government sites

ocallagh

What is the standard procedure for securing a government contract?

I assume all contracts were put out to tender?

fanore.com ( http://www.fanore.com/Sites_with_a_Legal_Connection-objectid-1061-recordid-58-z-summary.htm ) got three big contracts, namely the Planning Tribunal, Morris Tribunal and the Moriarty Tribunal.

The design of these sites is absolutely shocking. I'd be amazed if a 6 figure sum wasn't handed over seeming as the barristers from just one of these tribunals netted over 7m each.

So what's the deal with this? Why did one small company from Co. Clare get these big contracts? And how much did it cost the public? Id have thrown one of these sites (with CMS) together in a few days at most.

ocallagh

three sites are

http://www.planningtribunal.ie/
http://www.moriarty-tribunal.ie/
http://www.morristribunal.ie/

BrianD

They are pretty basic sites by todays standards and I must say, not easy on the eye either.

Tenders.ie do publish the value of some contracts. Might be worth having a look there.

Seth Brundle

http://www.planningtribunal.ie/ > Website design & Development by Fanore Software > 404
:rolleyes:

ocallagh

I had a look on http://www.etenders.gov.ie/ but found nothing.

tricky D

Well, it's a bit of a mystery innit? One version says a tendering firm must have 3 years of accounts, yet like yourself I've seen .gov work being given to new companies with zero track record. The output from these is crap and done at prices with mysterious zeros added. A perfect example of this http://electronicvoting.ie. No wait that's actually http://www.electronicvoting.ie which cost €40k:eek:

One company I worked with did a fair bit of quango work and none of it went to tender. It true Irish fashion there was a connection.

BrianD

tricky D wrote: »

One company I worked with did a fair bit of quango work and none of it went to tender. It true Irish fashion there was a connection.

Do quangos have to go through the same procedures as government bodies? It makes sense that they would go out to tender as best practice but are they obliged to?

Abelloid

ocallagh wrote: »

three sites are

http://www.planningtribunal.ie/
http://www.moriarty-tribunal.ie/
http://www.morristribunal.ie/

Jebus!

Don't view page source!

whadafook

I'm not invloved in website design but do do a lot of work in the ICT sector with government

The majority of RFTs are published on etenders. However depending on the € value of the contract the department may only be required to request 3 quotes without going to public tender. Given that tribunals fall under the jurisdiction of the courts the design of these sites may be linked in some way to the original award of www.courts.ie

tricky D

BrianD wrote: »

Do quangos have to go through the same procedures as government bodies? It makes sense that they would go out to tender as best practice but are they obliged to?

Dunno/don't remember.

I'm sure it's all on this site: http://www.etenders.gov.ie probably in Guides/Legislation > Policy/Legislation

Let us know if/when you find the right docs and decipher them.

whadafook

tricky D wrote: »

Dunno/don't remember.

I'm sure it's all on this site: http://www.etenders.gov.ie probably in Guides/Legislation > Policy/Legislation

Let us know if/when you find the right docs and decipher them.

They do as they fall under the authority of a department of state body

ocallagh

tricky D wrote: »

Well, it's a bit of a mystery innit? One version says a tendering firm must have 3 years of accounts, yet like yourself I've seen .gov work being given to new companies with zero track record. The output from these is crap and done at prices with mysterious zeros added. A perfect example of this http://electronicvoting.ie. No wait that's actually http://www.electronicvoting.ie which cost €40k:eek:

One company I worked with did a fair bit of quango work and none of it went to tender. It true Irish fashion there was a connection.

Jesus, that is a joke. 40k for that?

I'm sick of hearing about random web companies/individuals landing monster contracts with zero track record. It's our $$ they are using to pay these cowboys.

JustinOval wrote: »

Don't view page source!

It's too late..!! I haven't seen a 1 pixel wide table cell used in a while! While excusable back in the late 90's, these sites were created/updated in 2005/2006 (The way back machine shows older html versions from 2005 back) so there is no excuse for that mess.

Abelloid

€40k?

http://www.electronicvoting.ie/english/roadshow.html

:eek:

ocallagh

lol @ all the pics of people pressing stuff.

http://www.electronicvoting.ie/english/faqs.html
http://www.electronicvoting.ie/english/contact.html

Liam Byrne

ocallagh wrote: »

lol @ all the pics of people pressing stuff.

http://www.electronicvoting.ie/english/faqs.html
http://www.electronicvoting.ie/english/contact.html

Given the standards of the sites, I'd say depressing stuff!

Liam Byrne

ocallagh wrote: »

three sites are

http://www.planningtribunal.ie/
http://www.moriarty-tribunal.ie/
http://www.morristribunal.ie/

All 3 are by Fanore Software, and a quick look at their own site (if you could even call it that) would make you puke!

Who the HELL is involved in awarding these contracts ?

Dave_Kilkenny

All government contacts have to be put up for tender - and it is open to all company's within the EU to put in there bid for the job.

Seth Brundle

Being someone who works for a software development company and have tried applying for state contracts, we have learnt not to bother applying for most of them because we know that whilst they are advertised, they are usually already decided.

On a similar vein, we also do IT training. Several years ago (~10) we tried getting the FÁS contract. We were told that we would get it if we looked after the official who was dealing with us.
We didn't get it needless to say.

Abelloid

I can't get over how bad these sites are, they really do look like first attempt jobs.

Seth Brundle

Anyone remember the former garda site?
http://web.archive.org/web/20080822024052/http://www.garda.ie/
Classy!

skelliser

www.merrionstreet.ie cost 35k iirc!!

a wordpress site with a custom theme!

ocallagh

In fairness to MerrionStreet.ie it has an Irish version too http://www.sraidmhuirfean.ie/index.php/saincheisteanna/ page translates as:

MerrionStreet.ie commenced on 12th July 2010. There is no content on this site - in English or Irish - from any previous date as part of the process set up.

:pac:

Holybejaysus

OK guys, let's do a bit of digging here-they'll keep getting away with it unless we subject these guys to the bright lights of publicity.

Who are Fanore? Let's get names. I smell the rotten stench of political cronyism...

ocallagh

I don't have the time right now to help out Holybejaysus.

I am nonetheless very interested in it. If anyone has a few hours to do a bit of research and send off a few emails then go for it, but I doubt you'll get worthwhile information without putting a lot of time and effort into it.

If I get some free time over the next few months I might set aside a few days.

D Hayes

Could be worse - £585 charged for a favicon for a UK government site:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ico_website_favicon_cost

I love the part where they try to explain where the money was spent:

"The favicon was part of the corporate identity work Reading
Room were doing under our maintenance contract and was not quoted for
separately. Reading Room created a brand new 32 x 32 pixel favicon. Whilst
we hold no recorded information concerning this part of your request I can
advised you that the work needed to put the favicon live was complicated
by an old environment (which has since been updated) that caused issues
and extended the time taken to carry out the work."

MOH

ocallagh wrote: »

lol @ all the pics of people pressing stuff.

http://www.electronicvoting.ie/english/faqs.html
http://www.electronicvoting.ie/english/contact.html

Maybe it's some kind of hidden message?

Lightswitch - Remote/8 - Green - 13:57 - Vote
Books - 8/Old Payphone - EL - Help - Vote


Nope, I'm stumped.

Placebo

kbannon wrote: »

Anyone remember the former garda site?
http://web.archive.org/web/20080822024052/http://www.garda.ie/
Classy!

new ones awful too
i could make better sites drunk in bed

matt-dublin

fanore = http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmarkkelly

its got "my uncles a politician" all over it!

Placebo

Specialties:
Business modelling, Automation, online commerce, partnerships, business strategy, software tools, search engine optimisation and programming for responsive web applications

ONLINE COMMERCE?


1991 written all over it

Talisman

The tender process for the maintenance and development of DiscoverIreland.com started some months back, it was announced on the eTenders site in early October.

What they were looking for could only be provided by a large agency: Social and mobile media experience, details of hosting capability, managed services, web analytics experience, CRM integration experience, editorial content development, management of translation services, search engine marketing. References from clients in similar area (tourism/public sector), experience with multi-lingual websites receiving over 10M unique visitors. 3 years audited accounts, tax clearance certs. There was also a requirement to detail the number of employees working in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.

My thoughts at the time were that due to the requirements list they must be looking renew with whoever has the contract currently and were bundling everything into the one pot so that nobody else could fulfill the requirements. Either that or they were too lazy to do separate tenders for the various aspects of the contract.

matt-dublin

Placebo wrote: »

Specialties:
Business modelling, Automation, online commerce, partnerships, business strategy, software tools, search engine optimisation and programming for responsive web applications

ONLINE COMMERCE?


1991 written all over it

schoolboy first website all over it!