Request for Tenders for the provision of Printing and Postage Services to the Companies Registration Office

Description

The Companies Registration Office invites tenders for the provision of printing and postage of involuntary strike off letters to company registered addresses and to company directors and secretaries. The letters to the company registered addresses will be sent by registered post with the other letters sent by ordinary post. The CRO is a statutory body coming under the aegis of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment charged with responsibility for the registration of companies and business names and the provision of statutory company information to the public. For the latter purpose, the CRO is the central repository of public statutory information on Irish companies. The CRO is located in two premises at Bloom House, Gloucester Place Lower, Dublin 1 and O’Brien Road, Carlow. The main functions discharged by the CRO include: a) The incorporation of companies; b) The registration of business names; c) The registration of company post-incorporation documentation; d) The registration of changes in business names particulars; e) The enforcement of the Companies Acts by way of prosecuting companies and / or directors, and striking companies off the register; and, f) The provision of company information to the public. As part of the disclosure obligations imposed by the Companies Act 2014, every company must file an annual return with the CRO. The annual return is the only form which is required be filed at regular intervals. Each company has its own individual annual return date (ARD) by which its annual return must be filed. There are a series of late filing penalties imposed on companies that are late in filing their annual returns – an annual return becomes late where 56 days have elapsed since the company’s ARD. The CRO emails each company in its database to advise that its ARD is due. The CRO will also email each company where the annual return is late to advise the company that it is incurring late filing fees. The CRO maintains a comprehensive, computerised database on companies incorporated in Ireland. For the purposes of this RFT, the relevant company details on the database comprise: • Company name; • Company registration number; • Secretary and/or Director name and address, as required; • Address of company’s registered office; • Company’s next annual return date (ARD); • Effective date of last annual return filed; and • Date of most recent letter which issued to the company from CRO in relation to the ARD. Where a company is late in filing its annual return, the CRO will notify the company that enforcement action will be taken. The enforcement action begins with an initial email to the company giving it 10 (ten) weeks to regularise its affairs. Where a company does not regularise its affairs within the ten-week warning period set out in the initial email, the CRO will write letters stating that the company is open to enforcement proceedings and these letters will be sent to: • The registered company address (by registered post); • The address of each company director (by ordinary post); and • The address of the company secretary (by ordinary post). These letters along with the envelopes comprise the print and postage aspect of this RFT. The envelope to be used should be A5 size with an oblong window to display the relevant address along with the barcode of the letter. Each envelope must have the Enforcement Section address printed in both Irish and English. In total, the contract would be for printing up to 216,000 letters with 54,000 letters sent by registered post and 162,000 letters sent by ordinary post. Please note: the actual expenditure will depend on budgetary considerations and there is no guarantee of a minimum expenditure from the contracting authority.