Grant Framework Agreement.

Descriptions

Post Office wishes to support NFSP (the National Federation of Subpostmasters) in achieving the following aims: (i) build on its existing membership base of Subpostmasters to develop a function that reflects and supports the wider range of Post Office Operators that will exist post the Network Transformation programme, (ii) develop its role to take account of the changes and challenges in the network of Post Office branches and (iii) introduce skills into its organisation. Accordingly Post Office intends to provide certain grant funding to the NFSP for a 15 year grant term; the funding will consist of (i) an annual grant and (ii) project specific grant funding. All grant monies provided to the NFSP will be held on trust for Post Office unless and until used by the NFSP in accordance with the grant terms.This notice has been issued voluntarily. Post Office believes that the agreement falls outside the scope of Directives 2004/18/EC and 2014/24/EU because (these grounds are provided in the alternative):The agreement is a grant agreement and not a ‘public contract’, because: (a) the agreement places no binding obligation on NFSP to provide any goods, works or services; (b) The NFSP is responsible for applying the grant monies (subject to agreeing an annual plan and project specific plans with the Post Office);The contract is not a ‘public services contract’ — any services to be provided by NFSP are merely incidental to the main object of the agreement, namely a grant arrangement; and— In the event that any services had not been merely incidental to the main object of the agreement, the services would nevertheless have been classified, for the purposes of public procurement law, as Part B non-priority services in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (as amended) and therefore not subject to advertisement in the OJEU in any event.