Stormy Times For Meteorological Procurement

Procurement / By /

Stormy Times For Meteorological Procurement

May 31, 2022
Procurement

The UK government faces trial in the High Court over its award of an £854 million contract for a new Meteorological Office IT system, according to the Financial Times.

The court case has arisen from accusations by ATOS, the French multinational information technology service and consulting company who are suing the Meteorological Office and Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) as they claim their unsuccessful tender was due to breaches of the Governments obligations under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. ATOS lost out on the tender to Microsoft.

Court documents show that the new system is expected to be in the top 25 supercomputers in the world, with the objective of more accurately predicting storms and predicting changes to the global climate. The new supercomputer will also provide detailed information for the energy sector to help it take action against potential blackouts and power surges.

ATOS and Microsoft were the only two companies to submit a final tender, however, the ATOS tender response was considered to be non-compliant, being scored at 0/5 in each of three categories on the basis that the proposed development supercomputer system was not architecturally equivalent to the main supercomputer system.

However, ATOS challenges these scores, claiming there were errors in the evaluation of its tender response and in the conclusion that the proposed development supercomputer was not architecturally equivalent to the main supercomputer. ATOS further claims that the requirement of architectural equivalence was contrary to the obligation under the regulations for the procurement to be conducted with transparency and consistency. The company alleges the decision to award was made on the basis of undisclosed requirements or the requirement of architectural equivalence was interpreted in a way that would not be transparent to the reasonably well-informed and normally diligent tenderer.

The BEIS denies liability, saying that the requirement of architectural equivalence was interpreted correctly and that the ATOS tender was scored correctly and the proposed development supercomputer did lack the required architectural equivalence to the main supercomputer. Therefore the conclusion that the tender was non-compliant did not involve either error or any other breach of regulations.

Get in touch with us to talk about our government procurement data and our data API.

As you read this article, you may like Public Procurement Has A Big Problem

May 30, 2023

Space To Innovate- New UK Gov Opportunity

The UK Government's, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) Space Systems Programme has announced it is seeking proposals to aid UK Defence...
Read more...
May 25, 2023

EU Commission Move To Electronic Procurement

The European Commissions Directorate Generate for Informatics (DIGIT), has launched a new dynamic purchasing system for software licences and associated services (SIDE...
Read more...
May 22, 2023

Biosecure Procurement Trial

The UK Government yesterday announced new measures for domestic tree seed production and biosecurity procurement requirements. The next round of the Domestic...
Read more...
May 18, 2023

New Industry Body White Paper Review of Covid Procurement

Since early on in the pandemic, there has been significant focus on the procurement of Covid related PPE, due to unprecedented nature...
Read more...
May 11, 2023

EU Council Joint Procurement Under European Peace Facility

The European Union Council has adopted an assistance measure worth €1 billion under the European Peace Facility (EPF) that will further contribute...
Read more...
May 10, 2023

Measuring Sustainable Public Procurement

One of the projects we are most proud of is working with The Open Contracting Partnership to create a Sustainable Public Procurement...
Read more...
May 3, 2023

From Hero to Zero – UK Digital Marketplace Shuttered

Within living memory, the UK’s Crown Commercial Service (CCS) had planned to reshape a large swathe of public procurement in the image...
Read more...
May 2, 2023

We Sell Data, Not Seats.

Why we sell data not seats? We're data analysts. We really understand the data we gather. We've been doing it for 15...
Read more...
May 2, 2023

New Tech Disrupts Traditional Government Procurement

A Silicon Valley startup, GLASS, has created a revolutionary new tech, Glass Commerce, an e-commerce marketplace enabling compliant transactions between government buyers...
Read more...
April 25, 2023

Green Public Procurement: New Report

At Spend Network, we are always on the look out for governments, think tanks, research bodies, and other organisations who are working...
Read more...
April 25, 2023

EU Agrees on Anti-Coercion Instrument

The European Commission and European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade have agreed on an anti-coercion instrument (ACI) which will enable public procurement...
Read more...
April 13, 2023

£256 Million Contract for Cyprus Awarded by UK Government

The UK Ministry of Defence  has awarded a £256 million contract, for work, repairs, servicing, and facilities management for the UK defence...
Read more...
April 5, 2023

Endorsements For Export Agencies

Endorsements are a win-win for export agencies. Exporters face new challenges, both in terms of increased barriers to trade following the pandemic,...
Read more...
April 4, 2023

Looking For Reasons To Export to Government?

If you are looking to grow exports, you should start with the largest and most transparent industry in the world, and here...
Read more...
April 5, 2023

Lockheed Martin Selected As Preferred Bidder.

US defence giant Lockheed Martin has won a contract to deliver Australia’s first sovereign-controlled military satellite communication constellation. Lockheed Martin was recently announced...
Read more...

Newsletter

Compelling research, insights and data directly into your inbox.

Recent media stories

Search

Recent articles