CONTRACT NOTICE – OFFICIAL JOURNAL

Section I: Contracting Authority

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

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

The Service covers the five unitary authority areas of Denbighshire, Conwy, Flintshire, Wrexham and Gwynedd (Anglesey) and the Service Headquarters is located in St Asaph, Wales, United Kingdom.

II.1.3)

This notice involves

A public contract
The setting up of a Dynamic Purchasing System
The establishment of a framework agreement

II.1.4)

Information on framework agreement (if applicable)

Framework agreement with a single operators
Framework agreement with several operators

Number of participants to the framework agreement envisaged

Duration of the framework agreement

Justification for a framework agreement the duration of which exceeds four years

Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement

Frequency and value of the contracts to be awarded

II.1.5)

Short description of the contract or purchase(s)

The successful tenderer will be required to provide cleaning services to the North Wales Fire and Rescue Service.

The work specified within this tender is a single lot contract and all tenderers should be informed that it should be tendered as a single contract.

The current contract value is circa 250 000 GBP and the tender evaluation will be based on Value for Money (MEAT)and not just the lowest price.

1. North Wales Fire and Rescue Service was formed in 1996 through the amalgamation of the former Welsh Brigades. It covers an area of nearly 2 400 square miles and serves a population of just over 678 461 people including hundreds of thousands of visitors and tourists per year. The area of North Wales is made up of rural, coastal and urban areas. The Service operates from some 52 stations and various office sites and employs some 1000 personnel including Wholetime Firefighters, Firefighters on the Retained Duty System, Fire Control staff, and non-uniformed support staff.

The Service covers the five unitary authority areas of Denbighshire, Conwy, Flintshire, Wrexham and Gwynedd (Anglesey) and the Service Headquarters is located in St Asaph.

The split of stations is illustrated below:

Gwynedd:

3 Day Crewed;

1 Training Centre;

17 Retained.

Conwy:

1 Wholetime;

1 Day Crewed;

6 Retained.

Denbighshire:

1 Wholetime;

6 Retained.

Flintshire:

1 Wholetime;

4 Retained;

1 Leased building.

Wrexham:

1 Wholetime;

2 Retained;

1 CSO;

Others including Rhyl and HQ: 6.

2. Tenders will be requested to include a fixed cost per fire service site (Manned and Fulltime) and a separate cost for all retained stations to cover the contract period 1.4.2015 to 31.3.2018 (with an option to extend up to 24 months based on acceptable performance).

3. During the term of the contract there may be a need to add or delete sites should new stations be built, added or closed. The successful supplier will be notified of any changes with three months notice of opening / closure.

4. On occasion there may be a requirement for one-off cleans to cover instances such as open days, community events, etc. These will be quoted as additional to this contract as and when required to be agreed with the service contract manager.

5. In line with the Services refurbishment programme there will be instances when building works will affect the requirement for cleaning at some stations. 3 months' notice will be provided for any change in requirement.

6. Each full time station will require a 5-day clean, Monday to Friday in accordance with the frequencies, standards and description of tasks as set out in the cleaning specification. At full time stations muster rooms are excluded from the contract, but all other areas are to be included unless stated otherwise.

7. Each part time (retained) station will require a once a week clean to the same cleaning standards and tasks but reduced frequencies.

8. At Fire Service Headquarters 5-day clean will be required, Monday to Friday in accordance with the frequencies, standards and description of tasks as set out in the attached cleaning specification.

9. Cleaners on fire service sites must sign the visitor's book as a record of attendance on site. All cleaning should be undertaken during the times specified within the tender documentation.

10. The successful tenderer will be required to arrange a site meeting with the Station Manager / Watch Manager / Officer in Charge during the period of the contract to review the standards on site. The site contact will rate the standard of cleaning as either Exceptional, Acceptable or Unacceptable. The frequency of meeting will be dependant on the type of station to be agreed at pre-contract stage. The inspection to be recorded and reported to the Facilities Manager at FSHQ. To aid with the inspection use should be made of the Quality Control-Acceptable Cleaning Standards form as at attachment Appendix E.

11. Where there is an absence of the regular cleaner on site the contractor to arrange a relief cleaner within 24 hours.

12. All electrical equipment must confirm to IEE regulations and PAT tested.

13. The successful tenderer will be required to attend quarterly monitoring meetings with the Fire Service contact. The meetings will provide a forum for monitoring performance, discussing problem areas, resolving complaints and establishing action points to enhance service provision.

14. The successful tenderer will ensure that following the commencement date all salaries, wages, commissions, bonuses and holiday pay of the relevant employees are paid and discharged and that no substantial or significant change is made to the working conditions of the relevant employees.

15. The contractor must designate one person as a point of contact who is able to deal with all aspects of this contract.

16. The successful tenderers must have sufficient workforce capacity and geographical knowledge to cover the area indicated on the schedule of rates.

17. Invoices will be submitted for approval to the contract above on a 4 weekly basis.

18. The successful tenderer/s will provide the service in accordance with the service details.

19. The successful tenderer will be required to provide, carry out, execute and complete the service with skill, care and diligence. Failure to provide the level of service expected will result in proceedings being taken.

20. The successful tenderer will be required to provide all materials and equipment required in and for the provision of the service. The Fire Service will provide bin bags, toilet rolls, hand towels and air fresheners.

21. The successful tenderer will be required as may be necessary or desirable, to co-operate, liaise with and co-ordinate its activities with the Fire and Rescue Service contact.

22. The successful tenderer will not make any material alteration or addition to or omission from the services without the written agreement of the Services Facilities / Operations Manager.

23. The successful tendered will employ sufficient persons to ensure that the services are provided in accordance with this agreement and use reasonable endeavours to ensure that employees, staff and personnel employed in or about the provision of the services are properly and sufficiently qualified, competent, skilled, honest and experienced, and are properly and sufficiently instructed and supervised with regard to the provision of the service.

24. The Contractor will be required to produce Method of Work Statements and COSHH information at the commencement of the contract and ensure that these are updated at least on an annual basis.

25. The Contractor will be required to provide a list of names and locations of operatives and update any changes immediately.

II.1.6)

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

II.1.7)

Contract covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

II.1.8)

Division into lots

II.1.9)

Will variants be accepted

Section III: Legal, Economic, Financial and Technical Information

III.2)

Conditions for Participation

III.2.1)

Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers

Tenderers will be required to complete and submit a pre-qualification questionnaire and associated documentation to The Litmus Partnership Limited website.

Minimum standards for participation are stated in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire.

Failure to achieve a pass in any of the minimum standards will result in your exclusion from any further part in this process.

Conviction of criminal offences – questions are stated in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire.

Business Probity – questions are stated in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire.

III.2.2)

Economic and financial capacity

III.2.3)

Technical capacity

III.2.4)

Reserved contracts

The contract is restricted to sheltered workshops
The execution of the contract is restricted to the framework of sheltered employment programmes

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)

Type of Procedure

Open		Restricted
Accelerated restricted		Negotiated
Accelerated negotiated		Competitive dialogue

Justification for the choice of accelerated procedure

IV.1.1)

Have candidates already been selected?

IV.1.2)

Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to tender or to participate

Objective criteria for choosing the limited number of candidates

A minimum of 5 suppliers and a maximum of 10 suppliers will be taken forward to the tender stage of the process. Where less than 5 suppliers meet the minimum standards, only those that meet the minimum standards will be taken through to the tender stage. Where more than 5 suppliers meet the minimum standard, those suppliers with the highest scores will proceed to the tender stage.

IV.1.3)

Reduction of the number of operators during the negotiation or dialogue

Recourse to staged procedure to gradually reduce the number of solutions to be discussed or tenders to be negotiated

IV.2)

Award Criteria

IV.2.2)

An electronic auction will be used

IV.3 Administrative Information

IV.3.1)

Reference number attributed to the notice by the contracting authority

IV.3.2)

Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

Prior Information Notice
Notice on a Buyer Profile

Other previous publications

IV.3.3)

Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents

IV.3.4)

Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate

IV.3.5)

Date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates

IV.3.6)

Language or languages in which tenders or requests to participate can be drawn up

IV.3.7)

Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender 

IV.3.8)

Conditions for opening tenders

Section VI: Other Information

VI.1)

Indicate whether this procurement is a recurrent one and the Estimated timing for further notices to be published

VI.2)

Does the contract relate to a Project/Programme financed by Community Funds?

VI.3)

Additional Information

Interest in the pre-qualification process should be expressed via email only to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk, clearly stating within this email which contract / notice you are referring to. Please also provide, as a minimum, a contact name, full company postal address and telephone number.

The closing date for receipt of the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire is 17.10.2014 (12:00). Tenderers are required to ensure that documents are obtained and returned to The Litmus Partnership Limited, by email to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk, by the above closing date and time. Policy documents (where indicated in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire) shall be uploaded to The Litmus Partnership Limited pre-qualification website prior to this closing date and time.

It will be the Tenderer's responsibility to obtain any necessary documents and access to The Litmus Partnership pre-qualification website in order to submit a response by the closing date and time.

The contracting authority reserves the right not to award any or part of the contract which is the subject of this OJEU notice and reserves the right to terminate the procurement process at any time.

The contracting authority will not be liable for any costs incurred by those expressing an interest in tendering for this contract opportunity.

The contracting authority will consider variant bids, evaluating them (so far as the variant or the evaluation of the variant is in the opinion of the contracting authority practicable) on the same basis as a conforming bid, but shall not be obliged to accept any such bid in preference to a conforming bid even if the variant bid scores more highly. No variant will be considered unless the bidder simultaneously submits a conforming bid.

VI.4)

Procedures for appeal

VI.4.1)

Body responsible for appeal procedures

Body responsible for mediation procedures

VI.4.2)

Lodging of appeals
Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals:

VI.4.3)

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

VI.5)

Dispatch date of this Notice