Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition Justification for selected award procedure: The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the Directive Explanation: Due to technical limitations associated with the design and development of the platform in the UWS environment, it is UWS’ belief that at the current time that only one supplier can meet the requirements. Given that UWS is upgrading a number of core systems at this time, it is determined that the critical nature of the customer-facing fee payment and online retail solutions should be retained as the other vital upgrades progress, any change in the service provision and is highly likely to (i) cause a significant amount of disruption; (ii) incur significant additional cost for UWS, and (iii) negatively stretch timelines for project delivery. As such, UWS is publishing this voluntary ex-ante notice on Public Contracts Scotland to ensure compliance with procurement regulations and the continuance of its electronic payments service for the next 12 months. This contract is for the 1-year renewal of UWS' electronic payments system, used for payment of student fees and supporting online shop payments. This will retain the existing system and although UWS is only looking for 1-year, the agreement is for 3-years with a 'no-penalty' break clause at 1-year, which is determined to offer UWS best value for money as to award a 1-year agreement only would cost a significantly higher amount.