Financial and insurance services

Tender description

The North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO) is inviting responses from suppliers for the provision of Prepaid Card Accounts allowing Contracting Authorities an alternative method to manage their cash disbursements and budget monitoring. Prepaid Card Accounts will operate similar to a standard UK Bank Account, including the option to withdraw cash from an ATM, make regular payments, pay vendors and receive regular statements. Prepaid Card Accounts do not have an accessible overdraft facility. Prepaid Cards operate much in the same way as standard Debit Card whereby funds will be preloaded by Contracting Authorities and used by the Cardholder until the balance is exhausted. It is anticipated that Contracting Authorities will primarily use Prepaid Card Accounts for Social/Health Care related Direct Payments and for the management of Corporate Expenses. This is not exhaustive and Contracting Authorities may require the Prepaid Card Accounts for additional related services. The opportunity can be accessed via the NEPO eTender system. Suppliers wishing to be considered for this contract must register their expression of interest and submit a tender through the NEPO eTender system. If not already registered, candidates should register on the NEPO eTender system at https://procontract.due-north.com/register?openform. Any queries regarding the procurement process or tender documents must be raised no less than 7 days before the tender return date, through the Q&A section on the NEPO eTender system. For any support in submitting your expression of interest or tender response, please contact the NEPO Portal helpdesk at +44 1912613940 or portal@nepo.org. There are a number of help guides available on the portal. Reading these will assist the supplier in completing and submitting their responses. In order to be appointed to this Framework Contract, following evaluation suppliers must be ranked 1–4. Successful suppliers will enter into a Framework Agreement in a form which is set out in the procurement documents. The Council does not give any guarantee and/or warrant the actual value of the goods/services (if any) which will be placed with the successful suppliers by any client using the Framework Contract pursuant to this process and accepts no liability thereof. The basis for award of specific streams of work(s) is via direct award to the first ranked Contractor on the Framework Contract where the the full requirements of the Contracting Authority are met. Where it is not possible to determine the award via the direct award route above, then the Contracting Authorities shall undertake a mini competition involving all Contractors who are successful and ranked 1-4 on the Framework Contract following initial tender stage and are capable of performing the Call-Off Contract. The criteria for award of the mini-competition shall be as follows: Quality — 0 %-100 % (to be set by Contracting Authority at mini-competition stage); Price — 0 %-100 % (to be set by Contracting Authority at mini-competition stage). A primary cost avoidance benefit of Prepaid Card Accounts has been identified as the enablement for reallocation of resources previously focused on traditional methods of cash disbursements and budget monitoring within a Contracting Authority. It was therefore decided, after consultation with key stakeholders, a single lot strategy would deliver the optimum service for Contracting Authorities whereas dividing the Framework Contract into lots could potentially hinder the benefits available.