TENDER FILE / TERMS OF REFERENCE

(Competitive bidding procedure/ One-off contract)

Purchase of services for development and implementation of a national awareness campaign

BH8810/2023/3

The Council of Europe is currently implementing a Project on Preventing and protecting children from violence including in the digital environment in the Republic of Moldova, which aims to strengthen the Government of the Republic Moldova’s response to violence against children, including online child sexual exploitation and abuse. The Project is focused on protection and promotion of children’s rights in the digital environment and will also address the protection of children against violence, including child abuse and exploitation, as well as prevention of peer-to-peer violence. The duration of the Project is until 31 December 2024. In that context, it is looking for a Provider for the provision of development and implementation of a national campaign (see Section A of the Act of Engagement).

A.    TENDER PROCEDURE 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 Act of Engagement (See attached). A tender is considered valid for 120 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 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 - National awareness raising campaign. 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 Council of Europe 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: Questions - National awareness raising campaign.

Type of contract ►

One-off contract

Duration ►

Until complete execution of the obligations of the parties (see Article 2 of the Legal conditions as reproduced in the Act of Engagement)

Deadline for submission of tenders/offers ►

22 November 2023

Email for submission of tenders/offers ►

[email protected]

Email for questions ►

[email protected]

Expected starting date of execution ►

07 December 2023


B.    EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

The expected deliverables are described in Section A of the Act of Engagement (see attached).

C.    FEES

All tenderers are invited to fill in the table of fees as reproduced in Section A of the Act of Engagement.

Tenderers subject to VAT shall also send a quote (Pro Forma invoice) on their letterhead including:

-     the Service Provider’s name and address;

-     its VAT number;

-     the full list of services to be provided;

-     the fee per type of deliverables (in the currency indicated on the Act of Engagement, tax exclusive);

-     the total amount per type of deliverables (in the currency indicated on the Act of Engagement, tax exclusive);

-     the total amount (in the currency indicated on the Act of Engagement), tax exclusive, the applicable VAT rate, the amount of VAT and the amount VAT inclusive.

D.    ASSESSMENT

Exclusion criteria and absence of conflict of interests

(by signing the Act of Engagement,[2] you declare on your honour not being in any of the below situations)

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

·         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;

·         [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].

Eligibility criteria

·         Being a legally registered entity;

·         At least 3 years of proven technical knowledge and successful development of awareness/ information/promotional campaigns;

·         At least 3 years of experience in public relations/communication and media production;

·         Previous experience working with international organizations (references and examples to be provided, as requested under point F.).

Award criteria

-          Samples of previous social/ media campaigns on sensitive topics (campaigns addressed to children, women and/or vulnerable groups);

-          Demonstrated capacity to develop and carry out awareness and informational campaigns of similar nature and size;

-          Quality and relevance of the Outline of activities proposed;

-          Experience in carrying out awareness raising/info campaign in the domain of combating violence against children and other related areas, it will be an asset;

-          Cost-efficiency of the proposed Outline of activities in line with the brief - Annex I. (Balance between the cost and the number of the activities included in the Outline of activities)

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:

·         Company registration certificate;;

·         A detailed CV of the core staff to be engaged in the development and implementation of the awareness raising campaign, preferably in Europass Format, demonstrating clearly that the tenderer fulfils the eligibility criteria;

All documents shall be submitted in English, failure to do so will result in the exclusion of the tender (Registration documents should be accompanied by a summary translation if not in English).

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.

* * *


[1] The activities of the Council of Europe are governed by its Statute and its internal Regulations. Procurement is governed by the Financial Regulations of the Organisation and by Rule 1395 of 20 June 2019 on the procurement procedures of the Council of Europe.

[2] The Council of Europe reserves the right to ask tenderers, at a later stage, to supply the following supporting documents:

-          An extract from the record of convictions or failing that an equivalent document issued by the competent judicial or administrative authority of the country of incorporation, indicating that the first three and sixth above listed exclusion criteria are met;

-          A certificate issued by the competent authority of the country of incorporation indicating that the fourth criterion is met.

[3] The Act of Engagement must be completed, signed, scanned in its entirety (i.e. including all the pages) and sent as a compiled document. For all scanned documents, .pdf files are preferred.