Capita wins uncontested extension to mega millions Northern Ireland Education contract
- Reference: 1709037011
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/02/27/northern_ireland_education_capita_deal/
- Source link:
The award takes the total value of the IT agreement, which began in 2012, to £546 million ($692 million) or about a fifth of the Authority's annual budget.
In a contract modification [1]notice , the Education Authority argued the extension was necessary to "facilitate the continuation of the existing managed service arrangements, functionality changes to effectively meet schools' requirements and permit transition to a new contract." It will provide an additional year of Capita's services until March 31 2025.
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The add-on was awarded in a negotiated procedure without a prior call for competition because services "can be provided only by a particular economic operator" in order to protect "exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights."
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The Education Authority first awarded the deal to Capita in 2012, under a £350 million ($444 million) deal expected to last for five years. In 2017, it was extended by two years until 2019, then it was extended by three years until 2022, and then for another two years. The Education Authority argues that because the total value of extensions is less than half the original contract, it is allowed within procurement law.
Capita provides a range of computer services to the Education Authority and more than a thousand schools. The deal includes ongoing management, operation and maintenance services, as well as information technology consultancy services and the supply of computer hardware, software and associated products.
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"The systems and services provided via the current contract have been uniquely configured to reflect the varying requirements of the Education Authority," the notice said.
The extension of such a large contract to more than 12 years draws into question the Authority's ability to create competition among technology suppliers.
[6]Cutting kids off from the dark web – the solution can only ever be social
[7]Unit4 software's budget bungle leaves schools counting the cost
[8]When red flags are just office decoration: Edinburgh Uni's Oracle IT disaster
[9]NHS in Wales bets big on Microsoft with deal worth nearly half a billion
In a notice published on December 22, the Authority [10]awarded Fujitsu a £485 million ($615 million) project to provide services, including a school management system for nursery, primary, secondary, and other education settings. The Register revealed only the Japanese technology firm made a formal bid for the contract at the final stage of the competition.
[11]Northern Ireland Libraries (Fujitsu, £27 million / $33 million) and the [12]Finance Department (BT, £26 million / $33 million) are among the other public authorities in the province awarding contracts to the incumbent supplier or without competition. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/006005-2024?origin=SearchResults&p=1
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zd4VO8PRXf4mTLB9h6t7hwAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zd4VO8PRXf4mTLB9h6t7hwAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zd4VO8PRXf4mTLB9h6t7hwAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zd4VO8PRXf4mTLB9h6t7hwAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/dark_web_kids_limit_uk/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/unit4_surrey_county_council/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/edinburgh_university_oracle_report/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/nhs_in_wales_microsoft/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/19/fujitsu_pauses_uk_public_sector_contracts/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/11/fujitsu_public_procurement/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/06/bt_gets_26m_contract_extension/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Crapita
It's just laziness by government (and some outright corruption). Instead of having an education ministry managing hundreds of small contracts, they prefer to award one enormous one, preferably to whichever company has the most lords, barons, knights, CBEs, MBEs, party donors, personal mates etc. on the board.
Re: Crapita
Instead of having an education ministry managing hundreds of small contracts
Why do you think IR35 has been changed? Precisely so that small business cannot realistically participate in tenders and medium businesses couldn't subcontract parts of the work they don't have expertise in.
It's all has been set up so that the big consultancies could milk the tax payer.
Typo
You have a typo in the title and throughout the article.
It's C r apita.
contract extension worth £33 million ($41.8 million) without external competition
And useless CMA as usual either go after headline grabbing but in grand scheme of things irrelevant interventions, but sit on their hands when it comes to this. Why?
Impressive.
So they finished first in a race of one. Time for a healthy bonus, isn't it?
So, which MPs/Lords/family have shares in this company?
Capita is a very poor company to have shares in, their share price has plummeted and they haven't paid dividends since 2017.
Have you seen the ticker? It's pretty fine as long as you know in advance when contract is going to be awarded or not so you can buy or sell in time.
So, which MPs/Lords/family have shares in this company?
bold of you to think MPs or Lords even remember northern ireland exists
If the constant extensions without reprocurement are allowed because the extension cost (£546M - £350M = £196M) is thought to be less than half the cost of the original value (£350M), then somebody has failed their maths homework.Capita provides services to their normal standard then.
Crapita
Too big to fail? No, they fail all the time. But nobody else can even try to service contracts of this scale. So no matter how many times the likes of Capita, Serco and Atos fail, they're going to keep being awarded jobs they cannot do in exchange for vast sums from the public purse.