Monday 27 October 2014
Media enquiry from Juliet Pouteaux, Guernsey Press:
Island Coachways has raised concerns that it was not given enough information to continue in the tender process for the new bus contract and CT Plus had an unfair advantage over the local company, because it was the incumbent operator.
Can I have a statement from the department about what it thinks of these comments and whether there is any way the tender process could be improved to stop this happening again?
Could I also have a general update about how the tender process if going, whether there were still multiple companies in the process and whether the department was still on track to announce the new operator before Christmas?
The story is planned to run tomorrow, so can you please get back to me by 3.30pm.
Environment Department Response:
It remains the intention of the Environment Department to sign a contract before the year end. Until the contract is signed, the Department envisages maintaining the tender as a competitive tender and hence it is unlikely to make any detailed announcements prior to that point. Accordingly, it would not be appropriate for the Department to comment on the decision by Island Coachways to withdraw from the tender process at this stage.
Following multiple Expressions of Interest the Department has had formal structured and recorded dialogue with all those companies invited to tender to ensure clarity of their understanding of the requirement. The Department is currently in the process of conducting a first stage evaluation of those bids subsequently submitted. The tender remains a fully competitive tender and the Department can confirm that only one of the prospective tenderers did not proceed to bid submission.
ENDS
