UK Government halts procurement of search and rescue helicopters

The UK Department for Transport and Ministry of Defence (MoD) has suspended the procurement of new search and rescue helicopters after concerns were raised about the bidding process to find a supplier.

The halt to the tendering process has come after preferred supplier, Soteria, admitted it had access to commercially sensitive information. The MoD has now said that this supplier will not be used.

MoD police are also investigating how the commercially sensitive information came to be in the possession of the bidder.

In a statement to the UK Parliament regarding the AUD$9.4 billion procurement programme, UK Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said that Soteria had come forward to inform the government of irregularities regarding the conduct of their bid team.

“The irregularities included access by one of the consortium members, CHC Helicopter, to commercially sensitive information regarding the joint MoD/DfT project team's evaluations of industry bids and evidence that a former member of that project team had assisted the consortium in its bid preparation, contrary to explicit assurances given to the project team,” Mr Hammond said.

Mr Hammond said that, since December, his department and the MoD had been "working with Soteria to better understand the situation and its implications for the procurement process".

He said the two departments would now "consider the potential procurement options to meet future requirements for search and rescue helicopters in the United Kingdom, including options to maintain continuity of search and rescue helicopter cover until new longer term arrangements can be put in place".

The Soteria consortium, comprising the Canadian Helicopter Corporation (CHC), Thales, Sikorsky and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was chosen as the Preferred Bidder for the Search and Rescue Helicopter (SAR-H) project in February 2010.

In a statement, Soteria said it was "disappointed" to learn of the government's decision.

"Soteria is evaluating the government's decision and if given the opportunity is confident that it is capable of delivering the SAR-H programme and stands ready to work with the UK government," said a spokesman.

Under the plans the successful bidder would have run the search and rescue service and provided helicopters in the UK’s 12 bases.   

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