KEY INFORMATION

Project Reference No(s):

2009/S 102-146273

Contacts:

cerri@eib.org
Phone: +352.4379 82916

IMPORTANT DATES:

Announced Date

May 29, 2009

Express Interest By

July 06, 2009

General Information

Opportunity Type:

Services

Country/Region:

Dominican Republic

Publication Date:

May 30, 2009

Contract Award

Add Contract Award

Notice/Contract Number:

2009/S 102-146273

Project Summary

European Investment Bank (EIB)

ACP Investment Facility - SERVICE PROCUREMENT NOTICE

Capacity-building in the Financial Sector

The Dominican Republic

1.

Publication reference:

2009/S 75-107749, DO/2008/02/IF2.

2.

Procedure:

Restricted.

3.

Programme:

ACP Investment Facility - Technical ssistance.

4.

Financing:

Investment Facility (Subsidy envelope of the Cotonou agreement).

CONTRACT SPECIFICATION

5.

Contracting Authority:

European Investment Bank (EIB).

6.

Nature of contract:

Technical Assistance (Fee-based)

7.

Contract description:

The objective of this Technical Assistance Programme is to support the modernization of financial intermediaries that service micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the Dominican Republic. In particular, the programme is geared towards contributing to the capacity building of the intermediaries by transferring best industry practice in the areas of micro and small and medium sized enterprises lending, project appraisal, credit risk evaluation, credit portfolio management, product development, operational risk, corporate governance, human resources development as well as MIS and data software.
An initial analysis of the capacity building and training needs of the institutions that will benefit from this scheme has been carried out, hence the selected firm under this publication reference will be responsible for the actual implementation of several components under the technical assistance programme.

8.

Number and titles of lots:

NA.

9.

Maximum budget:

800 000 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 in tendering is open on equal terms to natural and legal persons (participating either individually or in a grouping (consortium) of tenderers) from ACP States and Member States of the European Union and international organisations as authorised by the instrument applicable to the programme under which the contract is financed (see also item 30 below).

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 one 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 one 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 short-listed application forms will be excluded from this restricted tender procedure. Short-listed 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.

Sub-contracting:

Sub-contracting is not allowed without prior written consent of the Contracting Authority.

17.

Number of candidates to be short-listed:

On the basis of the applications received, between 4 to 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:

July 2009.

19.

Provisional commencement date of the contract:

Mid-September 2009.

20.

Initial period of execution and possible extension of the contract:

15 months.

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 capacity of candidate (based on item 3 of the application form). In case of applicant being a public body, equivalent information should be provided.
(a) the average annual turnover of the candidate must exceed 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, where this exceeds 1 year).
2) Professional capacity of candidate (based on items 4 and 5 of the application form).
(a) at least 10 % of all staff or minimum of 5 full-time staff currently working for the applicant in fields related to this contract; and
3) Technical capacity of candidate (based on items 5 and 6 of the application form)
(a) The candidate should have a demonstrated track record in the fields of SME lending, finance, banking, economics, and capacity-building and on-the-job mentoring; the candidate has at least two major assignments in the field of banking and capacity-building in the last three years.
(b) Proven experience in setting up and running such an operation in a Spanish-speaking country, preferably in the Caribbean region.
(c) Proven capacities to provide backstopping and to recruit and manage technical assistance teams.
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 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 eight best applications for the tender procedure. The only factor which will be taken into consideration during this re-examination is the number and size of operations in the relevant areas described under point 21 (3) a).

22.

Award criteria:

Best value for money.

APPLICATION

23. Deadline for receipt of applications:

17.00 Central European Time on 6 July 2009.
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://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/procedures/implementation/services/index en.htm), whose format and instructions must be strictly observed. Please contact the EIB TAU secretariat (+352 4379 82916 or cerri@eib.org) if need be.

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:

- EITHER by recorded delivery (official postal service) to: Mr Stefan Kerpen, Head of Technical Assistance Unit, European Investment Bank (EIB), OPS B/DEAS/Technical Assistance Unit (TAU), 100 boulevard Konrad Adenauer, L-2950Luxembourg.

- OR hand delivered (including courier services) to: Mr Stefan Kerpen, Head of Technical Assistance Unit, European Investment Bank (EIB), OPS B/DEAS/Technical Assistance Unit (TAU), 100 boulevard Konrad Adenauer, L-2950 Luxembourg
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 tenders. No application 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) must be marked "Alteration" or Withdrawal1 as appropriate.

27.

Operational language:

All written communications for this tender procedure and contract must be in English. Working language will be Spanish.

28.

Additional information:

None

29.

Date of publication of contract forecast:

18 April 2009.

30.

Legal basis:

Article 2(9) provided in the annex II to the Cotonou Agreement signed on June 23rd 2000 between the members of the ACP Group of States and the European Community, as subsequently amended.

 

The above is a complete copy of the original procurement notice.         

Project Information

Attachments:

Procurement Notice Page

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