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 Other (Please specify) broadcasting

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

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)

Please note that although this Notice is set up as an Open Procedure, it is in fact being advertised as a procurement under Schedule 3 — Social And Other Specific Services, and is therefore not subject to the full regime of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

The BBC is looking for a supplier(s) to provide Independent Financial Advisors. The requirement is split into two (2) Lots: Lot 1- Pension Increase Exchange (PIE) offer: Lot 2 — Flexible Retirement Offer (FRO).

The initial contract term will be two (2) years following which the BBC may at its discretion extend the term on up to one (1) occasion for a period of up to twelve (12) months. The BBC reserves the right to extend one of the Lots and not the other.

Please note that there is no guarantee of the volume of advice required for either Lot. The volumes set out in the Invitation to Tender are only estimations and are therefore subject to change.

Procurement documentation can be accessed at https://bbc.bravosolution.co.uk

II.1.6)

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

II.1.7)

Contract covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

II.1.8)

Division into lots

one lot only

one or more lots

all lots

II.1.9)

Will variants be accepted

II.2)

Quantity or Scope of the Contract

II.2.1)

Total quantity or scope

II.2.2)

Options

Provisional timetable for recourse to these options

Number of possible renewals

In the case of renewable supplies or service contracts, estimated time frame for subsequent contracts

II.3)

Duration of the contract or 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

Guarantees may be required.

III.1.2)

Main Terms of financing and payment and/or reference to the relevant provisions

III.1.3)

Legal form to be taken by the grouping of suppliers, contractors or service providers to whom the contract is to be awarded

Where there is more than one economic operator, the BBC reserves the right to require a grouping of economic operators to take a particular legal form or to require a single economic operator to take primary liability or to require that each party undertakes joint and several liability.

III.1.4)

Other particular conditions to which the performance of the contract is subject

III.2)

Conditions for Participation

III.2.1)

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

Suppliers Instructions — How to Express Interest in this Tender:

1. You should first go to the BravoSolution eTendering portal at the following link: https://bbc.bravosolution.co.uk

2. Once in the BravoSolution portal you have 2 possible options:

a) WITHOUT HAVING TO REGISTER you can select ‘View tender opportunities’ and click on ‘Current Opportunities’ to view a summary of this project. If you would then like to formally express an interest and view the documentation you should follow the instructions in b) below.

b) Register your company (if not already registered) by clicking on the ‘Register’ button (this is only required once). Next, you should 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). You can now formally express an interest in this tender.

3. 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. 4. 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 and 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.n submit your reply using the ‘Submit Response’ button in the Actions box on the left-hand side of the page. If you require any further assistance please consult the online help, or contact the eTendering help desk (contact details can be found at https://bbc.bravosolution.co.uk).

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

Detailed explanations of the evaluation methodology and minimum criteria to be satisfied are set out in the Invitation to Tender (ITT) Document.

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

PROC/2015/23/JH

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

The awarding authority reserves the right not to award a contract and to annul the procurement process at any stage. Tenders and all supporting documents must be priced in sterling and all payments will be made in sterling. The contract shall be subject to English law. The awarding authority does not bind itself to accept the lowest, or any tender and reserves the right to accept part of a tender unless the tenderer expressly stipulates otherwise in the tender document. To prevent BBC eTendering portal email alerts from being quarantined by your organisation's fire wall or spam filter, you are advised to instruct your IT team to accept all emails with a www.bravosolution.co.uk extension (our portal provider) or from help@bravosolution.co.uk. If Section II.1.9 shows ‘Yes’, variants will be accepted provided they meet the core requirements of the project.

Electronic ordering will be used, and Electronic invoicing will be accepted, and Electronic payment will be used.

This Notice concerns services falling within the light touch regime as referred to in Articles 74-76 of Directive 2014/24/EU and to which most provisions of that Directive do not apply. No statements, acts or omissions of the BBC in connection with this procurement should be taken as indicating that the BBC intends to be bound by the Directive or the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 or the general principles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to any greater extent than applies by law.

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

ANNEX A

Additional Addresses and Contact Points

I)

Address and contact points from which further information can be obtained

II)

Address and contact points from which specifications and additional documentation may be obtained

III)

Address and contact points to which Tenders/Requests to Participate must be sent

ANNEX B

Information About Lots

1)

Short Description

Lot 1 — Pension Increase Exchange (PIE) offer: This option is only offered to pensioners with pre April 1997 pension (i.e. mainly Old Benefits members see the bbc.co.uk/mypension for more information about the BBC Pension Scheme). This option will be run as a bulk exercise from 1 November 2015. Those over 80 years of age and any identified as being vulnerable (in line with regulatory guidance) will be written to with the option to ‘opt in’. The potential eligible community, excluding those over 80, is c16,900. There are c4,900 pensioners over age 80 who could possibly opt in. The intention is that the offer will include dependants' pensions as well as the increases on contingent adult dependants' pensions. Pensioners with small pre April 1997 pensions accrued will be excluded from the bulk offer. The bulk exercise will be run over three months from 1.11.2015 and split into two overlapping tranches with the second tranche starting 1.12.2015.

Engagement rates are difficult to predict given that much will depend on individual circumstances. Based on previous exercises the BBC working assumption is that c40 % to 60 % of the eligible population may seek advice with perhaps 20 % to 40 % taking up the offer.

The initial contract term will be two (2) years following which the BBC may at its discretion extend the term on up to one (1) occasion for a period of up to twelve (12) months. The BBC reserves the right to extend this Lot only.

Procurement documentation can be accessed at https://bbc.bravosolution.co.uk

2)

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

3)

Quantity or scope

4)

Indication about different contract dates

5)

Additional Information about lots

The awarding authority reserves the right not to award a contract and to annul the procurement process at any stage. Tenders and all supporting documents must be priced in sterling and all payments will be made in sterling. The contract shall be subject to English law. The awarding authority does not bind itself to accept the lowest, or any tender and reserves the right to accept part of a tender unless the tenderer expressly stipulates otherwise in the tender document. To prevent BBC eTendering portal email alerts from being quarantined by your organisation's fire wall or spam filter, you are advised to instruct your IT team to accept all emails with a www.bravosolution.co.uk extension (our portal provider) or from help@bravosolution.co.uk. If Section II.1.9 shows ‘Yes’, variants will be accepted provided they meet the core requirements of the project.<br>

Electronic ordering will be used, and electronic invoicing will be accepted, and electronic payment will be used.

ANNEX B

Information About Lots

1)

Short Description

This option will be offered to active and deferred members who are aged 55 and over in the FRO exercise. Members will be contacted to remind them of their option to take a transfer value and informed about the new flexibility available since April 2015. Transfer values will be quoted on an unenhanced basis using the Scheme's standard cash equivalent transfer basis.

The intention is to run a bulk exercise of up to c3,500 eligible deferred members over three months from Mid October 2015. Members with small pensions will be excluded from the bulk offer. The option will also form part of the business as usual process at retirement and c50 active and deferred members retire each month. The BBC understands that introducing a FRO will require careful communication. A comprehensive communications plan will be put in place to raise awareness of, and help members understand the new flexibilities being introduced. Members will also be provided with a suitable modelling tool, provided by KPMG, to help them explore the option further in advance of pursuing the IFA support. This will help to ensure that IFA consultation is focussed on those who have a serious interest in taking up the FRO. The cost of advice provided by the selected IFA will be funded by the BBC. Where a member has been a member of more than one section of the Scheme they will have the option to consider all their Scheme benefits in one set of advice or, if they wish to deal with the different benefits at different times, they will be allowed one further opportunity of funded paid advice. Members with benefits in more than one section of the Scheme can therefore potentially receive up to three sets of funded advice (once as part of the bulk offer and up to twice as part of the at retirement process). Any further advice will not be funded by the BBC, although IFAs should indicate whether they would offer members a preferential rate for any additional advice.

Engagement rates are difficult to predict given that much will depend on individual circumstances. The BBC's working assumption is that c50 % of the eligible population may seek advice with perhaps 25 % to 30 % taking up the offer.

The initial contract term will be two (2) years following which the BBC may at its discretion extend the term on up to one (1) occasion for a period of up to twelve (12) months. The BBC reserves the right to extend this Lot only.

Procurement documentation can be accessed at https://bbc.bravosolution.co.uk

2)

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

3)

Quantity or scope

4)

Indication about different contract dates

5)

Additional Information about lots

The awarding authority reserves the right not to award a contract and to annul the procurement process at any stage. Tenders and all supporting documents must be priced in sterling and all payments will be made in sterling. The contract shall be subject to English law. The awarding authority does not bind itself to accept the lowest, or any tender and reserves the right to accept part of a tender unless the tenderer expressly stipulates otherwise in the tender document. To prevent BBC eTendering portal email alerts from being quarantined by your organisation's fire wall or spam filter, you are advised to instruct your IT team to accept all emails with a www.bravosolution.co.uk extension (our portal provider) or from help@bravosolution.co.uk. If Section II.1.9 shows ‘Yes’, variants will be accepted provided they meet the core requirements of the project.<br>

Electronic ordering will be used, and electronic invoicing will be accepted, and electronic payment will be used.