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Northern Ireland Civil Service Recruitment Advertising Placement Provider

Contract notice

Services

Directive 2004/18/EC

Section I: Contracting authority

I.1)Name, addresses and contact point(s)

Corporate HR, Department of Finance and Personnel
Royston House, Upper Queen Street
For the attention of: Louise Thompson
BT1 6FD Belfast
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 2890816519
E-mail:

Internet address(es):

General address of the contracting authority: http://www.dfpni.gov.uk/cpd

Further information can be obtained from: The above mentioned contact point(s)

Specifications and additional documents (including documents for competitive dialogue and a dynamic purchasing system) can be obtained from: The above mentioned contact point(s)

Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: The above mentioned contact point(s)

I.2)Type of the contracting authority
Body governed by public law
I.3)Main activity
General public services
I.4)Contract award on behalf of other contracting authorities
The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities: no

Section II: Object of the contract

II.1)Description
II.1.1)Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority:
Northern Ireland Civil Service Recruitment Advertising Placement Provider
II.1.2)Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performance
Services
Service category No 13: Advertising services
Main site or location of works, place of delivery or of performance: Northern Ireland

NUTS code UKN

II.1.3)Information about a public contract, a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system (DPS)
The notice involves a public contract
II.1.4)Information on framework agreement
II.1.5)Short description of the contract or purchase(s)
The Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS)'s Corporate HR wishes to appoint a supplier to provide advertising and related services to support its external recruitment competitions, ensuring NICS continues to attract applicants from all sectors of the community and to promote NICS as an employer of choice.
The main element of this contract is to provide advice on the most appropriate methods for advertising vacancies and for placing recruitment notices in print publications and in electronic media.
II.1.6)Common procurement vocabulary (CPV)

79341000

II.1.7)Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA): yes
II.1.8)Lots
This contract is divided into lots: no
II.1.9)Information about variants
Variants will be accepted: no
II.2)Quantity or scope of the contract
II.2.1)Total quantity or scope:
See Section II.1.5
Estimated value excluding VAT: 800 000 GBP
II.2.2)Information about options
Options: yes
Description of these options: Initial period of 1 year with option to extend for a maximum period of 24 months
II.2.3)Information about renewals
II.3)Duration of the contract or time limit for completion

Section III: Legal, economic, financial and technical information

III.1)Conditions relating to the contract
III.1.1)Deposits and guarantees required:
None required
III.1.2)Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or reference to the relevant provisions governing them:
Payments will be made in accordance with the terms and conditions to be set out in the contract documentation
III.1.3)Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to whom the contract is to be awarded:
No special form is required but one member of a consortium may be required to accept prime contractor responsibility for the other member(s), and a consortium will be required to form a legal entity with appropriate parent company guarantees.
III.1.4)Other particular conditions
The performance of the contract is subject to particular conditions: yes
Description of particular conditions: The 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 the 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 Central Procurement Directorate for further action, If this occurs and the Contractor's performance still does not improve to satisfactory levels within the specified period, it may be regarded as an act of grave professional misconduct and the Contractor 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 intertaken be 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.
III.2)Conditions for participation
III.2.1)Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers
III.2.2)Economic and financial ability
III.2.3)Technical capacity
Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required:
In order to pass the Selection stage, tenderers must demonstrate they meet the following minimum standards of technical or professional ability.
SC1 Providing advice and guidance in respect of the recruitment media market, taking into account the impact of an ever changing media landscape. (maximum three A4 single pages, minimum point size 11, minimum line spacing 1.5);
SC2 Working in partnership with clients to deliver a value for money recruitment advertising service. (maximum three A4 single pages, minimum point size 11, minimum line spacing 1.5); and
SC3 Delivering a full campaign advertising service that should include but is not limited to: strategic direction in response to a brief; media planning and buying; creative direction and development; account direction / management; and evaluation. In particular, the ability to deliver advertising messages to a targeted audience group and the use of media solutions to meet objectives. (maximum three A4 single pages, minimum point size 11, minimum line spacing 1.5).
All tenderers who have demonstrated they meet the above standards will proceed to Stage 2 of the evaluation.
III.2.4)Information about reserved contracts
III.3)Conditions specific to services contracts
III.3.1)Information about a particular profession
Execution of the service is reserved to a particular profession: no
III.3.2)Staff responsible for the execution of the service

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)Type of procedure
IV.1.1)Type of procedure
Open
IV.1.2)Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to tender or to participate
IV.1.3)Reduction of the number of operators during the negotiation or dialogue
IV.2)Award criteria
IV.2.1)Award criteria
The most economically advantageous tender in terms of the criteria stated in the specifications, in the invitation to tender or to negotiate or in the descriptive document
IV.2.2)Information about electronic auction
An electronic auction will be used: no
IV.3)Administrative information
IV.3.1)File reference number attributed by the contracting authority:
Project_11990
IV.3.2)Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract
no
IV.3.3)Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents or descriptive document
IV.3.4)Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate
28.1.2014 - 15:00
IV.3.5)Date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates
IV.3.6)Language(s) in which tenders or requests to participate may be drawn up
English.
IV.3.7)Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender
in days: 90 (from the date stated for receipt of tender)
IV.3.8)Conditions for opening of tenders

Section VI: Complementary information

VI.1)Information about recurrence
This is a recurrent procurement: no
VI.2)Information about European Union funds
The contract is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: no
VI.3)Additional information

Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender~: 1. Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once): Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender~: 1. Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once): https://e-sourcingni.bravosolution.co.uk and click the link to register - Accept the terms and conditions and click ‘continue' - Enter your correct business and user details - Note the username you chose and click ‘Save' when complete - You will shortly receive an email with your unique password (please keep this secure) 2. Express an Interest in the tender - Login to the portal with the username/password - Click the ‘PQQs / ITTs Open To All Suppliers' link. (These are Pre-Qualification Questionnaires or Invitations to Tender open to any registered supplier) - Click on the relevant PQQ/ ITT to access the content. - Click the ‘Express Interest' button at the top of the page. - This will move the PQQ /ITT into your ‘My PQQs/ My ITTs' page. (This is a secure area reserved for your projects only) -You can now access any attachments by clicking ‘Buyer Attachments' in the ‘PQQ/ ITT Details' box 3. Responding to the tender - Click ‘My Response' under ‘PQQ/ ITT Details', you can choose to ‘Create Response' or to ‘Decline to Respond' (please give a reason if declining) - You can now use the ‘Messages' function to communicate with the buyer and seek any clarification - Note the deadline for completion, then follow the onscreen instructions to complete the PQQ/ ITT - There may be a mixture of online & offline actions for you to perform (there is detailed online help available) You must then submit your reply using the ‘Submit Response' button at the top of the page. If you require any further assistance please consult the online help, or contact the eTendering help desk.

VI.4)Procedures for appeal
VI.4.1)Body responsible for appeal procedures
VI.4.2)Lodging of appeals
Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals: CPD will incorporate a standstill period at the point information on the award of the contract is communicated to tenderers. That notification will provide full information on the award decision. The standstill period, which will be for a minimum of 10 calendar days, provides time for unsuccessful tenderers to challenge the award decision before the contract is entered into
The Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (SI 2006 No 5) provide for aggrieved parties who have been harmed or are at risk of harm by a breach of the rules to take action in the High Court (England, Wales and Northern Ireland).
VI.4.3)Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained
VI.5)Date of dispatch of this notice:
19.12.2013