Arts Council chose the most expensive tender for still undelivered IT project 

Former arts minister Catherine Martin and Director of the Arts Council director Maureen Kennelly with performer Sophia Bikova. When seeking expressions of interest, the Arts Council said it receives over 3,000 applications each year and the new high-quality system would need to be able to process these applications while ensuring the security of the sensitive data provided. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

The Arts Council opted for the most expensive tender when awarding the contract for its failed €6.7m IT system.

There were a total of eight tenders received for the contract, with the lowest offer coming in at €678,125 while Codec's offer was €942,663.

Codec was awarded the largest contract and was paid a total of €1,967,278, including VAT, for its role as the “technology delivery partner”.

The tech company was responsible for “system design and build” of the IT system.

According to the contract award notice, the decision to award the tender was focused largely on choosing what it perceived to be the best quality.

The quality-to-price weighting is listed as being 80/20 in favour of quality, which sources in procurement said that, while not unheard of, is not common. The norm is 70/30 or 60/40.

Under 2016 Regulations, contracts should be awarded on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender. 

The contracting authority, in this case the Arts Council, decides the relative weightings in relation to price and quality.

When seeking expressions of interest, the Arts Council said that it receives over 3,000 applications each year and the new high-quality system would need to be able to process these applications while ensuring the security of the sensitive data provided, including bank details and PPS numbers.

In order to be invited to submit formal tenders, applicants had to provide three similar projects that had been successfully delivered with details on contract values and start/end dates.

In the contract notice, the initial estimated value of the contract was €2.8m ex-VAT and was expected to take two years.

Early documents state that the Arts Council was seeking new business systems which would have a ten-year lifespan "from 2021 to 2030".

Halfway through the intended lifespan of the systems, and five years since the contract was awarded to Codec, the total cost hit €6.7m, with no system delivered.