The invitation follows formal approval by HM Treasury.
Bidders Carillion Enterprise Ltd, Interserve (Defence) Ltd, Babcock Support Services Ltd and TurnerHenry will now submit their final tenders for the contract, which will be used to deliver repair and maintenance services, with the capability to inject minor capital projects up to £3.93 million in value.
The final tenders for the Scotland and Northern Ireland estates contract will include detailed plans for the development of commercial supply chains and subcontracting arrangements, and the bidders’ intended approach to a number of activities including land management services that are currently delivered in-house.
The tenders will then undergo a detailed evaluation process and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) expects the contract to be in-service by mid-2014.
Since April 2012, DIO’s Next Generation Estate Contracts team has engaged the 4 bidding organisations in ‘competitive dialogue’, exploring their planned approach to delivering key services.
These services include estate asset maintenance, asset information systems, energy management, help-desk provision and technical and professional support, and an option to include the provision of land management services such as asset disposals, acquisitions, leasing and rent collection.
John Brennan, the Regional Prime Scotland and Northern Ireland project manager, said:
It is vital that defence bases in Northern Ireland and Scotland receive excellent facilities management services that will also be affordable through the life of the contract. I am delighted that with Treasury approval we can now advance to the final stage of this procurement process.
A similar process will be run in due course for the other NGEC prime contracts and capital works frameworks. An update on the final tenders for the housing prime contract is expected to be published in the near future.