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SL-Freetown: EDF — provision of technical assistance to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security for the management of the Stabex funds

Request For Proposals

General Information
Country:   Sierra Leone
City/Locality:   PHRITAOYN
Notice/Contract Number:   eu:247942-2006
Publication Date:   Dec 6, 2006
Deadline:   Jan 8, 2007
Buyer:   THE NATIONAL AUTHORISING OFFICER OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE
Original Language:   English

Contact Information
Address:   NATIONAL AUTHORISING OFFICE
FREETOWN
Sierra Leone

Goods, Works and Services

 

Original Text

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Notice Type: 0708 - Contract notice
Regulation of Procurement: External aid and European Development Fund
EU Official Journal Publication: 232/2006, #247942-2006
Referenced Document Number: 166762-2006
Contract Nature: Service contract
Procedure Type: Restricted procedure
Type of Bid Required: Not defined
Awarding Criteria: Not defined

Summary:
Location — Sierra Leone
Service procurement notice
1. Publication reference: EuropeAid/123974/D/SER/SL
2. Procedure: International restricted tender.
3. Programme: 8th European Development Fund (EDF).
4. Financing: Revised Framework of Mutual Obligations between the
European Commission and the Republic of Sierra Leone regarding the use of
the STABEX funds under the Transfer Agreements No STABEX/8/99/SL Cocoa,
STABEX/8/99/SL Coffee, STABEX/5/REP.LIV 1st Pr./SL Cocoa and
STABEX/5/REP.LIV 2nd Pr./SL Coffee.
5. Contracting authority: The National Authorising Officer of the
Republic of Sierra Leone.
Contract specification
6. Nature of contract: Fee-based.
7. Contract description: The contractor shall provide technical
assistance (TA) to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS)
for the management of remaining STABEX funds, as indicated under heading 4
above. The terms of reference include the provision of TA for the
development of sector policies and strategies, data collection and
information management, the enhancement of monitoring and extension
services as well as the carrying out of feasibility studies on priority
export commodities. Furthermore, the contractor will supervise and
facilitate the implementation of the 2 STABEX components in support of
rice production and marketing (EUR 1 200 000) and for the rehabilitation
of cash crop (cocoa/coffee) plantations (EUR 1 700 000). Both components
will be awarded to specialized NGOs, to be selected before the start of
this TA contract and implemented under separate grant contracts.
8. Numbers and titles of lots: Not applicable.
9. Maximum budget: EUR 700 000
10. Scope for additional services: Not applicable.
Conditions of participation
11. Eligibility: Participation is open on equal terms to all natural and
legal persons (companies or firms or public or semi-public agencies,
cooperative societies and other legal persons governed by public or
private law) of the EU Member States signatory of the revised IV Lomé
Convention (second financial protocol) and of ACP countries.
12. Candidature: All eligible natural and legal persons (as per point 11
above) or groupings of such persons (consortia) may apply.
A consortium may be a permanent, legally-established grouping or a
grouping which has been constituted informally for a specific tender
procedure. All members of a consortium (i.e., the leader and all other
members) are jointly and severally liable to the contracting authority.
The participation of an ineligible natural or legal person (as per point
11) will result in the automatic exclusion of that person. In particular,
if that ineligible person belongs to a consortium, the whole consortium
will be excluded.
13. Number of applications: No more than 1 application can be submitted
by a natural or legal person whatever the form of participation (as an
individual legal entity or as leader or member of a consortium submitting
an application). In the event that a natural or legal person submits more
than 1 application, all applications in which that person has participated
will be excluded.
14. Shortlist alliances prohibited: Any tenders received from tenderers
comprising firms other than those mentioned in the shortlisted application
forms will be excluded from this restricted tender procedure. Shortlisted
candidates may not form alliances or subcontract to each other for the
contract in question.
15. Grounds for exclusion: As part of the application form, candidates
must submit a signed declaration, included in the standard application
form, to the effect that they are not in any of the exclusion situations
listed in Section 2.3.3 of the ‘Practical Guide to contract procedures for
EC external actions’.
16. Subcontracting: No subcontracting is allowed.
17. Number of candidates to be shortlisted: On the basis of the
applications received, at least 4 and at most 8 candidates will be invited
to submit detailed tenders for this contract.
Provisional timetable
18. Provisional date of invitation to tender: January 2007.
19. Provisional commencement date of the contract: March 2007.
20. Initial period of execution and possible extension of the contract:
The initial period of execution is 22 months and cannot exceed 31.12.2008,
the end date of the implementation period of the Framework of Mutual
Obligation (FMP) governing the contract.
Selection and award criteria
21. Selection criteria: The following selection criteria will be applied
to candidates. In the case of applications submitted by a consortium,
these selection criteria will be applied to the consortium as a whole:
1) Economic and financial standing of candidate (based on item 3 of the
application form)
The objective of this criterion is to examine whether or not the candidate
(i.e., the consortium as a whole, in the case of an application from a
consortium) will not be economically dependent on the contracting
authority in the event that the contract is awarded to it; and has
sufficient financial stability to handle the proposed contract.
Criteria:
(a) the candidate (or at least the leader of the consortium) has to attest
of an operational existence of a minimum of 5 years;
(b) the average annual turnover of the candidate must exceed 3 times the
annualised maximum budget of the contract (i.e. the maximum budget stated
in the procurement notice divided by the initial contract duration in
years); and
(c) the averages of cash and cash equivalents at the beginning and end of
the year are positive over the last 3 financial years.
2) Professional capacity of candidate (based on items 4 and 5 of the
application form)
The objective of this criterion is to examine whether or not the candidate
(i.e., the consortium as a whole, in the case of an application from a
consortium) has sufficient ongoing staff resources and expertise to be
able to handle the proposed contract.
Criteria:
(a) the candidate can attest of a significant experience in the field of
project management and the provision of technical assistance to EDF
projects in Sub-Sahara Africa,
(b) at least 30 % of the candidate's (or leader of the consortium)
permanent staff have an experience/specialisation in at least 5 thematic
fields related to the present contract.
These fields can be:
— project management in a similar context,
— technical assistance to rural/agricultural development projects in
Sub-Sahara Africa,
— technical assistance to EC STABEX programmes,
— conduct of technical, economical or scientific studies in a similar
context,
— management of EC financed NGO grant contracts,
— training of government staff, NGO and/or community-based organisations,
— institutional strengthening of decentralised government structures.
The information supplied by the candidate as part of the application will
be verified based on a general presentation of the applicant, supplied as
part of the application.
3) Technical capacity of candidate (based on items 5 and 6 of the
application form)
The objective of this criterion is to examine whether or not the candidate
(i.e., the consortium as a whole, in the case of an application from a
consortium) has sufficient expertise and experience to be able to handle
the proposed contract.
Criteria:
(a) the candidate has worked successfully on at least 3 projects of
similar amounts in fields related to this contract during the past 5
years; and
(b) has proven networking capacity with specialised operators for the
conduct of studies, of capacity-building programmes and/or institutional
development programmes in fields related to this contract (as demonstrated
by projects undertaken by the candidate over the past 5 years).
An economic operator may, where appropriate and for a particular contract,
rely on the capacities of other entities, regardless of the legal nature
of the links which it has with them. It must in that case prove to the
contracting authority that it will have at its disposal the resources
necessary for performance of the contract, for example by producing an
undertaking on the part of those entities to place those resources at its
disposal. Under the same conditions, a consortium of economic operators
may rely on the capacities of members of the consortium or of other
entities. Such entities, for instance the parent company of the economic
operator, must respect the same rules of eligibility and notably that of
nationality, as the economic operator.
If more than 8 eligible candidates meet the above selection criteria, the
relative strengths and weaknesses of the applications of these candidates
must be re-examined to identify the 8 best applications for the tender
procedure. The only factors which will be taken into consideration during
this re-examination are:
— previous experience from similar assignments (number of successful
projects undertaken in a field related to this contracts over the past 5
years);
— quality of management and competence of technical staff.
22. Award criteria: As specified in the tender dossier annexed to the
letter of invitation to tender which will be sent to shortlisted
candidates.
Application
23. Deadline for receipt of applications: 8.1.2007 (16:00), GMT.
Any application received after this deadline will not be considered.
24. Application format and details to be provided: Applications must be
submitted using the standard application form (available from the
following Internet address: http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/
index_en.htm), whose format and instructions must be strictly observed.
Any additional documentation (brochure, letter, etc) sent with an
application will not be taken into consideration.
25. How applications may be submitted: Applications must be submitted in
English exclusively to the contracting authority:
— either by recorded delivery (official postal service) to: National
Authorising Office, Tower Hill, P.O. Box 1402, Freetown, Sierra Leone,
tel. (232-2) 26816,
— or hand delivered (including courier services) directly to the
contracting authority in return for a signed and dated receipt to
National Authorising Office, Tower Hill, PO Box 1402, Freetown, Sierra
Leone. Tel. (232-22) 68 16.
The contract title and the publication reference (see point 1 above) must
be clearly marked on the envelope containing the application and must
always be mentioned in all subsequent correspondence with the contracting
authority.
Applications submitted by any other means will not be considered.
26. Alteration or withdrawal of applications Candidates may alter or
withdraw their applications by written notification prior to the deadline
for submission of tenders. No application may be altered after this
deadline.
Any such notification of alteration or withdrawal shall be prepared and
submitted in accordance with clause 25. The outer envelope (and the
relevant inner envelope) must be marked 'Alteration' or 'Withdrawal' as
appropriate.
27. Operational language: All written communications for this tender
procedure and contract must be in English.
28. Additional information: Not applicable.
28. Date of publication of contract forecast: 17.8.2006.
28. Legal basis: ACP-EC Convention signed at Lomé on 15.12.1989, as
revised by the agreement signed in Mauritius on 4.11.1995 (the revised IV
Lomé Convention).
Please note that this notice is for your information only.
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