Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition in the Official Journal of the European Union in the cases listed below
- Extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable for the contracting authority and in accordance with the strict conditions stated in the directive
Explanation
In accordance with the provisions of 2 (C) of Article 32 of Directive 2014/24/EU, the Authority intends to award the contract without prior publication in the OJEU due to extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority.
The current service in place to support vulnerable children affected by exploitation in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent is delivered by Catch22 Charity Ltd under a contract co-commissioned with Local Authorities in Staffordshire, with one Authority acting as lead commissioner.
Additional funding to the sum of £282,000 was available to the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire to enhance support for vulnerable children, through a targeted schools programme and holistic family support which would last for a period of 12 months.
Accordingly, it was agreed with the lead commissioner that this additional service would be catered for through a variation to the existing co-commissioned contract held between the lead commissioner and Catch22 Charity Ltd, as permitted under Regulation 72 of the 2015 Public Contract Regulations.
Very shortly before the new service was due to go live, unfortunately, the lead commissioner was not able to progress the variation with the existing co-commissioned contract. As such, this created a matter of extreme urgency where the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire was unable to publish a call for competition due to the short timescales necessary for implementation. To note that notwithstanding this, the relevant CPV code for this contract would fall under the Light Touch Regime and thus below the threshold value. The Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire, after the necessary ten calendar day standstill period which will commence from the date of dispatch of this notice, intends to enter into contract (for a period of 12 months) without prior publication of a call for competition.
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement
: yes