Schools Building Programme
27 August 2010: On 5 August 2010 it was announced that the Department of Education had been awarded an additional £23million for the schools building programme for the rest of the current financial year. Some £13million of this additional money has been allocated to build 13 new schools and a further £10million has been allocated to address the urgent maintenance backlog.
At one stage, the Department of Education was considering whether to use random selection as part of the procurement process for the new schools. This would ensure that the additional money would be committed during the rest of the financial year, otherwise there was a risk that the funding would be lost and the schools would not be built.
The Federation expressed concern that random selection would be used on projects which would range in value from £1million to £3million. It had previously been agreed with the Central Procurement Directorate that random selection should be piloted to see if this can get work to the market place more quickly. It was not intended however that it was to be used on large projects unless there was a strong possibility that the funding would be lost and work would not get to the market.
The Department of Education has subsequently confirmed that the new schools will not be procured using Random Selection. The standard procurement process with full assessment of PQQ’s will be used. The Department is confident that procurement of these projects will be safeguarded and that the work will be coming to the market place as soon as possible.
The current status of the 13 schools announced by the Minister is as follows:
Carrick PS – PQQ advert expected to issue 1/9/2010
Corranny/Cornagague PS - PQQ advertised 26/8/2010
Dromintee PS – PQQ Advertised 27/8/2010
Scoil na Fuiseoige – PQQ advert expected to issue 7/9/2010
St Columba’s PS Straw - PQQ Advertised 27/8/2010
St Oliver Plunkett’s PS – PQQ expected to issue 25/10/2010
St Colman’s PS Lambeg – PQQ process already run through CPD. PM instructed to conclude process and proceed to ITT asap – expect to run ITT 20/9/2010
St Joseph’s Madden - PQQ process already run through CPD. PM instructed to conclude process and proceed to ITT asap – expect to run ITT 8/9/2010
Magherafelt PS & NU – PQQ advert expected to issue 6/09/2010
St Mary’s PS Newcastle - PQQ advert expected to issue 1/09/2010
Bangor GS - PQQ process already run through CPD. PM instructed to conclude process and proceed to ITT asap – expect to run ITT 21/9/2010
Strathearn GS - PQQ process already run through CPD. PM instructed to conclude process and proceed to ITT asap – expect to run ITT 8/10/2010
Taughmonagh PS – via Belfast Strategic Partnering – expect to be on site 15/11/2010
These dates are subject to there being no unforeseen slippage in the estimated programme.