Strictly Confidential
Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Dublin, Ireland
Request for Tenders
For the preparation of a records management policy for the archive of the televised
business of the Dáil, Seanad and Committees in relation to the historical archive (19902005) and the future archive (2006-).
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1. Introduction
The Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) wishes to invite tenders for
the preparation of a records management policy for the archive of the televised business
of the Dáil, Seanad and Committees in relation to the historical archive (1990-2005) and
the future archive (2006-).
The tender document should be provided by email in RTF or PDF. In addition to the
electronic copy, four (4) copies of the tender in paper format must be supplied in sealed
envelopes marked “Tender for Broadcasting Archive Group project” and must be
received by the:
Clíona O Rourke
Principal
Broadcasting and Parliamentary Information,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Leinster House,
Kildare Street,
Dublin 2
not later than 12 noon on Friday 13 April 2007.
Tenders which are delivered late will not be considered. Tenders which are incomplete
will be rejected. Claims of delays occasioned through the use of agents will not be
entertained.
2. Background
When the Broadcasting service was first established in 1990, its archive requirement was
addressed by storing the original analogue recordings (Sony Betacam SP) manually on
shelves. Some of the more important House debates and Committee proceedings had
back-up copies but the majority of material is single copy. A simple computer database
was used to keep track of what content was on each cassette.
Although this
arrangement addressed the basic archive requirements, retrieval of content was labour
intensive, slow and often hampered by the need to wait for VTR machines to become
available to play the selected cassettes.
To help streamline this process and reduce the levels of manpower involved, a fully
automated robotic archive system was installed in September 2001.
The system
installed was a large Sony DTF Petasite with the ability to generate data recordings
simultaneously from both Houses and all 4 committee rooms in near real time. The
content was managed in a database which has more metadata fields available than the
old manual archive database.
The DTF Petasite is now full to capacity (the removal of tapes has commenced since
January 2007) and difficulties have arisen in relation to the supply of new hardware to
expand the machine and the effectiveness of the relevant software beyond December
2008.
In parallel to this in October 2006 the Joint Committee on Broadcasting and
Parliamentary Information agreed that the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas should
commence a webcasting pilot in October 2005, which was regularised in May 2006. The
Joint Committee also agreed that, subject to the agreement of a protocol, webcasting of
the Oireachtas Committee proceedings should also be webcast as soon as possible. The
Committee also agreed to the archiving by the webcasting operator (HEAnet) of the
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webcasts. This archiving is running in parallel with the archiving by the Oireachtas
Broadcasting Unit (OBU).
As the situation in relation to the archiving within the Petasite is now reaching a crucial
juncture a Broadcasting Archive group was established to examine ways in which
archiving of the broadcasted proceedings should be dealt with – an extract of the terms
of reference of the group is attached at appendix A.
3. Purpose and description of the Service Required
In view of the importance of maintaining the broadcasting archive to a high standard the
Broadcasting Archive Group recognises the need to have Records Management Policy.
The development of this policy forms the initial phase of this Group’s work and will help
to inform the next phase i.e. the decision regarding the software solution for storage of
the archives. It should be noted that this stage of the project must conclude by 18 May
2007.
In view of the fact that records management is a specialist area of expertise, and the
fact that the production of a policy is required within a short time frame, assistance of a
trained records manager in devising an appropriate records management policy is being
sought.
4.
The successful tenderer will:
1. Prepare a records management policy for the archive of the televised business of
the Dáil, Seanad and Committees in relation to the historical archive (1990-2005)
and the future archive (2006- ). This policy will, inter alia:
1.1
Examine strategies for the retention, indexing, search, retrieval and disposal
etc of our archive material, assist in clarifying our legal/statutory and
procedural/institutional obligations taking into consideration the reasons we
create and retain the archive.
1.2
Consider and outline options and recommendations in relation to:
a) the access requirements to the Archive. This may require discussions with
our main customers who are, in the main, Broadcasters and the media
generally, Members and various interest groups,
b) disaster planning,
c) the issues regarding the long term ‘playability’ and integrity of the
archive-supported formats, possible degradations etc .
d) the reconciliation of the archive requirements of webcasting, IPtv and the
broadcasting to ensure there is no unnecessary overlap.
e) ways in which the written record (debates) could be linked to the visual
record
2. Present the records management policy to the Broadcasting Archive Group. It should
be noted that the Houses of the Oireachtas will retain copyright in the records
management policy.
5.
Presentation/interview
Interested providers may be invited to make a presentation in order to demonstrate
their abilities to provide the type of services required. It is envisaged that the
presentation will involve making a presentation on their proposed approach to providing
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the service supported by sample evidence from relevant work completed. Interested
providers must be in a position to make such a presentation.
6. Pricing
All tenderers are required to submit a fixed price for the project in euro (excluding VAT).
Tenderers must clearly show the hourly rate applicable for the Records Manager and the
estimated number of hours required to complete the project and the hourly rate in
respect of each individual who will be involved in providing the required services.
Both parties may jointly agree to omit any part of the service, or provide additional
services, or vary temporarily or permanently any part of the service. Such modifications
will be valued where applicable according to the prices set out in the agreement.
6.1 Travel, accommodation and subsistence costs
Where rates do not include travel and other incidental expenses, interested providers
should indicate how they will be charged and the rates to apply. These rates should not
exceed the current public service travel and subsistence rates (available upon request).
Tenderers must confirm that their tenders are valid for a period of 120 days from the
final date for the receipt of tenders.
The successful tenderer shall be responsible for the delivery of all services provided for
within the contract on the basis of a fixed price agreement set at the beginning of the
contract. Prices quoted in the tender cannot be increased during the currency of the
tender. Similarly, terms and conditions cannot be altered.
7. Qualification
In order to qualify, Tenderers must include in their tender submission the
following information
1. An outline of the proposed approach/methodology and content of proposed
solution.
2. A statement of the tenderer’s previous experience of providing records
management solutions in public and private sector environments.
3. Details of two reference sites where services similar to those being sought have
been provided.
4. The names of the proposed records manager(s) and a statement of their
experience in the development of records management policies.
5. Details of a contingency plan in the event of the named records manager being
unavailable.
Failure to address any of these requirements will lead to disqualification.
8. Award criteria
The contract will be awarded from qualifying tenders on the basis of the most
economically advantageous tender, using the following criteria in descending order of
importance.
Tenderers should specifically address each of these award criteria in their tenders.
The Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas reserves the right to request any qualifying
tenderers to clarify any matters relating to their submission in so far as it relates to the
award criteria below.
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Criteria
Cost (exclusive of VAT)
Approach/methodology and proposed content of the policy
Skills, expertise and experience of key assigned personnel in providing
the type of service required in this RFT
Delivery time frame
Demonstrated understanding of the OHO requirements and objectives
Marks
Allocated
30
25
20
15
10
9. Tax Clearance Certificate
It will be a precondition for the award of a contract that the successful tenderer promptly
produce a tax clearance certificate from the Irish Revenue Commissioners, or, in the
case of a successful non-resident contractor or sub-contractor, a statement of taxclearance from the appropriate authority of the country concerned.
In addition, the Service Provider must retain records of tax reference numbers for any
sub-contractors, whose payments exceed €650 including VAT.
10. Payment
Payment for all products and services covered by the contract will be on foot of
appropriate invoices related to agreed deliverables. The Service Provider will issue an
invoice on delivery of supplies/services to the standards contained in this request for
tender. Invoicing arrangements will be subject to the terms of SI No. 388 of 2002. Under
the terms of the Statutory Instrument, the Office will undertake to make payment of
invoices arising out of this tender within 30 days of receipt of invoice.
11. Provision of information to the public
All information, to the extent it is, and is designated by tenderers as, confidential or
commercially sensitive will be treated as such, subject to the provisions of the Freedom
of Information Acts 1997 and 2003. The Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas requires
that all information provided by it, pursuant to this tender process, and all information
received by the successful tenderer as a result of the contract, will be treated in strictest
confidence.
12. Conditions of Tender
(a)
The Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas will not be liable in respect of any
costs incurred by tenderers in the preparation of tenders or any associated work effort.
(b)
The names, addresses, telephone and fax numbers of the tenderer and of any
third parties should be clearly shown.
(c)
Information supplied by the successful tenderer will be treated as contractually
binding. However, the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas reserves the right to seek
clarification or verification of information from any tenderer.
Detailed contractual
arrangements are not within the scope of this invitation to tender. However, the
following precondition should be noted: Tenderers must inform the Office of the Houses
of the Oireachtas (in their response to this invitation to tender) whether the project
being tendered for does or could potentially leave the tenderer (or sub- contractors in
the event of a group or consortium bid) open to a conflict of interest.
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13. Queries
In order to ensure that an equitable process is in place for all potential tenderers,
requests for additional information or for clarification on the content of this document
and all other queries of substance should be made in writing or by e-mail. Responses to
all queries received regarding this tender will be made available to all interested parties.
Appropriate queries should be submitted (except in exceptional cases) no later than 12
noon (local time) on Thursday 5th April 2007, and should be presented and addressed to,
Cliona O’Rourke: cliona.orourke@oireachtas.ie
Madelaine Dennison: madelaine.dennison@oireachtas.ie
The Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas accepts no responsibility for lost or
misdirected e-mails.
Further information about the Houses of the Oireachtas; please go to our website
www.oireachtas.ie.
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APPENDIX A
Broadcasting Archive Group
Purpose: The purpose of the group is to:1. Prepare a records/information management policy for the archive of the televised
business of the Dáil, Seanad and Committees in relation to the historical archive
(1990-2005) and the future archive (2006-)
2. Examine ways in which the Office can direct, capture, store, retain, index,
retrieve, dispose etc our archive material, taking into account our legal/statutory
and procedural/institutional obligations also considering the reasons we create
and retain the archive
3. Consider the access requirements to the Archive (discussions with our main
customers may be required here).
4. Examine the issues regarding the long term ‘playability’ and integrity of the
archive- supported formats, possible degradation etc and in that context provide
effective management of the broadcast material 1990-2005 in line with the
records/information management policy
5. Consider disaster planning - off site storage of copies etc
6. The reconciliation of the archive requirements of webcasting, IPtv and the
broadcasting to ensure there is no unnecessary overlap.
7. Consider who should be responsible for managing the archive
8. Consider ways in which the written record (debates) could be linked to the visual
record
9. Examine ways in which links could be established between the web and the
archive contained in the Petasite to allow remote access to the archive.
Related and Ancillary issue
10. the options for the replacement of the Petasite when the time comes (probably
no later than 2010 but might be sooner)
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