The General Lighthouse Authorities for Scotland & the Isle Of Man;
England, Wales & the Channel Islands;
Ireland;
and their adjacent seas and islands
INVITATION TO TENDER
FOR THE SUPPLY OF: Rotary Aviation Specialist Technical Support
REF: GLA/CONS/0856
OJEU REF: 2012/S 234-385206/EN
Contents
Introduction 3
Background Information - GLAs 4
Background Information – Project 5
Tender Information 7
Grounds for Disqualification 9
Contract Information 10
Supplier’s Responsibilities 14
SPECIFICATION OF REQUIREMENTS 16
PRICING SCHEDULE 19
Appendix I 22
Tenderer Information Schedule 22
APPENDIX II 34
INSTRUCTIONS TO TENDERERS 34
APPENDIX III 36
STATEMENT RELATING TO GOOD STANDING 36
Appendix IV 37
APPENDIX V 38
DECLARATION OF NON-COLLUSION 38
APPENDIX VI 39
FORM OF TENDER 39
APPENDIX VII 41
TENDER EVALUATION MATRIX 41
APPENDIX VIII 46
APPENDIX IX 65
TENDER RETURN LABEL 65
Introduction
This tender is issued by the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) on behalf of the General Lighthouse Authorities (GLAs) for the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Please ensure you understand all aspects of this document and you should be aware that all information contained within this tender will be used by the GLAs for the purposes of this project only.
This tender is subject to the EU Procurement Directive 2004/18/EC Open Procedure and our notice 2012/S 234-385206/EN was published by OJEU on 5 December 2012.
No information contained in this document, or in any communication made between the GLAs and any Tenderer in connection with this tender exercise, shall be relied upon as constituting a contract, agreement or representation that any contract shall be offered in accordance with this tender exercise. The GLAs reserves the right, subject to the appropriate procurement regulations, to change without notice the basis of, or the procedures for, the competitive tendering process or to terminate the process at any time. Under no circumstances shall the GLAs incur any liability in respect of this tender exercise or any supporting documentation.
Direct or indirect canvassing of any GLA Board members, GLA staff, public sector employee or agent by any potential bidder concerning this requirement, or any attempt to procure information from any GLA Board members, GLA staff, public sector employee or agent concerning this tender exercise may result in the disqualification of the Tenderer from consideration for this requirement.
The GLAs will not reimburse any costs incurred by Tenderers in connection with preparation and submission of their responses to this tender exercise.
All information contained within this document will be used to inform the GLAs project team relating to this project alone.
Tenderers are advised to answer all questions. While a lack of response may not preclude you from consideration, the GLAs may request no further information before the evaluation of responses. Therefore it is in your interest to ensure that your submission is complete at the time of sending. You may provide additional information, if relevant.
Tenders must be explicit and comprehensive in their responses to this invitation to tender and are advised neither to make any assumptions about their past or current supplier relationships with the GLAs nor to assume that such prior business relationships will be taken into account in the evaluation procedure. Submitted tenders will be evaluated solely on the evaluation criteria detailed in Appendix VII.
In accordance with EU and UK legislation and public sector transparency guidelines, please be aware that GLA contracts will be advertised and also published following contract award. Information in relation to the contracts will be within the public domain, your attention is drawn to Page 13 – Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Transparency.
Background Information - GLAs
The General Lighthouse Authorities (GLAs) for the United Kingdom and Ireland are the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, operating as the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB), the Commissioners of Irish Lights (CIL) and Corporation of Trinity House (TH) with responsibility, subject to certain provisions, for the superintendence and management of “all lighthouses, buoys and beacons” throughout their respective geographical areas including “the adjacent seas and islands....” within and beyond territorial waters. In all, the GLAs provide some 1,200 traditional aids complemented by a mix of radio navigation aids for the safety of all mariners engaged in general navigation irrespective of who pays for the service, the size or type of the vessel, her equipment fit, the competence of her crew, or her flag.
The costs of the GLAs' services are met from the General Lighthouse Fund (GLF). The income to the GLF comes mostly from light dues which are charged on commercial shipping at United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland ports. There is no provision for Exchequer funding except in the Republic of Ireland and in relation to guarantees under the GLAs’ borrowing powers. The Secretary of State for Transport has a duty to ensure the effective management of the GLF and enable the adequate provision of aids to navigation at the minimum cost.
The GLAs’ primary responsibilities are set out in Parts VIII and IX of the UK Merchant Shipping Act 1995 and in the case of CIL’s statutory undertaking in respect of the Republic of Ireland, Part XI of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 and the Merchant Shipping (Salvage and Wrecks) Act 1993. These responsibilities include, but are not limited to provision of aids to navigation for general navigation, superintendence and management of all aids to navigation within their respective areas and marking, removal and/or dispersal of wrecks considered to be a danger to navigation outside harbour areas.
Through agreement with the Government of the Irish Republic the three GLAs provide an integrated network of Aids to Navigation around the British Isles. This discharges both the United Kingdom and Irish Governments’ obligation under the International Maritime Organisation’s Safety of Life at Sea (Solas) Convention.
The efficiency of the Aids to Navigation are measured against international standards set by the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA). IALA is a non profit, non governmental international technical association. IALA’s aim is to harmonize aids to navigation worldwide and to ensure that the movements of vessels are safe, expeditious, cost effective and harmless to the environment.
In the furtherance of their duties the GLAs have various bases of operation and assets, owned, leased and contracted, around the coastlines of the Great Britain and Ireland including depots, lighthouses, beacons, ships, boats and helicopters. The principal maritime assets are multi function tenders (MFTs) with helicopter-operating capabilities, the tasks of which are to supply stores, fuel, water, materials, equipment and personnel to service, maintain, construct and repair various types of floating and fixed Marine Aids-to-Navigation.
The joint mission of the GLAs is:
"To deliver a reliable, efficient and cost effective Aids-to-Navigation service for the benefit and safety of all mariners."
For further information please visit our websites: www.nlb.org.uk www.cil.ie www.trinityhouse.co.uk
Background Information – Project
The background information provided is supplementary to the Specification of Requirements starting at Page 16.
Importance of helicopter services
The GLAs helicopter services support its Marine Aids to Navigation Strategy to 2025 by providing the means to access Aids to Navigation located and maintained by them.
An effective helicopter service is a vital element in the provision of the GLAs service to the mariner i.e. the provision of a reliable, efficient and cost-effective network of marine Aids to Navigation. Air travel is the only access method for many of the Aid to Navigation sites due to their location and the nature of the work that needs to be undertaken by the GLAs. Not having an effective helicopter service, even for a very short period of time, has the potential to have a very real and serious impact upon the critical, statutory services the GLAs deliver around the UK and Ireland.
The GLAs require a very specialist type of helicopter services working in difficult rugged coastal and the near offshore environments, shipboard and flying under-slung loads. The current Helicopter Services Contracts are due to expire in November 2015, and the GLAs will need to run a procurement exercise to replace them. The GLAs need the services of an external technical specialist to supplement skills of a tri-GLA Project Team during the procurement and life of a new Helicopter Services Contract. This involves a full review of the GLA requirements and consideration of changes to current practice and service provision with the possible consideration of 1 FTE helicopter for the GLAs, subject to availability within the market.
GLA helicopters work alone without the panoply of safety measures available on the North Sea (trilateration to enable air traffic control to monitor every moment of the flight, helipads which comply with Commercial Air Transport requirements and are manned and equipped for crash rescue etc). They undertake a wide variety of tasking, transporting underslung and internal freight and dangerous goods, and positioning and recovering subcontractor and GLA personnel at each end of the day under pressure from weather and darkness without the ability to do task work under instrument flying conditions. Many GLA helipads would no longer meet the international standard but are permitted under grandfather rights for flights undertaken in the public interest, and there is no way to make pads such as those atop a lighthouse compliant. The single pilot is therefore under many pressures, unaided by the crew and the technical capabilities of SAR autohover and FLIR.
In addition to requiring GLA helicopters to be equipped to a higher standard than the law requires for small public transport helicopters, the GLAs therefore need to ensure, at routine intervals, that their Helicopter Services Contractor operates to the highest safety standards. This is achieved through an annual audit to check by the Technical services supplier not only contractual compliance, but also the safety and effectiveness of the Helicopter Services Contractor’s equipment and processes. The task typically covers an inspection of engineering, training, safety and other records and procedures, and includes flights on typical tasks. It provides the GLAs with a report that informs them and keeps the Helicopter Services Contractor up to the mark.
The Technical services supplier will also be an expert interlocutor with the Helicopter Services Contractor on ad hoc problems. The GLAs routinely need an independent view on aircrew, procedures and technical developments in part because every change in aviation is expensive so the GLAs need reassurance of the need expressed by the Helicopter Services Contractor.
The GLAs have sought a long contract in part to ensure the GLA Technical services supplier becomes and remains expert in the GLAs’ procedures and requirements.
Impartiality of advice
It is critical that the GLAs engage a technical specialist firm which is seen to be independent from helicopter manufacturers and service providers to ensure there are no conflicts of interest that may compromise the GLAs helicopter services procurement exercise. Independency is part of the tender evaluation criteria together with the requirement for demonstration of each Tenderer’s position of independence.
Existing Project Team skills
The GLAs have established a multi-discipline project team harnessing key experience across the three authorities, enabling the team to integrate and work together to deliver the project requirements. However, the project team’s existing skills are in operational and procurement areas, and require additional support where the GLAs have no expertise - namely aviation economics; commercial aspects of aviation business and rotary wing flying including pilot’s knowledge and experience. Our existing helicopter service contracts ends on 30 November 2015, such services require a minimum of 12 months lead-in period, meaning that planning and project work needs to commence in 2013. Best practice dictates that work cannot start on the next Helicopter Services Contract until the project team conducts a full review of requirements, as this will inform the scope and nature of the helicopter services needed in the future in the form of a schedule of requirements.
Expected Outcomes of this tender exercise
This is a collaborative exercise for the GLAs involving many staff across all three organisations. Therefore, it is vital to the Project’s success that we provide the Tenderers with sufficient information during the tender exercise to enable an appropriate and informed bid.
The Tenderers will have the opportunity to raise any questions up to 16:00 hours on Friday 11 January 2013 (full details can be found on the following page).
Tender Information
Tender Process
All enquiries, without exception, must be addressed, to Fiona Lynch as the single point of contact for this exercise on behalf of the GLAs, at the address shown below and must be submitted in writing or by email; these shall all be recorded and email is preferable. Tenderers should be aware that it will be the intention of the GLAs to circulate in writing, to all interested parties all queries and enquiries received together with our response. The source of the question will not be disclosed. To ensure that all Tenderers have the same information, we will respond to all queries and points of clarification raised by 16:00 hours on Friday 11 January 2013.
Fiona Lynch
Commercial Manager
Northern Lighthouse Board
84 George Street
Edinburgh
EH2 3DA
United Kingdom
Email:
Fax: 0044 131 473 2436
Completed Tenders should be forwarded using the label provided at Appendix IX to:
Director of Finance
Northern Lighthouse Board
84 George Street
Edinburgh
EH2 3DA
United Kingdom
The closing date for receipt of tenders is Monday 21 January 2013 at 12:00 hours. Email and Facsimile copies will only be accepted if the original is received within two working days of this deadline. It is in your interest to ensure that all the information requested is provided in your tender submission and that your submission reaches us by the closing date.
A strict procedure for the control of information and the management of its tender processes is in place. All tender submissions received prior to the tender return deadline will be placed by our Reception Staff within a double locked tender box. The Director of Finance and Commercial Manager of NLB each have one key to this box and they or their representatives must both be present to enable opening. This box is only opened after the tender return deadline and the tenders for each project are removed for opening and the box locked. Therefore it is essential that the outer envelope of your tender bears the tender label provided.