involved for each) which they anticipate LPF will require in order to conduct all necessary User Acceptance Testing (UAT) of their proposed system solution. These UAT staff resourcing costs will be included as part of the bidders overall pricing proposal when evaluating the pricing schedules submitted by bidders. Any prospective bidders who may have concerns regarding the Councils proposed approach to this procurement exercise are advised to submit clear and comprehensive details of their concerns in writing to the Council via the Question and Answer facility within 30 days of publication.
A tenderer that suffers loss as a result of a breach of duty under the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 may bring proceedings in the Sheriff Court or the Court of Session. The City of Edinburgh Council (the Council) will have a minimum standstill period of 10 days before awarding the contract. The communication of the award decision notice will be sent by fax or e-mail to all tenderers with the standstill period commencing on the next day. If proceedings are started in the Sheriff Court or the Court of Session against the Council in respect of the decision to award the contract within the standstill period then the Council is prevented from awarding the contract. Post contract award the Sheriff Court or the Court of Session may (1) award damages provided proceedings are brought within 3 months from the date when the grounds for the bringing of the proceedings first arose (2) be entitled to issue an ineffectiveness order or impose a financial penalty on the Council. A claim for an ineffectiveness order must be made within 30 days of the Contract Award Notice being published in the OJEU or within 30 days of the date those who expressed an interest in or otherwise bid for the contract were informed of the conclusion of the contract or in any other case within 6 months from the date on which the contract was entered into.