Provision of Data Protection Officer Services

AI-generated analysis of the documents. Check the official notice and any amendments for current submission details.

1. At a glance

2. Scope of Work

An Rialálaí Agraibhia - Agri-Food Regulator ran this procurement for “Provision of Data Protection Officer Services” as an operational contract requiring implementation and sustained service execution. The extracted pack showed qualification-stage material with references to later ITT technical depth; practical activity therefore centred on building, integrating, and operating the specified service stack with compliant reporting and handover obligations where stated. Constituent activities and named work elements in the supplied extracts:

• Title: Provision of Data Protection Officer Services
• ages that the maximum expenditure on the services to be covered under the proposed Services Contract may amount to some €120,000 excluding VAT over the contract duration including any possible extensions
• Minimum requirement to remain eligible in the competition: Tenderers should refer to instances within the last three to five years which demonstrate that they have successfully delivered services of a comparable nature
• An Rialálaí Agraibhia (Agri-Food Regulator) (hereinafter referred to as the “Contracting Authority”) is an independent statutory Office established under the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Act 2023.
• The Agri-Food Regulator is concerned with promoting fairness and transparency in the agri-food supply chain. It’s statutory remit and focus is on business-to-business relationships within the supply chain. In exercising this function, the Agri-Food Regulator shall have regard to the circumstances and needs of the agricultural and food sector, including, in particular farming, fishing and small food businesses.
• Overview and Objectives – As a public sector organisation, the Contracting Authority is required under Article 37 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to appoint a dedicated Data Protection Officer (DPO). The DPO is a critical role in an organisation’s governance structure and must carry out their tasks and duties in an independent manner. The Contracting Authority is seeking to outsource the services of DPO within the organisation.
• The Contracting Authority envisages that the maximum expenditure on the services to be covered under the proposed Services Contract may amount to some €120,000 excluding VAT over the contract duration including any possible extensions. This figure is an estimate only based on current and projected usage requirements.
• The Contracting Authority requires tenderers to nominate a dedicated contract manager who will act as the main point of contact for the duration of the contract. This person shall have the authority to deal with all matters in relation to the contract and be responsible for the satisfactory delivery of the services required. The duties of the contract manager will include the following:
• Proactively discuss with the Contracting Authority ways of improving efficiency regarding service delivery in general and providing suggestions for improvement and cost savings
• If, following the award of a contract, the successful tenderer cannot, for whatever reason, deliver the required services to the satisfaction of the Contracting Authority, the Contracting Authority reserves the right to award the contract to the next highest scoring tenderer emerging from the process at any time during the contract tender validity period. This shall be without prejudice to the right of the Contracting Authority to cancel this competitive process and/or initiate a new contract award procedure at its sole discretion.
• Where tenderers are established and operating outside of the jurisdiction of supply, compliance with equivalent legislation as applicable in the country of establishment / operation is required. Complete the Article 5K Declaration regarding the EU regulation 2022/576 on restrictive measures in the context of Russian Actions in the Ukraine.
• The Tender Response Document MUST be used for the submission of tender responses. Evaluation will only be made based on what is submitted in the Tender Response Document (in the format requested) and any supporting documentation will be treated as clarification documents only. Non-binding monetary references in the source were treated as context only and were not used as qualification thresholds.

3. Background & buyer context

The buyer context reflected a formal Irish public-procurement route, with pre-qualification used to control entry into the tender stage.

• (19) Policy on Personal Briefings 21
• It is the policy of the Contracting Authority to promote participation by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) on a fair and equal basis. SMEs are encouraged to explore the possibilities of forming relationships with other SMEs or with larger enterprises to meet the financial, economic or technical capacity requirements of the competition, if required. Tenderers may include individuals, partnerships, limited companies, groupings or any combination of the foregoing with or without legal personality. However, a grouping if successful will be required to establish legal personality to enter the contract.
• Overview and Objectives – As a public sector organisation, the Contracting Authority is required under Article 37 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to appoint a dedicated Data Protection Officer (DPO). The DPO is a critical role in an organisation’s governance structure and must carry out their tasks and duties in an independent manner. The Contracting Authority is seeking to outsource the services of DPO within the organisation.
• 6.19 Policy on Personal Debriefings

4. Eligibility & selection criteria

• Turnover requirement — — use these verbatim for insurance / turnover. If a category (insurance, turnover) has no entry here, treat it as 'not specified' for THIS tender.
• Insurance — — use these verbatim for insurance / turnover. If a category (insurance, turnover) has no entry here, treat it as 'not specified' for THIS tender.; wing insurances being in place: Confirmation of the following insurances being in place: Insurance Type Insurance Type Required Level Employer’s Liability Employer’s Liability €13 million Public Liability Public Liability €6.5 million Product Liability Product Liabil; 5 million Professional Indemnity Professional Indemnity €1.3 million for each and every claim Previous
• Certifications — not specified for this tender
• Past experience — not specified for this tender
• Personnel — not specified for this tender
• Geographic / facility constraints — not specified for this tender Additional binding lines surfaced in the deterministic extract:
• — use these verbatim for insurance / turnover. If a category (insurance, turnover) has no entry here, treat it as 'not specified' for THIS tender.
• wing insurances being in place: Confirmation of the following insurances being in place: Insurance Type Insurance Type Required Level Employer’s Liability Employer’s Liability €13 million Public Liability Public Liability €6.5 million Product Liability Product Liabil
• 5 million Professional Indemnity Professional Indemnity €1.3 million for each and every claim Previous

5. Award criteria & scoring

6. Submission requirements

• Method statement / response document (template/page limits) — not specified in extract.
• CVs (page count, named roles) — not specified in extract.
• Pricing schedule (format/template) — expected at ITT stage.
• Case studies (number/value range) — client references/comparable project evidence was referenced.
• Declarations (ESPD/Bona Fides/Tax/COI) — ESPD/declaration/statement-of-confirmation language was present.
• Mandatory site visit — not specified in extract.
• Submission portal and formatting — eTenders portal and PDF electronic copies were referenced. Submission-related source lines:
• 4.3 General Declarations and Financial Capacity Requirements……….…………….………...9
• (3) Appendix A Detailed Specification 25
• Please note that information relating to this Request for Tender, including clarifications and changes, will be published on the Irish Government Procurement Opportunities Portal www.etenders.gov.ie. Registration is free of charge and there is no charge for documents. Please note that the Contracting Authority accepts no responsibility for information relayed (or not relayed) via third parties. The Contracting Authority have provided a Tender Response Document as a separate document for tenderers to use in preparing their response to this tender.
• A detailed specification is available in Appendix A.
• The Contracting Authority is using the Open procedure for the award of this contact, therefore, while all interested parties may submit a tender, only those demonstrating that they have the required level of financial and technical capacity will have their tender considered.
• In order to demonstrate a tenderer’s qualifications, tenderers are required to provide the information set out below in the Tender Response Document (TRD) which is based on a self-declaration model. However, tenderers are required to provide the minimum information required.

7. Key dates & process

8. Contract terms that matter

Contract duration in the extract: 12 months. Payment cycle, SLA/KPI schedule, and penalty regime were not fully disclosed in the snippets unless listed below.

• VERIFIED PHRASES (deterministic regex extract from the documents — treat as authoritative for numerical claims)
• ages that the maximum expenditure on the services to be covered under the proposed Services Contract may amount to some €120,000 excluding VAT over the contract duration including any possible extensions
• n to extend the Term of the contract, for a period of up to 12 months with a maximum of three such extensions
• re parts of the contract may be performed that are in force 7 days prior to the deadline for receipt of te
• 1.2 Small and Medium Enterprise Participation 4
• 3.2 Compliance with the Terms and Conditions of the Contract………………………………….5
• The Agri-Food Regulator is concerned with promoting fairness and transparency in the agri-food supply chain. It’s statutory remit and focus is on business-to-business relationships within the supply chain. In exercising this function, the Agri-Food Regulator shall have regard to the circumstances and needs of the agricultural and food sector, including, in particular farming, fishing and small food businesses.
• 1.2 Small and Medium Enterprise participation

9. Risks, red flags & unusuals

• Qualification gate: the deterministic extract included a turnover threshold line (— use these verbatim for insurance / turnover. If a category (insurance, turnover) has no entry here, treat it as 'not specified' for THIS tender.), which can materially narrow bidder pool composition.
• The two-step process (PQQ then ITT) shifted effort to compliance evidence early, with competitive scoring detail potentially deferred.
• Technical and contractual granularity appeared ITT-dependent, increasing ambiguity at qualification stage for non-incumbent bidders.

10. SME fit assessment

This competition looked most accessible to firms with established public-sector tender capability, documented financial capacity, and direct operational experience in the relevant service category.

• Credible bidder profile — mid-sized to large specialist with formal QA/compliance process.
• Consortium / sub-contracting — allowed or addressed in the extracts (Appendix references and reliance provisions).
• Indicative bid-prep effort — 6 to 12 working days for evidence collation, form completion, and review cycles at PQQ level.
• Pwin signal — strongest for bidders with reusable qualification artefacts, comparable references, and low-friction mobilisation capability.

11. Where to dig deeper

• Source RFT/PQQ filenames: ARA_DPO_RFTApril24.docx, Appendix A Detailed Specification 25, Appendix A..
• eTenders CFT / notice reference: not specified in extract.
• Clarification contact / portal: eTenders message portal (email not surfaced in extract).
• Key attachments to prioritise: schedule of payments will be agreed with, schedule of payments will be agreed with the successful tenderer and invoices shall be s.