The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has prompted the withdrawal of the tender for a major government communications network framework.
Buying Solutions, the government procurement agency under the wing of HM Treasury, has issued a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) stating that the awarding procedure for the Ocean Programme has been withdrawn.
Part of the contract has already been retendered, and Buying Solutions said the contract, which had a guaranteed value of £500m and the potential for up to £2.5bn, may be the object of a republication but in a more limited form.
Ocean was intended to provide a replacement for the Foreign Telecommunications Network (FTN), the Government Secure Intranet (GSi) and the Managed Telecommunications Service (MTS). The procurement was being handled by Buying Solutions with the FCO due to provide the initial outlet when the FTN expires in May 2010.
The withdrawal notice says the FCO has decided that the timescale was too demanding and that it needs to carry out a separate procurement to replace the FTN. Buying Solutions has apparently left its options open for replacing the other two networks.
It goes on to state: "As a result of this change, which impacts both geographical and functional scope, we have concluded that the existing OJEU notice does not adequately reflect the revised position, and have reluctantly taken the decision that it should be formally withdrawn.
"We will continue to develop and issue a more suitable OJEU which will enable procurement of replacement services to MTS and GSi in line with the Public Sector Network (PSN)."
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Meanwhile, the FCO has issued a new tender for a framework agreement to replace the FTN, restating the value of £500m it was expected to provide for Ocean. The tender notice says the agreement would be available for use by other public-sector bodies, especially those with premises and staff overseas.
This is also expected to be compliant with the PSN, which will provide an architecture to bring together different networks used by the public sector. Ocean was intended to deliver the suppliers to help public bodies establish their connections.
The FCO intends the original call-off for its new tender will be for seven years with an option to extend for a further three. It says the services, which will cover applications, networks and lifecycle, will have to provide for a transition to next-generation networks based on internet protocol.
