Agricultural Business Support to CAFRE

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs requires an external Contractor to support the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise to deliver elements of its Knowledge Transfe.

United Kingdom-Antrim: Agricultural, forestry, horticultural, aquacultural and apicultural services

2016/S 135-242599

Contract notice

Services

Directive 2014/24/EU

Section I: Contracting authority

I.1)Name and addresses

Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs
Greenmount Campus, 45 Tirgracy Road
Antrim
BT41 4PS
United Kingdom
Contact person: Paul Clements
E-mail: paul.clements@finance-ni.gov.uk
NUTS code: UK

Internet address(es):Main address: https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk

Address of the buyer profile: https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/topics/procurement

I.2)Joint procurement

I.3)Communication

The procurement documents are available for unrestricted and full direct access, free of charge, at: https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps

Additional information can be obtained from the abovementioned address

Tenders or requests to participate must be submitted electronically via: https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps

Tenders or requests to participate must be submitted to the abovementioned address

I.4)Type of the contracting authority

Body governed by public law

I.5)Main activity

General public services

Section II: Object

II.1)Scope of the procurement

II.1.1)Title:

DAERA — Agricultural Business Support to CAFRE.

II.1.2)Main CPV code

77000000

II.1.3)Type of contract

Services

II.1.4)Short description:

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) requires an external Contractor to support the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) to deliver elements of its Knowledge Transfer through the Business Development Groups (BDG) programme (hereafter referred to as the Programme). The Contract is for an initial period of two (2) years. There are four (4) optional extension periods of 2 years, 1 year, 1 year and 1 year respectively to provide support to the BDG programme only. The contract will be awarded to 1 Contractor, who will be required to provide a range of support services to the Programme on behalf of CAFRE and must be able to demonstrate in its submission its ability to carry out all the services detailed in this Tender document. CAFRE will manage this Programme through a delivery team under an appointed CAFRE Project Manager.

II.1.5)Estimated total value

II.1.6)Information about lots

This contract is divided into lots: no

II.2)Description

II.2.1)Title:

II.2.2)Additional CPV code(s)

77110000

79500000

80000000

80500000

II.2.3)Place of performance

NUTS code: UKN

Main site or place of performance:

N. Ireland.

II.2.4)Description of the procurement:

II.2.5)Award criteria

Price is not the only award criterion and all criteria are stated only in the procurement documents

II.2.6)Estimated value

Value excluding VAT: 12 600 000.00 GBP

II.2.7)Duration of the contract, framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system

Duration in months: 24

This contract is subject to renewal: no

II.2.10)Information about variants

Variants will be accepted: no

II.2.11)Information about options

Options: yes

Description of options:

After the initial contract period, there are four (4) options to extend for periods of 2 years, 1 year, 1 year and 1 year respectively.

II.2.12)Information about electronic catalogues

II.2.13)Information about European Union funds

The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: yes

Identification of the project: Farm Business Improvement Scheme FBIS.

II.2.14)Additional information

Section III: Legal, economic, financial and technical information

III.1)Conditions for participation

III.1.1)Suitability to pursue the professional activity, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers

III.1.2)Economic and financial standing

List and brief description of selection criteria:

As per Tender documentation.

Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required:

As per Tender documentation.

III.1.3)Technical and professional ability

III.1.5)Information about reserved contracts

III.2)Conditions related to the contract

III.2.1)Information about a particular profession

III.2.2)Contract performance conditions:

III.2.3)Information about staff responsible for the performance of the contract

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)Description

IV.1.1)Type of procedure

Open procedure

IV.1.3)Information about a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system

IV.1.4)Information about reduction of the number of solutions or tenders during negotiation or dialogue

IV.1.6)Information about electronic auction

IV.1.8)Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: yes

IV.2)Administrative information

IV.2.1)Previous publication concerning this procedure

IV.2.2)Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate

Date: 16/08/2016

Local time: 15:00

IV.2.3)Estimated date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates

IV.2.4)Languages in which tenders or requests to participate may be submitted:

English

IV.2.6)Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender

Tender must be valid until: 14/11/2016

IV.2.7)Conditions for opening of tenders

Date: 16/08/2016

Local time: 15:30

Information about authorised persons and opening procedure:

Only CPD Procurement Staff with access to the project on eTendersNI.

Section VI: Complementary information

VI.1)Information about recurrence

This is a recurrent procurement: yes

VI.2)Information about electronic workflows

VI.3)Additional information:

Estimated Value: The figure indicated in II.1.5) represents the upper limit of an estimated contract value which ranges from 6 000 000 GBP to 12 600 000 GBP. This range reflects the potential scale of the contract and takes into account such changes to the scope/and or scale which may result from future operational requirements. The pricing strategy applied and the setting of cost/profit margins are a commercial decision for economic operators when submitting a bid for this competition. In addition, neither CPD nor the Authority can provide any guarantee as to the level of business under this contract. 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 (IV) To award contract (s) in stages and in no circumstances will the Authority be liable for any costs incurred by candidates.

VI.4)Procedures for review

VI.4.1)Review body

The UK does not have any such bodies with responsibility for appeal/mediation procedures
The UK does not have any such bodies with responsibility for appeal/mediation procedures
United Kingdom

VI.4.2)Body responsible for mediation procedures

VI.4.3)Review procedure

Precise information on deadline(s) for review procedures:

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.

VI.4.4)Service from which information about the review procedure may be obtained

VI.5)Date of dispatch of this notice:

11/07/2016

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