The High Court has refused Forum Connemara Limited’s judicial review challenge to Galway County Local Community Development Committee’s decision not to award it the contract to deliver the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) across County Galway.
Mr Justice Hedigan’s judgment, delivered on 10 August 2016, concerned only the committee’s 2 March 2015 contract award decision. A separate decision made on 30 September 2014 to use one provider for the whole county had already been struck out by the Court of Appeal on grounds of delay. The High Court said it could not revisit that earlier decision.
Forum Connemara argued that the committee’s letter explaining its unsuccessful tender was vague, that the process was disproportionate and unfair, and that the award was irrational. It said, among other things, that it had not been given a debriefing or an opportunity to address the concerns raised about its proposal. The committee maintained that the procurement process was fair and that the letter gave sufficient reasons for its decision.
The judge found that the contract was an Annex II B contract, so the specific reasons requirement relied on by Forum Connemara under the procurement regulations did not apply. However, he accepted that there was a general duty to give reasons. He concluded that the 2 March letter met that duty and went further: it described areas where Forum Connemara’s proposal was less detailed than the successful tender, including action delivery, staffing, stakeholder networks and self-evaluation, and supplied scores across 12 areas where the successful tenderer scored equally or better.
The judge said Forum Connemara’s letter of 16 March showed that it understood the reasons and was able to respond to them in detail. He rejected the argument that it should have been allowed to improve its tender after submission, saying that helping one bidder compete against another would be unfair. He also said the committee could not change the requirements of the national programme, and found no clear error in the 2 March decision.
The court also held that additional grounds and reliefs included in Forum Connemara’s reconstituted statement of grounds had not been authorised, so it had no jurisdiction to consider them. The question of whether the committee’s legal representatives had standing to defend the case was treated as already decided by implication in an earlier High Court judgment and was not appealed.
The reliefs sought were refused. The judgment did not reopen the earlier decision to make SICAP a single county-wide contract.