Please note that Appendix A to Suitability Assessment Questionnaires for Service Providers QC1 and QC2 (dated 29/04/2011) were incorrectly available to download as the current versions on the Construction Procurement website. The correct current versions of Appendix A to QC1 and QC2 (dated 06/09/2011) are now available under Pillar 3 – Suitability Assessment Questionnaires. Earlier versions dated 29/04/2011 are available under Archives – Pillar 3.

In July of last year, in response to an appeal of a High Court decision not to lift the suspension of the award of a public contract, the Supreme Court held that the Remedies Regulations* did not give the court jurisdiction to lift the suspension of a contract award in the circumstances where an unsuccessful tenderer or candidate initiates proceedings to review the decision of a contracting authority to award a public contract.  An ‘automatic suspension’ effectively applies until the High Court reaches a decision on the substantive issue.

The Remedies Regulations allow tenderers or candidates who feel that a procurement process was not carried out in an open, fair and transparent manner the option of seeking recourse from the courts.

SI 130 and 131 have been amended to give leave to contracting authorities to apply to the courts to lift the ‘automatic suspension’ and to give the High Court jurisdiction to lift an ‘automatic suspension’ should it see fit to do so.

The amending Regulations (listed below) are available under Regulations on this website and are also published on the Oireachtas website under 2015 Statutory Instruments

• S.I. No. 192/2015 – European Communities (Public Authorities Contracts) (Review Procedures) (Amendment) Regulations 2015.
• S.I. No. 193/2015 – European Communities (Award of Contracts by Utility Undertakings) (Review Procedures) (Amendment) Regulations 2015.

*SI 130 and 131 of 2010 which transpose the Remedies Directives into Irish law

The Office of Government Procurement today published a document titled Implementation of the interim measures to amend the Public Works Contracts.  Its publication marks the conclusion of a series of bilateral meetings with identified industry stakeholders which have been ongoing since the report on the Review of the Performance of the Public Works Contracts was published in December 2014.

The document summarises the detailed amendments it is proposed to make to the conditions of contract to give effect to 3 of the 4 interim measures set out in Report on the Review of the Performance of the Public Works Contract published in December 2014.  Draft wording of the conditions is not included at this stage but rather the intent of the new/amended conditions is set out.  Comments on the measures as they are outlined may be sent by close of business Friday, 1 May 2015 to: publicworkscontractsreview@per.gov.ie.    A final meeting with industry stakeholders will be held early in June after the draft conditions of contract are circulated in late May.

Please note that these measures are still in a development phase and are subject to amendment.

In relation to the 4th interim recommendation (Recommendation No. 3) – A MEAT award for contracts in excess of €2m – industry stakeholders have been invited to participate on a working group to develop award criteria.  The group will be chaired by the Office of Government Procurement and will aim to report by the end of July of this year.

At this stage in the process the proposed publication date for the new forms of contract is June 2015.  Transitional arrangements will apply to facilitate the change associated with Interim Recommendation No.1.   This will apply to circumstances where the consultants’ scope of services did not include a requirement for a bill of quantities to the standard of one of the standard methods of measurement.  However contracting authorities who are scheduled to engage design teams from this date onwards should include the following requirements in the scope of services required of the design team where the form of contract to be used is PW-CF1, PW-CF3 and PW-CF5:

The design team shall be responsible for the production of a Bill of Quantities to one of the recognised methods of measurement as appropriate to the works projects as set out below.

• Building works – Agreed Rules of Measurement Version 4 (ARM 4) as amended for use with the public works contract.  Supplement 2 of ARM 4 must be used for mechanical and electrical works and the project quantity surveyor is responsible for the measurement of the M&E works to ARM 4 (Supplement 2) standard.

• Civil engineering works – Civil Engineering Standard Method of Measurement 3rd Edition (CESMM 3) as amended for use with the public works contract.

• Road construction – Method of Measurement for Road Works (MMRW) published by the National Roads Authority as Volume 3 of the Manual of Contract Documents for Road works.