Request for Information for Payment Services - Merchant Acquiring & Payment Gateway Services

Tender description

The Procurement Reform Programme is one of the key elements of the Government’s Public Sector Reform Programme. The State spends around €12 billion on works, goods and services each year. This represents a very significant portion of overall spending and it is, therefore, essential that the public service achieve maximum value for money and operational efficiency in its approach to public procurement, delivering sustainable savings for the taxpayer. This has led to the establishment of the Office of Government Procurement (OGP). The OGP was officially launched in July 2013 and operates as an office of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER), with its own Vote. It commenced operations in 2014 and will, together with four key sectors (Health, Education, and Local Government & Defence) take responsibility for sourcing all goods and services on behalf of the public service. The OGP intends to run a competitive procurement process for the provision of Merchant Acquiring and Payment Gateway Services in 2020. The current Frameworks for these services are due to expire on 30th June 2020. As part of this process, the OGP wishes to take soundings from the market as to its capacity to provide Payment Services such as Merchant Acquiring and Payment Gateway Services to the Irish Public Sector. The OGP would also welcome proposals to provide alternative payment methods to facilitate payments to persons who do not have a bank account. Ideally these methods would include an ability to make emergency payments. Such emergency or force majeure payments should be capable of being processed and paid within one day to an unbanked payee. The OGP is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) and invites responses from economic operators for the purpose of market research. This is a market sounding exercise to obtain market information on the provision of Merchant Acquiring and Payment Gateway Services to the Irish Public Sector. It is not a call for competition.