ID 1678809 - DFE TOURISM NI BUSINESS SUPPORT

Description

Following a competition advertised in the Official Journal of the EU on 30/11/18 the Department for the Economy Tourism NI entered into a Business Support Programme contract but due to the impact of Covid-19 the level of support required by tourism businesses has been unprecedented and unforeseen at the time of securing the contract. In continuing to support the sector recover via the roll out of the Tourism Recovery Action Plan, it is anticipated that the 8 months remaining will require an ongoing high level of support for the tourism sector businesses therefore Tourism NI requires a variation to the value of the contract to ensure it is able to deliver the required level of support to the industry. Tourism NI wishes to increase the value of the contract by £2,250,000 ex VAT (50% of the original contract value), to cover requirements until the end of the contract (18/02/2022). Tourism NI is relying on the Regulation 72(1)(c) provision as the need for change could not have been foreseen by a “diligent” contracting authority. This is on the basis that the level of support required by tourism businesses has increased dramatically due to the impact of the pandemic which could not have been predicted and these increased requirements could not have been foreseen or accounted for when estimating the contract value at the time of tender. This additional funding will continue to support the sector recover via the roll out of the Tourism Recovery Action Plan. The changes required do not affect the overall nature of the contract. Lot 1: The Northern Ireland Tourist Board trading as Tourism Northern Ireland appointed a Contractor to provide a Managed Business Support Service to the Tourism Industry. The Contractor was required to ensure a full supply of Industry experts to act as business support personnel to meet the requirements of the specification. Additional information: This voluntary transparency notice has been published to alert economic operators of the Department. for Economy intention to further modify the DFE Tourism NI Business Support Programme contract under Regulation 72(1)(c) of the Public Contract Regulations (as amended). The modification will take the form of an increase in spend over the last 8 months of the contract at a cost of £2.25 million. A modification notice will be published after the modification has been formalised.