16.4.1 Article 64 of the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 provides that an Authority shall not accept an offer to execute any work or supply any goods or services where the offer is made by an unqualified person in response to an invitation by the Authority to submit offers. Article 64(4) also provides that the Authority shall take all such steps as are reasonable to secure that no work is executed or goods or services supplied for the purpose of such contracts by an unqualified person. An unqualified person is one on whom a notice has been served by the Equality Commission under Article 62(2) or 63(1) of the Order and which has not been cancelled.
16.4.1.1 The Equality Commission may serve a notice stating that an employer is not qualified:
• where the employer is convicted for non-registration with the Equality Commission;
• where a person becomes the employer in relation to a concern that is already a registered concern (Article 69(1)) and is convicted for failure to apply, within one month, to the Equality Commission for his name and address to be entered in the register;
• where an employer is convicted for failing to make a monitoring return or failing to make a compliant monitoring return; or
• where an employer has failed to comply with an order of the Fair Employment Tribunal and a penalty has been imposed or the High Court has exercised its jurisdiction in respect of such failure.
16.4.1.2 The Contractor and Sub-Contractors should be required to provide a Declaration and Undertaking to be signed by all main contractors, nominated subcontractors or consultants tendering for the execution of works or the supply of goods or services, and all replacements, declaring (1) that he/she/it/they is/are not unqualified for the purposes of the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 and (2) undertaking that no work shall be executed or goods or services supplied by any unqualified persons.
Furthermore, if a Contractor becomes an unqualified person during the course of the contract, this should ultimately lead to termination unless remedied. The course of action should typically be a warning notice but this will depend on the particular contract.