Here come the consultants.

clohamon

Over last Summer and Autumn, the Department issued tenders for four new consultants to help with the National Broadband Plan. Last week the Minister told the Dáil he would shortly announce who they are.

Subject|Close date| Estimated cost
Legal Advisory Services|19/09/2014|TBA
Economic and Stategic Advisory Services|23/10/2014|€1,000,000
Procurement Advisory Services|06/11/2014|TBA
Technical Advisory Services|02/12/2014|€1,000,000


The Department has already estimated the cost of previous NBP consultants, Prisa, at €784,175

This is a big job and needs to be done right, but sometimes you do wonder.

_Jumper_

Multiple those figures by 10 and they still wont do it right.

clohamon

_Jumper_ wrote: »

Multiple those figures by 10 and they still wont do it right.

Silicon Republic has got some names out of the Minister.

Yesterday was the deadline for submissions by interested parties on the mapping exercise. This will inform the planners at the Department of Communications and various advisors including Mason Hayes & Curran, PWC, KPMG and Analysys Mason about the size of the task ahead, the technologies at play and ultimately the decision-making process, the tendering process and the eventual winner (or winners) of the tender.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/40696-the-interview-alex-white

watty

Oh dear.

clohamon

The Oireachtas Select Sub-Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources met the Minister on 11th February to discuss the estimates for Public Services in 2015.

To deal with the national broadband plan provisions for 2015, the provision has increased from €1.3 million in 2014 to €4.1 million for 2015. To address Deputy Moynihan's question, the main reason for this increase of €2.8 million is to meet the payments required under the four new consultancies entered into in late 2014 and early 2015.

https://www.kildarestreet.com/committees/?id=2015-02-11a.927&s=National+broadband+plan+speaker%3A275#g951

clohamon

The “final” awards have been posted for these contracts.

Technical Services - Analysys Mason : €668,200 + Vat
Financial and Procurement Services - KPMG : €1,169,000 Incl Vat
Economic and Strategic Services - PWC : €820,000 incl Vat
Legal Advisory Services - Mason Hayes and Curran: Unknown

The results of their work can be see here
http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/communications/en-ie/Broadband/Pages/Strategy-Intervention---Expert-Reports.aspx


Overall its hard see that that’s the end of it. The procurement phase hasn’t begun yet and the environmental assessments have not been submitted yet. According to the Governance Report they "will necessitate the procurement of specialised environmental advisors to undertake the task on behalf of the Department."

Then there’s the question of regulation. ComReg has decided that a hands-off approach is the best until the roll-out is near complete. In the meantime the department itself will have to operate and police a parallel regulatory environment in the intervention area until 2020- 2022. Again it’s hard to see that being done without professional help.

clohamon

Back in March DCENR tendered for continuing professional assistance with...

....the procurement management, contract management (network and build) and contract governance (operation stage) of the NBP intervention

To the surprise of no one, the following were the winners;

KPMG
1 Stokes Place, St Stephen’s Green
Dublin

Analysys Mason
Suite 242, The Capel Building, Mary's Abbey
Dublin

and the amount... €2,184,000.