HR-Zagreb: IPA — capacity building of business service professionals and business support institutions

Request For Proposals

General Information
Country:   Croatia
City/Locality:   ZAGREB
Notice/Contract Number:   eu:272609-2009
Publication Date:   Oct 2, 2009
Deadline:   Nov 6, 2009
Buyer:   CENTRAL FINANCE AND CONTRACTING AGENCY
Original Language:   English

Contact Information
Address:   CENTRAL FINANCE AND CONTRACTING AGENCY
ZAGREB  
Croatia

Goods, Works and Services

 

Summary

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Notice Type: 0708 - Contract notice
Regulation of Procurement: PHARE, TACIS and countries of Central and Eastern Europe
EU Official Journal Publication: 190/2009, #272609-2009
Contract Nature: Service contract
Procedure Type: Restricted procedure
Type of Bid Required: Global tender
Awarding Criteria: Not defined

Original Text

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Croatia (HR)
Service procurement notice
Common procurement vocabulary (CPV):
Main object:
79411100 Business development consultancy services.
Additional objects:
79400000 Business and management consultancy and related services.
79413000 Marketing management consultancy services.
72221000 Business analysis consultancy services.
80000000 Education and training services.
1. Publication reference: EuropeAid/128603/D/SER/HR.
Internet address(es):
General address of the contracting authority: http://www.safu.hr
2. Procedure: Restricted.
3. Programme: IPA.
4. Financing: Financing agreement.
5. Contracting authority: Central Finance and Contracting Agency,
Republic of Croatia.
6. Nature of contract: Fee-based.
7. Contract description: The purpose of this contract is to improve the
quality and availability of business support services to SMEs by building
capacity of:
(a) business service professionals (consultants); and
(b) business support institutions at national and local level in the
beneficiary country (Croatia).
The activities shall encompass:
(a) development of the professional expertise of the business service
professionals (consultants) in order to support and encourage SMEs to
benefit from such services; and
(b) strengthening of the network of business support institutions at
national and local level in order that they have the skills and competence
necessary for business advice and guidance to SMEs, especially start-ups,
as well as to prepare business support institutions for future Structural
Funds.
It should be noted that, in order to avoid conflict of interest and ensure
equal treatment of beneficiaries of the assistance, members of
consultant's consortium cannot participate in the project as its
beneficiaries.
8. Numbers and titles of lots: The contract is divided into lots: No, 1
lot only.
9. Budget: Maximum budget: 1 500 000 EUR.
10. Scope for additional services: The contracting authority may, at its
own discretion, extend the project in duration and/or scope, subject to
the availability of funding, up to a maximum not exceeding the length and
value of the initial contract.
Any extension of the contract would be subject to satisfactory performance
by the contractor.
Conditions of participation
11. Eligibility: Participation is open to all legal persons
(participating either individually or in a grouping (consortium) of
candidates) which are established in a Member State of the European Union
or in a country or territory of the regions covered and/or authorised by
the specific instruments applicable to the programme under which the
contract is financed (see also item 29 below). Participation is also open
to international organisations. The participation of natural persons is
governed by the specific instruments applicable to the programme under
which the contract is financed.
12. Candidature: All eligible natural and legal persons (as per item 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 item
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: Subcontracting is not 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. If the number of eligible
candidates meeting the selection criteria is less than the minimum of 4,
the contracting authority may invite the candidates who satisfy the
criteria to submit a tender.
Provisional timetable
18. Provisional date of invitation to tender: 4.12.2009.
19. Provisional commencement date of the contract: 26.4.2010.
20. Initial period of implementation of tasks: Duration in months: 18.
Selection and award criteria
21. Selection criteria: Same criteria for legal and natural person.
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 capacity of candidate:
In the case of the applicant being a public body equivalent information
should be provided:
1. the annual turnover of the candidate for the years 2007 and 2008 must
be equal to or exceed 1 000 000 EUR;
2. the cash and cash equivalents of the candidate at the end of the years
2007 and 2008 are positive.
2) Professional capacity of candidate:
1. at least 4 staff currently work for the candidate in fields related to
this contract (development of SMEs and development of business support
services);
2. at least 20 % of all staff working for the candidate this year in
fields related to this contract (development of SMEs and development of
business support services) are permanent.
3) Technical capacity of candidate:
1. the candidate has worked successfully on at least 2 technical
assistance projects covering the fields of development of SMEs and
development of business support services in the years 2006, 2007, 2008 or
2009 (all projects referenced for 2009 must have been completed by the
deadline for submission of the applications). Each of these 2 fields must
be covered by at least 2 projects. 1 project may cover more than 1 field;
2. the projects must have been implemented in a country eligible under the
IPA programme (EU Member States, Member States of the European Economic
Area, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo under UNSC Resolution 1244/99, Montenegro,
Serbia and Turkey);
3. the projects must have been with a budget (own contribution) equal to
or exceeding 1 000 000 EUR.
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. 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:
1) the total number of projects managed by the candidate according to
criterion 3;
2) in case of competition between 2 or more candidates having the same
number of eligible projects, the candidates will be ranked in descending
order according to the total amount of their own contribution to the
eligible projects.
22. Award criteria: Best value for money.
Application
23. Deadline for receipt of applications: 6.11.2009 (16:00), local time.
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, the format and instructions
of which must be strictly observed. The application form is available at
the following Internet address: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/
procedures/implementation/services/index_en.htm
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
exclusively to the contracting authority in the following language —
English:
— either by recorded delivery (official postal service) to:
Central Finance and Contracting Agency, Ulica grada Vukovara 284, 10000
Zagreb, CROATIA,
— or hand-delivered (including courier services) directly to the
contracting authority in return for a signed and dated receipt to:
As in abovementioned address.
The contract title and the publication reference (see item 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 applications. No applications may be altered after this
deadline.
Any such notification of alteration or withdrawal shall be prepared and
submitted in accordance with item 25. The outer envelope (and the relevant
inner envelope if used) 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. Date of publication of contract forecast notice: 3.6.2009.
29. Legal basis: Council Regulation (EC) No 1085/2006 of 17.7.2006
establishing an Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA).
30. Additional information: Not applicable.
31. Date of dispatch of this notice: 22.9.2009.
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