GA-Libreville: EDF — technical assistance implementing the support programme for ECCAS peace and security initiatives

Country:

Gabon

City/Locality:

LIMPREBIL

Notice/Contract Number:

eu:59716-2006

Publication Date:

Mar 24, 2006

Deadline:

May 2, 2006

Buyer:

GENIKOS GRAMMATEAS TIS OIKONOMIKIS KOINOTITAS TON KRATON TIS KENTRIKIS APHRIKIS (CEEAC)

Original Language:

French

Address:

GENIKOS GRAMMATEAS TIS OIKONOMIKIS KOINOTITAS TON KRATON TIS KENTRIKIS APHRIKIS (CEEAC)
LIMPREBIL
Gabon

74141000 - Business and management consultancy services

Notice Type: 0708 - Contract notice
Regulation of Procurement: External aid and European Development Fund
EU Official Journal Publication: 58/2006, #59716-2006
Contract Nature: Service contract
Procedure Type: Restricted procedure
Type of Bid Required: Not defined
Awarding Criteria: Not defined

Summary:
Central Africa Region (Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African
Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea,
Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe)
Regional programme headquartered in Libreville (Gabon)
Service contract notice
1. Publication reference: EuropeAid/122162/D/SV/Multi.
2. Procedure: International restricted invitation to tender with
suspension clause.
3. Programme: EDF.
4. Financing: Financing agreement.
5. Contracting authority: EDF Central Africa Regional Authorising
Officer, ECCAS Secretary General, Libreville.
Contract specifications:
6. Object of the contract: Contract for technical assistance implementing
the support programme for ECCAS peace and security initiatives. Both
long-term and short-term international technical assistance is required.
7. Contract description: Technical assistance (TA) personnel will be
given the task of implementing project activities. They will be required
to set up a project management unit at ECCAS (Libreville) made up of TA
experts, operations staff and specialists identified as and when needed.
Project activities will be as follows:
— long-term technical support (profile 1. politics; profile 2.
strengthening civil society's role) and short-term technical support
(training courses, studies, research, skills transfer) in the fields of
peace, preventing armed conflict, good political governance, information
gathering and analysis systems (so as to understand and anticipate
conflicts), as well as with practical issues regarding the internal
structure of the project's local beneficiary institution, institutional
matters (texts and statutes) and the effective structuring of its human
resources,
— support in bringing the Central African early-warning system, MARAC,
into operation in terms of local staff, equipment, facilities, training
courses and setting up information systems (so as to understand and
anticipate conflicts),
— funding for ECCAS's political and diplomatic preventive measures
involving political dialogue, mediation, political management of conflicts
and reducing the causes and likelihood of conflicts,
— funding of initiatives intended to consolidate the contribution made by
a civil society that is active in conflict prevention, and strengthen its
cooperation with ECCAS.
8. Number and titles of lots: Not applicable.
9. Maximum budget available: EUR 1 340 000, i.e. XAF 878 982 000.
10. Any additional services: Not applicable.
Conditions for participation:
11. Eligibility: Participation in the contract is open, on equal terms,
to:
— natural persons, companies, firms and public or semi-public agencies
from the ACP countries or from the Member States,
— cooperative companies and other entities governed by public or private
law from the Member States and/or the ACP countries,
— joint ventures, or groupings of companies or firms from the ACP
countries and/or the Member States.
The nationality rule also applies to experts put forward by service
provider companies.
12. Application: Any eligible natural person or legal entity (as defined
in 11) or grouping of said parties (consortium) may apply.
A consortium can be a permanent grouping with legal status or an informal
grouping created with a specific invitation to tender in mind. All members
of the consortium (i.e. lead company and all other partners) will be
jointly and severally liable vis-à-vis the contracting authority.
Should an ineligible natural person or legal entity (as defined in 11)
take part, this will result in the application concerned being
automatically disqualified (in particular, the application from the whole
consortium where said party belongs to a consortium).
13. Number of applications: Natural persons or legal entities can only
submit 1 application (this applies equally to all the legal entities
considered in law to be part of the same group), irrespective of the form
their participation may take (sole legal entity, or lead company or
partner in a consortium submitting an application). Should a natural
person or legal entity submit more than 1 application (this applies
equally to all the legal entities considered in law to be part of the same
group), then all the applications involving said party (and all the legal
entities considered in law to be part of the same group) will be
disqualified.
14. Prohibition on associations among shortlisted candidates: Tenders
which include companies not mentioned on the application forms used to
compile the shortlist will be disqualified from this restricted procedure.
Candidates invited to tender cannot form associations or subcontractual
relationships amongst themselves for the contract in question.
15. Grounds for exclusion: In their application form candidates must
solemnly affirm that they are not in any of the situations referred to in
Section 2.3.3 of the Practical Guide to contract procedures financed by
the 9th EDF.
16. Subcontracting: Up to 20 % of the contract in terms of its value may
be subcontracted (prior agreement must be obtained from the RAO and the EC
Delegation lead company); subcontractors may belong to a category of
natural person or legal entity other than those cited in 11 provided they
meet the ACP or EU nationality criteria (and the prior agreement of the
RAO or EC Delegation lead company has been obtained).
17. Number of candidates invited to tender: There must be at least 4, but
no more than 8, candidates on the shortlist.
Provisional schedule for activities:
18. Scheduled date for dispatch of invitations to tender: 10.5.2006.
19. Scheduled date for commencing activities: August 2006.
20. Initial contract length, and possible extension: Services to be
provided for 36 months (42 month term); extension possible depending on
progress made on the programme.
Selection and award criteria:
21. Selection criteria: The following selection criteria will be applied
to candidates. Where applications are submitted by a consortium, then the
criteria will apply to the consortium as a whole.
1) Candidates' economic and financial capacity (details to be given in
section 3 of the application form):
a) candidates' average annual turnover must be at least EUR 1 500 000;
b) cash and cash equivalents at the beginning and end of the financial
year must be in surplus, overall, for both this year and the previous
year.
2) Candidates' professional capacity (based on sections 4 and 5 of the
application form):
a) they must have at least 4 permanent employees capable of monitoring
project activities, and providing technical support, in the following
fields:
— institutional and organisational capacity-building and development of
the local beneficiary structure (particularly with regard to general
coordination, strategies and planning, internal communication, internal
structure, operations, efficiency of human resources, training courses and
IT and communications logistics),
— studies and analyses on what causes conflicts and the sociopolitical and
economic factors in conflicts,
— organisation and operation of a system for constant monitoring,
information collection and political analysis so as to understand and
anticipate the causes and likelihood of conflicts,
— use of diplomatic and political conflict prevention and resolution
initiatives (linked to governance and the sociopolitical reasons for
crises),
— in-depth knowledge of national institutions, international institutions
and international machinery linked to conflict prevention and resolution
issues in Central Africa,
— the role played by civil society and the opportunities it has with
regard to preventing conflicts and consolidating peace,
— in-depth knowledge of civil society in Central Africa and of strategies
to strengthen it,
— management and administration of EDF projects.
The aforementioned capacities must be proven by documents and professional
certificates relevant to this contract;
b) experience in implementing institutional support projects:
— at least 6 examples of experience in the African, Caribbean and Pacific
area, preferably in Central Africa, in the aforementioned fields.
3) Candidates' technical capacity (based on sections 5 and 6 of the
application form):
a) candidates must demonstrate that in the past 4 years they were
responsible for implementing at least 3 projects relevant to this project
which involved at least 5 of the 7 fields listed in 21.2).a);
b) candidates must demonstrate that they were responsible for implementing
at least 1 ongoing project in the main fields listed in 21.2).a).
If more than 8 applications prove to be eligible, i.e. meet all the
selection criteria, then the strengths and weaknesses of these candidates'
applications will need to be re-examined to determine which 8 applications
for the invitation to tender are the most suitable. Only the following
factors will be considered in the re-examination:
i) proven experience and capacities in as many of the fields in 21.2.a) as
possible;
ii) number of projects implemented in the skills fields covered by the
project in this contract.
22. Award criteria: The criteria are specified in the invitation to
tender dossier appended to the letter of invitation to tender which will
be sent to shortlisted candidates.
Candidates' attention is drawn to the fact that their technical offer must
guarantee and demonstrate that they (or the institutions or structures
with whom they have entered into partnership or a consortium agreement)
have the skills, experience and professional relationships enabling them
both to provide technical assistance personnel for the fields listed in
21.2.a) in the number and with the skills required and to constantly
monitor and provide the backstopping (technical, intellectual and
human-relations support) necessary for project activities in these fields.
This is particularly important in respect of (i) MARAC methods and
operating systems and political and diplomatic initiatives, (ii) issues
concerning an efficient internal structure for the local beneficiary
institution, (iii) studies and political analyses on preventing armed
conflict, (iv) matters connected with identifying and enhancing the role
played by civil society in reducing the causes and likelihood of conflicts
and (v) matters regarding IT and communication equipment.
With regard to their capacity for monitoring and backstopping (technical,
intellectual and human-relations support), tenderers will be examined in
particular on:
— the skills of the technical assistance personnel, studies and training
courses,
— the human-relations aspect of running the project, the standard of their
collaboration with partners and account taken of diplomatic constraints,
— the organisational aspect of the project and resolution of delays or
impasses,
— administration and management,
— identifying and contacting people or external institutions that could be
useful to the project, particularly with regard to civil society, members
of the political or diplomatic sphere and experts in particular project
fields.
Application submission procedures:
23. Final date for submission of applications: 2.5.2006 (17.00).
Applications received after this deadline will be rejected.
24. Application submission procedures and information to be supplied: The
standard application form must be used for applications. This form is
available from the following web address:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/tender/gestion/fed/b_fr.htm. The
clauses and format of this form must be strictly adhered to.
Any application which fails to comply with these provisions will be
automatically rejected. Additional documentation (brochure, letter, etc.)
enclosed with the application will not be considered.
25. Procedures for dispatch of applications: Applications must be sent to
the contracting authority, and no other:
— either by registered post (official postal service), to the following
address:
CEEAC — Communauté économique des États de l'Afrique centrale, Secrétariat
général, BP 2112 — Libreville (Gabon). Tel. (241) 44 47 31/76 89 63. Fax
(241) 44 47 32/76 89 87. E-mail: dawile_fr@yahoo.fr or
ceeac.orgsr@inet.ga,
— or by bearer (express courier services in particular) with the
application being delivered straight to the contracting authority, in
return for a signed and dated acknowledgement of receipt, at the
aforementioned address.
The contract title and the contract notice number (see 1) must be clearly
marked on the envelope containing the application and must be quoted in
all subsequent correspondence with the contracting authority.
Applications submitted in any other way will not be considered.
26. Working language: All written correspondence concerning this
invitation to tender procedure and contract must be in French.
27. Additional information: The invitation to tender has been issued with
a suspension clause.
EC Delegation lead company, Gabon: delegation-gabon@cec.eu.int.
28. Date of publication of the corresponding contract forecast:
30.9.2005, OJ No 189; EuropeAid/122162/D/SV/Multi.
29. Legal basis: ACP-EU Cotonou Agreement, signed on 23.6.2000.
Decision No 2/2002 of the ACP-EU Council of Ministers of 7.10.2002
regarding the implementation of Articles 28, 29 and 30 of Annex IV to the
Cotonou Agreement and its Annex.
General regulations on works, supply and service contracts financed by the
European Development Fund.

GA-Libreville: EDF — technical assistance implementing the support programme for ECCAS peace and security initiatives

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