Contract notice
Section I: Contracting
authority
I.1) Name and addresses
Invest Northern Ireland
Bedford Square, 1 Bedford St
Belfast
BT2 7ES
UK
E-mail: SSDAdmin.CPD@finance-ni.gov.uk
NUTS: UK
Internet address(es)
Main address: https://www.investni.com/
Address of the buyer profile: https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/topics/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 sent 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
ID 5050091 - DfE - Invest NI - Provision of PR and Media Relations Services in India, Middle East and Africa (IMEA) Region
Reference number: ID 5050091
II.1.2) Main CPV code
79416000
II.1.3) Type of contract
Services
II.1.4) Short description
Invest Northern Ireland wishes to appoint a Contractor to provide Public Relations (PR) and media relations services to support their business development activities across India, Middle East and Africa. The Contractor shall have the ability to deliver PR and media activity across the IMEA region. Invest NI does not require the Contractor to have a physical presence / office location in each of these markets. However, the Contractor must have the ability to be able to deliver work in these markets, if required. This could be via a regional office presence or via collaboration with a third-party sub-contractor whereby the Contractor retains the main contractor status for the duration of the Contract but works with a third-party supplier based in that particular market. Tenderers should refer to the Specification Schedule for more details on the services required.
II.1.5) Estimated total value
Value excluding VAT:
400 000.00
GBP
II.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots:
No
II.2) Description
II.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
79416100
79416200
II.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS code:
UKN
II.2.4) Description of the procurement
Invest Northern Ireland wishes to appoint a Contractor to provide Public Relations (PR) and media relations services to support their business development activities across India, Middle East and Africa. The Contractor shall have the ability to deliver PR and media activity across the IMEA region. Invest NI does not require the Contractor to have a physical presence / office location in each of these markets. However, the Contractor must have the ability to be able to deliver work in these markets, if required. This could be via a regional office presence or via collaboration with a third-party sub-contractor whereby the Contractor retains the main contractor status for the duration of the Contract but works with a third-party supplier based in that particular market. Tenderers should refer to the Specification Schedule for more details on the services required.
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:
400 000.00
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.2.9) Information about the limits on the number of candidates to be invited
II.2.10) Information about variants
Variants will be accepted:
No
II.2.11) Information about options
Options:
Yes
Description of options:
The Client will have the option to extend the contract by two further periods of one year each.
II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds:
No
Section IV: Procedure
IV.1) Description
IV.1.1) Type of procedure
Open procedure
IV.1.8) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement:
Yes
IV.2) Administrative information
IV.2.2) Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate
Date:
25/03/2024
Local time: 15:00
IV.2.4) Languages in which tenders or requests to participate may be submitted
EN
IV.2.6) Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender
Tender must be valid until:
23/06/2024
IV.2.7) Conditions for opening of tenders
Date:
25/03/2024
Local time: 15:30
Section VI: Complementary information
VI.1) Information about recurrence
This is a recurrent procurement:
Yes
VI.3) Additional information
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 twelve months from the date of issue of the certificate.
VI.4) Procedures for review
VI.4.1) Review body
The UK does not have any such bodies with responsibility for appeal/mediation procedures. Instead; any challenges are dealt with by the High Court, Commercial Division, to which proceedings may be issued regarding alleged breaches of the PCR 2015 as amended.
Belfast
UK
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.5) Date of dispatch of this notice
23/02/2024