§ Mr. PendryTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish a table setting out for the period since 9 April(a) each tender issued by his Department for projects requiring the supply of (i) computer hardware and (ii) computer software, (b) a description of the services required, (c) the number of companies who were invited to tender, (d) the number of companies who submitted a bid without prior invitation by his Department, (e) which company was awarded the contract, (f) the value of each contract and (g) the length of period over which the contract will run.
§ Mr. Mates[holding answer 27 October 1992]: The business development science (BDS) of the Department of Finance and Personnel, acting as agent for the Northern Ireland Government Departments, purchased the bulk of the information technology equipment acquired by those Departments during the period in question. Details of these projects are given in table 1. In addition some Departments purchased equipment either directly or via the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency in Norwich. Details of these projects are given in table 2. A number of low value items have been excluded since they could be produced in the requested format only at disproportionate cost.
No companies were permitted to submit bids without prior invitation.
All hardware contracts awarded contained a 12 month on-site warranty provision and consequently no service contracts were entered into.
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Department Project Suppliers invited to tender Awarded to Contract period Cost £'000 Finance and Personnel Stormont Castle—Upgrade of Microvax 4 Digital Equipment Company 7 weeks 27 Provision of Notebook PC's for social Research interviews 11 Crown Computers 2 weeks 46 Valuation and Lands Office—Registry System 7 Digital Equipment Company 8 weeks 9 Health and Social Services Replacement Word Processing Equipment 9 Advec 2 weeks 63 Cabling—Royston House 3 ICL 4 weeks 10 Estate Services Directorate—Networking 3 ICL 10 weeks 21 Note: The contract period is defined at the time from the award of the contract to the date of acceptance of the equipment by the customer.
Table 2: Contracts awarded by Department of Finance and personnel on behalf of the Northern Ireland Government Departments Period 9 April 1992 to 23 October 1992 Department Project Suppliers invited to tender Awarded to Contract period Cost £'000 Economic Development Replacement equipment-Typing Service—DED HQ 5 Data General 3 weeks 38 Supply of Terminal Servers 10 ICS 2 weeks 30 Supply of SCO Unix Systems 9 Siemens Nixdorf 3 weeks 26 Call off contract for PC's and Terminals 24 ICL and Siemens Nixdorf 12 months 143 Environment Driver and Vehicle Testing Agency—Data Capture 7 ICL 2 weeks 12 Supply of Unix Development Machine to the Information Systems Unit 9 Data General 4 weeks 61 Works Design Project 7 AMT 6 weeks 41 Highway Modelling Project 6 AMT 4 weeks 49 Supply of Equipment to DOE Training Branch 8 Siemens Nixdorf 2 weeks 12 1 To date after 3 months.