VOLUNTARY EX ANTE TRANSPARENCY NOTICE

Section I: Contracting Authority/Entity

I.1)

Name, Address and Contact Point(s)

I.2)

Type of contracting Authority and Main Activity or Activities

Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local sub-divisions National or federal agency/Office Regional or local Authority Regional or local Agency/Office Body governed by public law European Institution/Agency or International Organisation

General public services Defence Public order and safety Environment Economic and financial affairs Health Housing and community amenities Social protection Recreation, culture and religion Education

Section II: Object of the Contract

II.1)

Description

II.1.1)

Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority

Gas Servicing and Maintenance Contract.

II.1.2(a))

Type of works contract

II.1.2(b))

Type of supplies contract

II.1.2(c))

Type of service contract

II.1.2)

Main site or location of works, place of delivery or performance

Various sites in East Sussex, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, London, Surrey, Sussex and West Sussex.

II.1.3)

This notice involves a framework agreement

II.1.4)

Short description of the contract or purchase(s)

Moat Homes Limited intends to award a contract to the contractor named in section V.3 of this Notice for the provision of gas servicing, maintenance and installation services to approximately 9,012 of its properties in East Sussex, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, London, Surrey, Sussex and West Sussex (the Contract).

The Contract will be an interim contract only and will be in place until 31.3.2017. Following the expiry of the Contract Moat intend to award a longer term contract of up to 5 years for the carrying out of the gas servicing and maintenance services. This longer term contract will be competitively tendered.

The estimated value of the interim Contract to be awarded to the contractor named in section V.3 is approximately 1 000 000 GBP in total.

II.1.5)

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

II.1.6)

Contract covered by the government procurement agreement (GPA)

II.2)

Total final value of the contract(s)

II.2.1)

Total final value of the contract(s)

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)

Type of procedure

IV.1.1)

Type of procedure

IV.2)

Award criteria

IV.2.1)

Award criteria

IV.2.2)

An electronic auction has been used

IV.3)

Administrative information

IV.3.1)

File reference number attributed by the contracting authority

IV.3.2)

Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

Other previous publications

Section V: Award of contract

Contract No:

 Lot Number: 

 Title: 

V.1)

Date of contract award decision:

V.2)

Numbers of offers received:

V.3)

Name and address of economic operator to whom the contract has been awarded

V.4)

Information on value of contract

V.5)

The contract is likely to be subcontracted

Short description of the value/proportion of the contract to be subcontracted

Section VI: Complementary Information

VI.1)

Contract related to a project and/or programme financed by community funds?

VI.2)

Additional Information

VI.3)

Procedures for appeal

VI.3.1)

Body responsible for appeal procedures

Body responsible for mediation procedures

VI.3.2)

Lodging of appeals

The Contracting Authority will enter into this Contract following a minimum 10 day calendar day standstill period starting on the day after this notice is published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (SI 2015 No 102) (as amended) (the Regulations) provide for aggrieved parties who have been harmed or who are at risk of harm by a breach of the Regulations to bring proceedings in the High Court. Any such proceedings must be brought within the limitation period specified by the Regulations according to the remedy sought.

VI.3.3)

Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

VI.4)

Dispatch date of this Notice

Annex D1 – General procurement

Justification for the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)
Directive 2004/18/EC

a) No tenders or no appropriate tenders in response to:

	Open procedure
	Restricted procedure

b) The products involved are manufactured purely for the purpose of research, experiment, study or development under the conditions stated in the Directive (for supplies only).

c) The works/goods/services can be provided only by a particular tenderer for reasons that are:

	Technical
	Artistic
	Connected with the protection of exclusive rights

d) Extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority and in accordance with the strict conditions stated in the Directive.

e) Additional works/deliveries/services are ordered under the strict conditions stated in the Directive.

f) New works/services, constituting a repetition of existing works/services and ordered in accordance with the strict conditions stated in the Directive.

g)Service contract awarded to the successful candidate or one of them after a design contest.

h) For supplies quoted and purchased on a commodity market.

i) For the purchase of supplies on particularly advantageous terms:

	from a supplier which is definitely winding up its business activities
	from the receivers or liquidators of a bankruptcy, an arrangement with creditors or a similar procedure.

j) All tenders submitted in reply to an open procedure, a restricted procedure or competitive dialogue were irregular or unacceptable. Only those tenderers were included in the negotiations which have satisfied the qualitative selection criteria.

Other justification for the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the OJEU:

k) The contract has as its object services listed in Annex B of Directive 2004/18/EC or in Annex XVII B of Directive 2004/17/EC

l) The contract falls outside the scope of application of the relevant directive.

In addition to the box(es) ticked above please explain in a clear and comprehensive manner why the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the OJEU is lawful, stating in any case the relevant facts, and, as appropriate, the conclusions of law in accordance with the articles in the relevant Directive (500 words maximum):

Moat Homes Limited (Moat) intends to award the Contract to BSW Heating Limited (BSW) pursuant to Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Moat is of the view that the Contract can only be awarded to BSW because competition is absent for technical reasons, as further explained below.

BSW is currently providing the gas servicing and maintenance services to Moat under a temporary contract which is due to expire on 1 October 2016. If Moat were to commence a procurement process now to procure a new contract to commence on 2 October 2016 this would mean that any new contractor would have to mobilise during the winter months. Given the nature of the services to be provided under the contract, Moat is of the view that it would be very difficult for a contractor to do this whilst at the same time maintaining the required standards of service delivery, for a competitive price. Accordingly, Moat is of the view that if it were to put the services out to tender now competition would be absent for technical reasons because no contractor in the market would realistically be able to compete with BSWs tender, due to the fact that any new contractor would have to factor the need to mobilise during the winter months into their tendered price, whereas BSW would not.

Accordingly, rather than seek to competitively procure a contract now, Moat intends to award a new interim Contract to BSW which will last until 31.3.2017. Following the expiry of this interim Contract Moat intends to award a longer term contract of up to 5 years for the carrying out of the gas servicing and maintenance services. This longer term contract will be competitively tendered. Moat considers that this will be a fairer approach to all contractors, as contractors bidding for the longer term contract will not have to factor a winter mobilisation into their tendered price as the contract will be due to start on 1 April 2017.

Moat is also of the view that this approach is far more beneficial to its residents who are highly dependant on the services to be provided under the Contract, as it will avoid the risk of a new contractor having to mobilise during the winter months which is likely to have an adverse effect on service delivery.

Indeed, service delivery to our customers is paramount along with managing the risk of legal non-compliance. Therefore with lead in for mobilisation, interfacing and integration of IT systems with a new contract and contractor the start date for the new longer term contract will be 1.4.2017 as opposed to 2.10.2016 (at the end of the busy winter period for this type of contract as opposed to start).