Eligibility of Bidders
This Request for Expressions of Interest is open to Consulting firms.
Eligibility criteria to AFD financing are specified in sub-clause 1.3 of the "Procurement Guidelines for AFD Financed Contracts in Foreign Countries", available online on AFD’s website: http://www.afd.fr.
The Applicant shall submit only one application, either in its own name or as a member of a Joint Venture (JV). If an Applicant (including any JV member) submits or participates in more than one application, those applications shall all be rejected. However, the same Subconsultant may participate in several applications.
If the Applicant is a JV, the expression of interest shall include:
a copy of the JV Agreement entered into by all members,
or
a letter of intent to execute a JV Agreement, signed by all members together with a copy of the Agreement proposal,
In the absence of this document, the other members will be considered as Subconsultants.
Experiences and qualifications of Subconsultants are not taken into account in the evaluation of the applications.
Interested Applicants must provide evidence that they are qualified and experienced to perform those Services. For that purpose, documented evidence of recent and similar services shall be submitted.
Determination of the similarity of the experiences will be based on:
The contract size;
The nature of the Services and the areas of expertise: Supervision of construction Works (value of the works contracts greater than 30 million Euros) under Red or Pink Book FIDIC rules. Detailed design of drinking pipeworks. Implementation in rural areas will be an advantage;
The location: at least five (05) international financial institution (IFI) financed projects of Supervision of Works (in the drinking water sector) in Sub- Saharian Africa or in any comparable developing countries.
Determination of the substantiveness of the experiences will be based on whether the experiences presented include :
a) a minimum of two (02) similar contracts for Supervision of Works over the last 10 years including Ductile Iron pipes with a diameter above 400 mm and a length of more than 10 km. One of the contracts shall be in an English speaking country;
b) a minimum of two (02) similar contracts for Supervision of Works over the last 10 years including HDPE or PVC pipes with a length of more than 50km. One of the contracts shall be in an English speaking country;
c) a minimum of two (02) similar contracts for Supervision of Works over the last 10 years including steel reservoirs of a capacity above 500 m3. One contract must be in an English speaking country;
d) a minimum of two (02) Detailed design experiences of distribution network in Ductile Iron and either HDPE or PVC or both, with a length of more than 50 km for a Red or Pink Book FIDIC works contract. One of the experiences shall be in an English speaking country;
e) a minimum of one (01) experience with Information, Communication, Education activities in the fields of hygiene, water conservancy, PSP management, with setting up of at least 20 focus groups and/or water committees.
Evaluation will take into account the following:
a) references combining experiences a), b), c), d), and e) as mentioned here before will score higher;
b) only experiences with satisfactory completion certificate signed by the Client or the Funder shall be accepted.
The Ministry of Water and Environment will also take into account for the evaluation of the applications the following items:
Covering Letter, comprising the firm’s name, address, contact person, telephone, fax and email. Should a co-operation between firms be proposed for these Services, the form of co-operation should be mentioned. In addition, the firm should provide evidence that the signatory of the covering letter has the powers of attorney, and the authority of both his firm and that of each party in the association to do so, attesting to their agreement with this authority on their behalf;
Presentation of Firms showing the firms’ organization, main activities and expertise (max. 10 pages per firm, no brochures). In case of a co-operation between firms, the presentation must include the main specialisation of each party;
Submission of a Declaration of submitting a proposal in case of being short-listed duly signed by the lead firm;
Statement on affiliations of any kind with other firms, which may present a conflict of interest in providing the envisaged services, or a statement having no affiliations of any kind. In case any firm forms part of a group of firms or holding, such firm shall disclose the relations between the group and holding members in the statement of affiliations. If bidders co-operate, all participating parties, also sub-contractors, must provide this statement.
Statement of Integrity to observe the highest standard of ethics during the bidding process and the execution of the contract. Applicants should be aware that any fraudulent or corrupt activities disqualify them immediately from participation in the selection process and will be subject to further legal investigation. The said declaration shall be submitted and duly signed by the firm and by all co-operating parties (including sub-contractors) according to the form in Appendix 1;
Certified statements of financial capacity of the lead firm and all members of the consortium for the last three years showing the necessary turnover (proof documents: balance sheets and profit and loss accounts of the last three years. Documents must be in English language (or original with authorised translation) and issued by a certified auditor). The firm, or all members of the consortium individually must have an annual turnover of at least EUR 4,000,000. Sub-contractors must not present financial statements. Moreover, the applicant (in case of a consortium all members) shall prove its solvency by presenting confirmation of a valid guarantee limit / credit line from its bank, which must not be more than six months old;
Very brief curriculum vitae of in-house experts available to provide home office, to the on site experts, backstopping and quality assurance services (max. 3 pages per staff). Brief CVs shall consist of name, professional qualification and year obtained, number of years with firm, position in firm, technical field and specialisation, languages and foreign service (country, year, duration, project, task, function) if applicable. All CVs must be signed by the respective proposed staff and signatory to the bid;
Organisational structure of each party in the Joint Venture or Association indicating number and qualifications of in-house personnel, including home office, backstopping and quality assurance personnel;
Demonstration of the Applicant’s Quality assurance procedures and availability of a valid ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management certificate. If the Applicant is a JV, each member must provide individual evidence;
Firms with local offices or in joint venture or association with local consultants are encouraged to apply.
The Ministry of Water and Environment informs applicants that at the bidding period:
• A margin of preference shall apply to domestic bidders (following the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act, 2003 and its amendements);
• Guideline (1/2018) on reservation schemes to promote local content in public procurement (gazetted in Februrary 2018) shall apply.