TENDER FILE / TERMS OF REFERENCE

(Competitive bidding procedure / One-off contract)

Purchase of IT services for the development of the interactive map of the vocational education and training institutions from the Republic of Moldova

Contract N°BH9161/2024/N03

The Council of Europe is currently implementing the Project “Enhancing Employment Rights in the Republic of Moldova” in the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for the Republic of Moldova for 2021-2024. The overall objective of the project is to enhance the observance of social labour rights in line with international standards and facilitate the access of persons from vulnerable groups to vocational education and training and subsequent employment. The project will also assist the vocational education and training institutions (hereinafter - VET) to become more inclusive and gender sensitive, and better able to identify and attract girls and boys/women and men from vulnerable groups and not in employment, education, and training

In that context, it is looking for a Provider for the provision of services in the field of information technologies for the development of the interactive, informative, and visually perceptive map of the VET institutions in the Republic of Moldova. The VET institutions’ interactive map will be integrated into the website of the Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Moldova (the deliverables are described in greater detail in Annex I - Business and Technical Requirements).

A.    TENDER RULES

This tender procedure is a competitive bidding procedure. In accordance with Rule 1395 of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on the procurement procedures of the Council of Europe[1], the Organisation shall invite to tender at least three potential providers for any purchase between €2,000 (or €6,000 for intellectual services) and €55,000 tax exclusive.

This specific tender procedure aims at concluding a one-off contract for the provision of deliverables described in the Business and Technical Requirements. A tender is considered valid for 180 calendar days as from the closing date for submission. The selection of tenderers will be made in the light of the criteria indicated below. All tenderers will be informed in writing of the outcome of the procedure.

The tenderer must be a legal person or consortia of legal and/or natural persons.

Tenders shall be submitted by email only (with attachments) to the email address indicated in the table below, with the following reference in subject: Tender for developing interactive map of the vocational education and training institutions from the Republic of Moldova. Tenders addressed to another email address will be rejected.

The general information and contact details for this procedure are indicated on this page. You are invited to use the CoE Contact details indicated below for any question you may have. All questions shall be submitted at least 7 (seven) working days before the deadline for submission of the tenders and shall be exclusively addressed to the email address indicated below with the following reference in subject: Question on Tender for developing interactive map of the vocational education and training institutions from the Republic of Moldova.

Type of contract ►	One-off contract
Duration ►	Until complete execution of the obligations of the parties (See Article 2 of the Contract)
Deadline for submission of tenders/offers ►	23:59 CET 10 June 2024
Email for submission of tenders/offers ►	[email protected]
Email for questions ►	[email protected]
Expected starting date of execution ►	01 July 2024

B.    EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

The expected deliverables are described in the Business and Technical Requirements (See document attached).

C.    FEES

All tenderers are invited to submit a quote (proforma invoice), on their letterhead, indicating their fees.

Tenderers subject to VAT shall also indicate:

-       the Service Provider’s name and address;

-       its VAT number;

-       the full list of services;

-       the fee per type of deliverables (in Euros, tax exclusive);

-       the total amount per type of deliverables (in Euros, tax exclusive);

-       the total amount (in Euros), tax exclusive, the applicable VAT rate, the amount of VAT and the amount VAT inclusive.

Should the Provider be willing to further break down its financial offer, it is invited to do so on a separate sheet, attached to the other supporting documents.

The bidder understands and agrees that the fees proposed shall include the full assignment of all intellectual property rights related to the deliverables.

D.    ASSESSMENT

Exclusion criteria and absence of conflict of interests

(by signing the contract and the Declaration of Agreement, you declare on your honour not being in any of the below situations).^[2]

Tenderers shall be excluded from participating in the tender procedure if they:

• have been sentenced by final judgment on one or more of the following charges: participation in a criminal organisation, corruption, fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, terrorist offences or offences linked to terrorist activities, child labour or trafficking in human beings;
• are in a situation of bankruptcy, liquidation, termination of activity, insolvency or arrangement with creditors or any like situation arising from a procedure of the same kind, or are subject to a procedure of the same kind;
• have received a judgment with res judicata force, finding an offence that affects their professional integrity or serious professional misconduct;
• do not comply with their obligations as regards payment of social security contributions, taxes and dues, according to the statutory provisions of their country of incorporation, establishment or residence;
• are an entity created to circumvent tax, social or other legal obligations (empty shell company), have ever created or are in the process of creation of such an entity;
• have been involved in mismanagement of the Council of Europe funds or public funds;

·         are or appear to be in a situation of conflict of interest;

• are retired Council of Europe staff members or are staff members having benefitted from an early departure scheme;
• are currently employed by the Council of Europe or were employed by the Council of Europe on the date of the launch of the procurement procedure;
• have not fulfilled, in the previous three years, their contractual obligations in the performance of a contract concluded with the Council of Europe leading to a total or partial refusal of payment and/or termination of the contract by the Council of Europe;

·         are or if their owner(s) or executive officer(s), in the case of legal persons, are included in the lists of persons or entities subject to restrictive measures applied by the European Union (available at www.sanctionsmap.eu).

Eligibility criteria

• Being registered as a company specialised in the field of information technologies and web systems development;
• Having the financial capacity to perform the contract;
• Having the technical and professional capacity to perform the contract, including relevant qualifications and expertise of key personnel allocated to the Project:

a.     Project Manager – minimum 3 years of experience in designing and conducting similar works;

b.     Web Developer – minimum 3 years of experience in the development of web systems;

c.     DevOps engineer / Software engineer – minimum 3 years of experience in the development and configuration of web systems;

d.     Business Analyst – minimum 3 years of experience in business analysis for similar works;

e.     Test engineer – minimum 3 years of experience in testing software systems.

• The core staff of the implementing company should have excellent knowledge of the Romanian language (mother tongue level);
• Managerial and support staff should have very good knowledge of the English language (at least level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

Award criteria

·         Quality of the offer (60%), i.e. capacity to respect the requirements provided in Annex 1 - Business Requirements including:

-       Approach to Project, the effectiveness of service management, quality assurance, risk management, customer support and participation, proposed methodology for the development of the interactive map and planning of deliverables execution, quality of documentation, and proposed knowledge transfer activity;

-       The proposed technical solution, including the specifications, the customization capabilities and the subscription price, if any, of the third-party service that is suggested to be used for building the interactive map;

-       Description of previous experience in similar projects in the past 3 years.

• Financial offer (40%).

Multiple tendering is not authorised.

E.     NEGOTIATIONS

The Council reserves the right to hold negotiations with the bidders in accordance with Article 20 of Rule 1395.

F.     DOCUMENTS TO BE PROVIDED

Tenderers are invited to submit:

·         A completed and signed copy of the Contract (see document attached)[3];

·         A completed and signed copy of the Declaration of Agreement (see document attached);

·         A quote, describing the financial offer, in line with the requirements of section C of the Tender File(see above);

·         Registration documents for legal persons;

• A list of all owners and executive officers, for legal persons only;

• Profit and loss statement/income statement and balance sheet for the last 2 (two) years;
• The description of the quality of the tender submitted by the tenderer vis-à-vis the quality award criteria mentioned above, including:
• • Approach to Project, the effectiveness of service management, quality assurance, risk management, customer support and participation, proposed methodology for the development of the interactive map and planning of deliverables execution, quality of documentation, and proposed knowledge transfer activity;
  • The proposed technical solution, including the specifications, the customization capabilities and the subscription price, if any, of the third-party service that is suggested to be used for building the interactive map ;
  • Description of previous experience in similar projects in the past 3 years, preferably experience in building interactive maps.;
• The CVs of the personnel allocated to the Project;

·         Contact details of 3 (three) relevant referees, from among previous employers/clients/international organisations (name, surname, phone number and e-mail).

All documents shall be submitted in English failure to do so will result in the exclusion of the tender.

If any of the documents listed above are missing, the Council of Europe reserves the right to reject the tender.

The Council reserves the right to reject a tender if the scanned documents are of such a quality that the documents cannot be read once printed.

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