DARD — Provision of ICT Expertise in the Delivery of Key ICT Projects.

Descriptions

This Notice is a Modification to a Contract in accordance with Article of Directive 2014/24/EU Art 72.Previous notice — 2012/S 25-040167 Ref: 2012-010241.Previous award Notice — 2012/S — 25-040167 Ref: 2012-010241.The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD)appointed an ICT service provider for the provision of on site project supporting services to assist the existing internal resource in achieving project deliverables to enable DARD to meet its strategic goals. The successful tenderer provided on-site core personnel with expertise in a number of roles which are currently either unavailable within the NICS or where the existing expertise is under pressure. The successful tenderer has worked with the Department in scoping and delivering a number of project work modules.The pressures on IT resource have recently increased in line with a growing industry pressure (estimated 1 000 ICT vacancies) and the increased use of online/digital services. Legislatively DARD are bound to ensure their systems are compliant with Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as directed by the EU. This is inescapable if DARD are to retain their status as a paying agency for EU funds. At first only initial requirements were released by the EU. These were extensive and it was obvious that development work and changes to the ICT infrastructure had to start immediately to have any chance of successful delivery within tight timescales. The scale of development and other ICT work required was large. More developers and other expert ICT posts had to be filled to ensure steady progress of this critical project, and to ensure limited negative effects on the support and development of existing ICT systems and business as usual processes. Hence the contract value for this contract has been modified to meet these new requirements.