The awarding of a contract to run a flagship Welsh Government business support programme has been abandoned after a legal challenge over its procurement was lodged by a losing bidder, it can be revealed.
Under its Business Wales business support brand the Welsh Government had put out to tender a new contract to run its Accelerated Growth Programme (AGP), which provides support to start-ups and SMEs in Wales to help realise their high-growth potential.
Following a procurement exercise the Welsh Government had identified a winning bidder. However, a legal objection came during the cooling off period before contractual sign off. The challenge raised concerns over the transparency of certain criteria in the assessment of bids.
The AGP contract was advertised to run for two years, with an expected option to be extended for a further three. The Welsh Government said it had a value of £3.5m annually. It is understood the Cardiff Bay administration had decided to award it, starting in June, to a consortium led by Impact Innovation. The company was contacted, but declined to comment. Set up by David Notley, Impact Innovation is running the existing AGP contract in partnership with Manchester-based consultancy Winning Pitch - which is owned by London-based Newable.
It is understood that the two firms didn’t bid together on the new contract, but were rival bidders. Winning Pitch also declined to comment. A notice of abandonment of the procurement for the AGP contract, which formed lot 3 in a package of business support tenders from Business Wales, has been sent to bidders by the Welsh Government.
On the rationale for the decision it said: “A bidder challenged the proposed contract award for lot 3 and alleged that certain evaluation criteria were unclear thereby constituting (amongst other matters) a breach of the obligation of transparency. Although the merits of the challenge were questionable, Welsh ministers considered that, given the fact and substance of the challenge and the cost, delay and diversion of resources that would be caused by litigation, the procurement of lot 3 should be abandoned.”
The Welsh Government said for reasons of commercial confidentiality it couldn’t disclose who it had intended to award the contract to, and if a consortium the names of all companies within it. It said the same applied to the company or consortium that lodged the legal challenge.
To ensure continuity of support to firms, it is considering an extension of the soon to expire AGP contract with Impact Innovation and Winning Pitch.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “Welsh ministers are further re-considering their requirements for lot 3 and a new procurement for these services (in whole or in part) will be issued in due course. An extension to the current Accelerated Growth Programme contract is being considered.”
The Welsh Government believes it is not liable for any costs incurred by bidders that participated in the procurement process.
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