HMRC: HMRC Tax Credit Debt Collection

UK-London: Collection agency services.

Section I: Contracting Authority
   I.1)Name, Addresses and Contact Point(s):
      HMRC
      100 Parliament Street, Westminster, London, SW1A 2BQ, United Kingdom
      Tel. +44 3000587872, Email: ralph.oliver@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk, URL: www.hmrc.gsi.gov.uk, URL: 5th Floor West, Ralli Quays, 3 Stanley Street, Salford, M60 9LA. United Kingdom
      Contact: Ralph Oliver, Attn: Ralph Oliver
      Electronic Access URL: Please refer to Section VI.3 (Additional Information) which clarifies the procedure regarding access to tender documentation
      Electronic Submission URL: Please refer to Section VI.3 (Additional Information) which clarifies the procedure regarding submission of tender documentation

      Further information can be obtained at: As Above       
      Specifications and additional documents: ANNEX A.II
            
      Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: ANNEX A.III
            
   
   I.2)Type of the contracting authority:
      Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local sub-divisions

   I.3) Main activity:
      Other: Direct & Indirect Taxes

   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: SERVICES
   II.1)Description
      II.1.1)Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority: HMRC Tax Credit Debt Collection
      II.1.2)Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performance: SERVICES         
         Service Category: 27

         Region Codes: UK - UNITED KINGDOM         
      II.1.3) Information about a public contract, a framework or a dynamic purchasing system:The notice involves a public contract                                                       
      
      II.1.5)Short description of the contract or purchase:
      Collection agency services. Accounting, auditing and fiscal services. IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support. Data services. Administration, defence and social security services. HMRC is a key delivery department for UK Government. It plays a vital role in helping to reduce the budget deficit through maximising the collection of taxes due in order to fund the UK's public services. It also helps families and individuals with targeted financial support.

HMRC's objectives are to maximise revenues, improve customer experience and reduce costs in a sustainable way. HMRC’s strategy is based on understanding customers, so it can deliver services tailored to their needs and positively influence their behaviour.

HMRC are looking for a single supplier (who may be a Debt Collection Agency, Debt Broker, or any other organisation, having the necessary capability and capacity) to provide a debt collection service for tax credit debts. These services are also part of the wider UK Government debt management strategy which includes a clear time-bound commitment to rapidly extend the collection of Tax Credit debt as outlined in the Autumn Statement 2013.

It is intended that the successful supplier will have the capacity to accommodate debt placements in the total region of £3 billion, to be allocated in stages (probably monthly). The service will not include any face to face contact or enforcement activity, and will be required for a period of 2 years.

The successful supplier will be required to agree to the contract being novated by the Contracting Authority to the entity established by the Debt Market Integrator procurement [TED-publication 27694-2014 (2014-01-25)] The Debt Market Integrator will deliver a suite of debt management services to a range of UK government departments and other UK contracting authorities.

In the case of consortia, it is expected that the members of the consortium will form a single legal entity.

Further information on the scope of services can be found in the Invitation to Tender documentation.
         
      II.1.6)Common Procurement Vocabulary:
         79940000 - Collection agency services.
         
         79200000 - Accounting, auditing and fiscal services.
         
         72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support.
         
         72300000 - Data services.
         
         75000000 - Administration, defence and social security services.
         

      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:
      Not Provided                  
         Estimated value excluding VAT:
         Range between: 25,000,000 and 45,000,000
         Currency: GBP
               
      
      II.2.2)Options: Yes
         If yes, description of these options: The Contract will have a duration of 2 years                   
         II.2.3)Information about renewals:
            This contract is subject to renewal: No          
   II.3)Duration Of The Contract Or Time-Limit For Completion      
         Duration in months: 24 (from the award of the contract)

   Information About Lots
               
Section III: Legal, Economic, Financial And Technical Information
   III.1)Conditions relating to the contract
      III.1.1)Deposits and guarantees required:
      No Deposits are required.
      
      III.1.2)Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or reference to the relevant provisions governing them:
      Details of financing conditions and payment arrangements will be outlined in the Invitation to Tender (“ITT”).
      
      III.1.3)Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to whom the contract is to be awarded:
      The Authority intends to enter into a contract with the service provider which will be a single legal entity.
      
      III.1.4)Other particular conditions:
         The performance of the contract is subject to particular conditions: No       
   III.2)Conditions For Participation
      III.2.1)Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers:

      As stated in Section VI.3, HMRC is using an e-sourcing (eTendering) tool or application for this procurement. Tenders will normally not be fully considered or evaluated unless Tenderers have first demonstrated that they have the necessary personal standing and are eligible and suitable to be awarded a public contract. Tenderers will therefore be required to provide a statement within an online “selection questionnaire” as to whether any of the circumstances (relating to mandatory and discretionary grounds for exclusion) described in Regulation 23 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 apply. Revenue compliance will be considered and checks will be undertaken throughout the tendering exercise, using, as applicable, information from HMRC’s own records. UK applicants will be required to provide their tax reference numbers: i.e. Value Added Tax registration number, PAYE collection reference and Corporation Tax or Self-Assessment reference, as applicable. Overseas or non-UK Tenderers will be required to submit a certificate of tax compliance obtained from the country in which they are resident for tax purposes. If a company is a subsidiary, a member of a group or a consortium, the above details may also be required in respect of the parent company, other group members or each consortium member as appropriate. Information may also be required in respect of sub-contractors who will prospectively be performing core or major elements of the requirement.      
      III.2.2)Economic and financial capacity
         Economic and financial capacity - means of proof required:         
         (a) appropriate statements from banks or, where appropriate, evidence of relevant professional risk indemnity insurance;
         (b) the presentation of balance-sheets or extracts from the balance-sheets, where publication of the balance-sheet is required under the law of the country in which the economic operator is established;
         (c) a statement of the undertaking's overall turnover and, where appropriate, of turnover in the area covered by the contract for a maximum of the last three financial years available, depending on the date on which the undertaking was set up or the economic operator started trading, as far as the information on these turnovers is available.
         
         Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if requirements are met:
         As stated in Section VI.3, HMRC is using an e-sourcing (eTendering) tool or application for this procurement. Tenders will normally not be fully considered or evaluated unless Tenderers have first demonstrated via an online “selection questionnaire” that they have the necessary economic or financial capacity to perform the contract. Actual requirements will vary depending on the particular requirement or contractual opportunity, but, as a minimum, the questionnaire will request the following information: 1) audited accounts (to include balance sheet and statement of profit and loss) and/or similar financial statements or information; 2) statement of turnover in respect of the required goods and/or service only; and 3) details of Public Liability and Employers Liability Insurance (as applicable) and other relevant insurances. If a company is a subsidiary, a member of a group or a consortium, the above details may also be required in respect of the parent company, other group members or each consortium member as appropriate.
      
      III.2.3)Technical capacity
         Technical capacity - means of proof required         
         (b) a list of the principal deliveries effected or the main services provided in the past three years, with the sums, dates and recipients, whether public or private, involved. Evidence of delivery and services provided shall be given: - where the recipient was a contracting authority, in the form of certificates issued or countersigned by the competent authority, - where the recipient was a private purchaser, by the purchaser's certification or, failing this, simply by a declaration by the economic operator;
         (j) an indication of the proportion of the contract which the services provider intends possibly to subcontract;
         
         Minimum Level(s) of standards possibly required:
         The minimum standard for reliability having regard to past performance is that the Authority is satisfied that the contracts which each Potential service provider is required to provide have been satisfactorily performed in accordance with their terms or, where that has not occurred, the reason or reasons why that has not occurred, will not recur in the performance of the Contract.
In addition, under the policy, the Authority will re-assess reliability based on past performance before key points in the procurement process (i.e. short listing, preferred bidder status, conclusion of contract etc.). Bidders will accordingly be asked to update the evidence they provide in relation to past performance to reflect more recent performance on new or existing contracts (or to confirm that nothing has changed).
Pursuant to the Cabinet Office Procurement Policy Note 09/12 ‘Taking Account of Bidders Past Performance’ as part of your company’s response to this ITT, please provide a list comprising a statement of the relevant principal services provided by you, in the previous 3 years.
For the purposes of assessing reliability having regard to past performance the list should include contracts in respect of services which are similar services in both scope and complexity to those covered by the Contract Notice within the past 3 years and which have an annual value greater than £20m per annum. These will demonstrate a proven ability to deliver reliable, high quality and innovative retail debt management services at scale in the UK; or an equivalent proven scale retail debt services delivery capability elsewhere, together with comprehensive and credible evidence of sufficient practical understanding of the UK debt market and experience of successfully adapting retail debt operations to demonstrate the ability to succeed in the UK
In addition to the list you will be required to provide performance certificates for these contracts as set out in the ITT document.
Minimum Standards
Applicants are required to demonstrate how they will have the capacity to meet the specification detailed in the ITT documents by responding to the following specification questionnaires contained in the e-Sourcing event.
Specification - General Requirements
   Specification - Security Requirements
Specification – User Requirement.
To provide the Authority with the assurance needed that all aspects of the specification will be met, applicants will need to achieve a minimum evaluation score of 70 for each of the specification questionnaires listed above and the bids of applicants who do not achieve this minimum standard will not be considered for contract award.      
      III.2.4)Information about reserved contracts: Not Provided   
   III.3)Conditions Specific To Service 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:
         Legal persons should indicate the names and professional qualifications of the staff responsible for the execution of the service: No
Section IV: Procedure
   IV.1)Type Of Procedure
      IV.1.1)Type of procedure: Open
   
   IV.2)Award Criteria
      IV.2.1)Award criteria:      
         Lowest price

      IV.2.2)Information about electronic auction:
         An electronic auction will be used: Yes       
            If yes, additional information about electronic auction
            The Authority reserves the option of using an electronic auction to arrive at the lowest price.

   IV.3)Administrative Information
      IV.3.1)File reference number attributed by the contracting authority: BAK-2014-Extending Tax Credits-485      
      IV.3.2)Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract: Yes
         Prior information notice
            Notice number in OJEU: 2014/S 18 - 27694 of 25/01/2014
               
         Other previous publications: No                

      IV.3.3)Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents or descriptive document:



         Payable documents: No       
      
      IV.3.4)Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate
         Date: 15/04/2014
         Time: 14:00      
      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
         Duration in days: 120
      
      IV.3.8)Conditions for opening tenders
         Persons authorised to be present at the opening of tenders: Yes
            HMRC will be using an e-sourcing (e-tendering) tool/application for this procurement. This prevents any information provided by the applicant or tenderer from being viewed by the Authority until the e-sourcing event is closed. The e-sourcing (e-tendering) application will display the closing date and time for this particular tendering exercise within the event. The close time will be the earliest point at which the HMRC nominated or a tender defined evaluation team member will be able to open and view the tender responses. Therefore, the opening time for tenders will coincide with the close date and time for the event and all tenders will become visible to the HMRC nominated or event defined tender evaluation team in any place that provides access to the e-sourcing tool/application at that time.


Section VI: Complementary Information

   VI.1)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: The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement, and the contract will be awarded on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender.Any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement, and the contract will be awarded on the basis of the lowest price. Secondary cost proposals may be submitted and further information is provided in the online Tender documentation. HMRC is conducting this tendering exercise under the OJEU Open procedure and is using an eSourcing (eTendering) tool or application. (Information about the e-Sourcing application, and about supplying to HMRC in general, is available on the HMRC website: www.hmrc.gov.uk/about/supplying.htm.) Economic operators who require access to the online tender documentation must send an email to e.procurement@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk any time up to, but no later than 09.00 on 15 April 2014. This email should contain (a) the contract reference shown in Section IV.3.1 (File Reference), (b) a contact email address; (c) a contact name; and (d) the company name and contact telephone number. Economic operators who have complied with the foregoing will receive details of how to access the online Tender documentation. (If an email response from HMRC is not received within one working day of your request, re-contact e.procurement@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk (after first checking your spam in-box) notifying non-receipt and confirming when the request was first made). Online Tender documentation must be fully completed (and any requested associated hard-copy documents received by HMRC) no later than 14.00 on 15 April 2014. Tender documentation not submitted in the required form (or containing the requested information) may be rejected. (When requesting access to the online Tender documentation, please notify the Authority if you have any accessibility issues (disabilities) which may prevent you from providing a high quality response using the eSourcing application. This will then allow HMRC to agree with you an appropriate format for you to view and respond to the requirements). All communications shall be in English. Tenders, when invited, and all supporting documentation must be priced in Sterling and all payments under the contract will be in Sterling. Any contract or agreement resulting from the Invitation to Tender will be considered as a contract made in England according to English Law and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts. The Awarding Authority does not bind itself to accept any tender and reserves the right to accept any part of the tender unless the tenderer expressly stipulates to the contrary.

The Authority expressly reserves the right (i) not to award or enter into any Contract as a result of this procurement process commenced by the publication of this notice in the event of the receipt of bids which are not value for money or are unacceptable for any other reason and to re-procure or enter into any alternative arrangement it deems appropriate in accordance with the Public Contract Regulations 2006; and (ii) to make whatever changes it may see fit to the content and structure of the tendering competition; and in no circumstances will the Authority be liable for any costs incurred by the Bidders.
To view this notice, please click here:
https://www.delta-esourcing.com/delta/viewNotice.html?noticeId=89892736
GO-2014228-PRO-5495835 TKR-2014228-PRO-5495834
   
   VI.4)Procedures For Appeal
      VI.4.1)Body responsible for appeal procedures:
      See VI.4.2
      United Kingdom

      Body responsible for mediation procedures:
               See VI.4.2
         United Kingdom

      VI.4.2)Lodging of appeals: Lodging of appeals: HMRC will incorporate a minimum 10 calendar day standstill period at the time the award of the contract is communicated to tenderers. This period allows unsuccessful tenderers to seek further debriefing from the contracting authority before the contract is entered into. Such additional information should be requested from the address at I.1. Where a contract has not been entered into, the Court may order the setting aside of the award decision or order the Authority to amend any document and may award damages. If the contract has been entered into, the Court may only award damages.

The Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (SI 2006 No 5) (as amended) 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). Interested service providers who are unsuccessful shall be informed as soon as possible after the decision has been made as to the reasons why they were unsuccessful. If an appeal regarding the award of the contract has not been successfully resolved, The Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (SI 2006 No. 5) (the "Regulations") provide for aggrieved parties who have been harmed or are at risk of harm by breach of the rules to take legal action. Any such action must be brought within the applicable limitation periods (in general 30 days beginning with the date when the economic operator first knew or ought to have known that the grounds for starting the proceedings had arisen). Where a contract has not been entered into, the Court may order the setting aside of the award decision or order the contracting authorities (as defined in the Regulations) to amend any document and may award damages. If the contract has been entered into the Court may, depending on the circumstances, award damages, make a declaration of ineffectiveness, order the contracting authorities to pay a fine, and/or order that the duration of the contract be shortened. The purpose of the standstill period referred to above is to allow an application to be made to the Courts to set aside the award decision before the contract is entered into.   
   
      VI.4.3)Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained:
            See VI.4.2
      United Kingdom

   VI.5) Date Of Dispatch Of This Notice: 28/02/2014

ANNEX A
   
   II) Addresses and contact points from which specifications and additional documents can be obtained:
      HMRC
      5W Ralli Quays, 3 Stanley Street, Salford, M60 9LA, United Kingdom
      Email: e.procurement@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk
      Contact: e.procurement@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk, Attn: BAK-2014-Extending Tax Credits-485   
   
   III) Addresses and contact points to which tenders/requests to participate must be sent:
      HMRC
      5W Ralli Quays, 3 Stanley Street, Salford, M60 9LA, United Kingdom
      Email: e.procurement@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk
      Contact: e.procurement@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk, Attn: BAK-2014-Extending Tax Credits-485