Legal services. Accounting and auditing services. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) takes insolvency proceedings against limited companies, individuals and other entities which have failed to make payment and where other avenues of recovery have been exhausted and insolvency is deemed appropriate. A large majority of proceedings in Scotland are initiated by HMRC's Edinburgh Enforcement and Insolvency (EISE) office. The scope of this requirement is limited to proceedings initiated by EISE. Proceedings at the instance of other arms of HMRC (e.g. Special Investigations) are out with the scope of this requirement.
In Scotland, when a creditor petitions the court to wind up a limited company, legislation requires the creditor to nominate an insolvency practitioner (IP) to act as liquidator. HMRC's basic requirement is to establish a framework of organisations with named IPs who can be nominated to accept appointments as interim liquidators. In addition IPs may be required to accept nominations to act as interim trustees, provisional liquidators and other appointments. IPs may also be asked to carry out preliminary investigative work from time to time.
This procurement exercise will allow the Authority to establish a number of location based panels of IPs with formal arrangements in place (primarily around fees and outlays) between operators on the Framework and HMRC (EISE).
The Framework will establish 6 panels of service providers with their individually named IPs, with each panel having responsibility for a Sheriffdom of Scotland. Each panel will consist of 5 or 6 organisations with named individual IPs, with a reserve list to cover contingencies. Accordingly, the procurement exercise will be divided into lots.
Estimated Value — Given the nature of this requirement, HMRC can offer no guarantee of future volumes or values of assignments to be placed through the Framework once established. It is expected that IPs will recover fess and outlays where there are sufficient assets. The value range shown in this notice is an estimate of how much HMRC anticipates it will need to cover (pay) in cases where there are insufficient/no assets to cover the IPs costs/fees. The figure is for the whole of Scotland (only), includes the possible extension i.e. total is for 2 years and makes assumptions that historic volumes remain the same. Further data with regards to historical volumes is available within the tender documentation, covering total appointments irrespective of asset position e.g. both sufficient and insufficient asset cases are covered in the volumes, as a guide for potential providers.
To register an interest for this opportunity and receive access to HMRC's online procurement tool (Emptoris) containing tender documents, further information and the submission/application process please send an email to e.procurement@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk any time up to, but no later than 12:00 (Midday) 19.10.2015. This email should contain:
(a) the contract reference ‘15-SCR-Insolvency Practitioners (Scotland)-623’;
(b) a contact email address;
(c) a contact name; and
(d) the company name and contact telephone number.
Economic operators who have complied with the foregoing will receive details of how to access the online Tender documentation. (If an email response from HMRC is not received within 1 working day of your request, re-contact e.procurement@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk (after first checking your spam in-box) notifying non-receipt and confirming when the request was first made).
Tender documentation will also be available for viewing on-line at https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder