TENDER FILE / TERMS OF REFERENCE

(Competitive bidding procedure / Framework Contract)

Purchase of local intellectual consultancy services in the area of reforming the juvenile justice system and strengthening the education and training of penitentiary staff.

FC.DGII.VC2966.2021.02

The Council of Europe is currently implementing a Project on “Improving the juvenile justice system and strengthening the education and training of penitentiary staff” in Slovenia. It is co-financed by the EU Structural Reform Support Programme and implemented in close cooperation with the EU DG Reform and the Slovenian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) for the period 1/9/2021 to 31/08/2023.

In that context, the Children’s Rights Division of the Council of Europe, which is implementing the first Component of the project aiming at improving the criminal juvenile justice system in Slovenia, for the period of period 1/9/2021 to 31/08/2022, is looking for local Providers for the provision of intellectual consultancy services to provide technical assistance in the following areas: research, review and analysis of legislation, case law, policies and institutional framework related to the operation of the current juvenile justice system in Slovenia and that of other European countries; development of tools, guidance and trainings for professionals to facilitate the coherent implementation of the reform of the juvenile justice system and integrate it into their practice, to be requested by the Council on an as needed basis.

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 €5,000 for intellectual services) and €55,000 tax exclusive.

This specific tender procedure aims at concluding a framework 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 either a natural person, 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:  National consultancy tender – Juvenile Justice Slovenia. 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 5 (FIVE) 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 consulancy tender – Juvenile Justice Slovenia

Type of contract ►	Framework contract
Duration ►	Until 31 August 2022
Deadline for submission of tenders/offers ►	31 December 2021
Email for submission of tenders/offers ►	[email protected]
Email for questions ►	[email protected]
Expected starting date of execution ►	17 January 2022

B.    EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

Background of the Project

The European Commission and Council of Europe joint project 21SI10 - “Improving the juvenile justice system and strengthening the education and training of penitentiary staff" aims to support the Slovenian authorities in their efforts to improve the juvenile justice and penitentiary systems in line with the latest European and international standards and good practices.

This project responds to the objectives set in the 2020 European Semester Country Report for Slovenia through country-specific recommendations in relation to improving the efficiency and the quality of justice including by reducing the backlog in criminal courts and the average length of time of criminal proceedings. It will further contribute to existing initiatives to train legal professionals including judges, court staff and the State Prosecution and support them with existing good practices and analyses of practices.

The project is implemented by the Council of Europe in close collaboration with DG Reform and the Slovenian authorities and it is divided into two main components:

1. Component I: reform of the juvenile justice system – aims at supporting the Slovenian authorities to pursue a comprehensive review of the national legal framework on juvenile justice, in order to harmonise it with the latest European and international standards and good practices.

2. Component II: reform of the penitentiary system and human resources of penitentiary staff – aims at improving the penitentiary system through enhanced training capacities of the prison administration and better human resources policy applied to the prison staff by the Slovenian Prison Administration.

For Component I of the project, local consultants and international experts will work jointly on the preparation of legal research papers, documents and tools aimed at identifying and addressing the shortcomings of the juvenile justice system in Slovenia, in order to facilitate the drafting of the new reform to be implemented as a result of this project.

The Council of Europe is looking for up to 12 local Providers (provided enough tenders meet the criteria indicated below) in order to support the implementation of the project with a particular expertise on legal analysis, drafting as well as developing and delivering trainings on the new reform concerning the national legal and policy framework related to juvenile justice in Slovenia.

This Contract is currently estimated to cover up to 15 activity-sets to be held by 31.08.2022. This estimate is for information only and shall not constitute any sort of contractual commitment on the part of the Council of Europe. The Contract may potentially represent a higher or lower number of activities, depending on the evolving needs of the Organisation.

For information purposes only, the total budget of the project amounts to 1,000,000Euros and the total amount of the object of present tender shall not exceed 55,000 Euros tax exclusive for the whole duration of the Framework Contract. This information does not constitute any sort of contractual commitment or obligation on the part of the Council of Europe.

Scope of the Framework Contract

Throughout the duration of the Framework Contract, pre-selected Providers may be asked to:

-       Carry out desk and field research, legal analysis and drafting documents on the existing juvenile justice legal framework;

-       Carry out desk research, legal analysis and drafting papers/documents on existing national and international case law concerning juveniles;

-       Develop tools and trainings for professionals on the juvenile justice system reform.

The above list is not considered exhaustive. The Council reserves the right to request deliverables not explicitly mentioned in the above list of expected services, but related to the field of expertise object of the present Framework Contract.

In terms of quality requirements, the pre-selected Service Providers must ensure, inter alia, that:

·         The services are provided to the highest professional/academic standard;

·         Any specific instructions given by the Council – whenever this is the case – are followed.

In addition to the orders requested on an as needed basis, the Provider shall keep regular communication with the Council to ensure continuing exchange of information relevant to the project implementation. This involves, among others, to inform the Council as soon as it becomes aware, during the execution of the Contract, of any initiatives and/or adopted laws and regulations, policies, strategies or action plans or any other development related to the object of the Contract (see more on general obligations of the Provider in Article 3.1.2 of the Legal Conditions in the Act of Engagement).

Unless otherwise agreed with the Council, written documents produced by the Provider shall be in English (see more on requirements for written documents in Articles 3.2.2 and 3.2.3 of the Legal Conditions in the Act of Engagement).

C.    FEES

Tenderers are invited to indicate their fees, by completing and sending the table of fees, as attached in Section A to the Act of Engagement. These fees are final and not subject to review. Tenders proposing fees above the exclusion level indicated in the Table of fees will be entirely and automatically excluded from the tender procedure.

The Council will indicate on each Order Form (see Section D below) the global fee corresponding to each deliverable, calculated on the basis of the unit fees, as agreed by this Contract.

D.    HOW WILL THIS FRAMEWORK CONTRACT WORK? (Ordering PROCEDURE)

Once the selection procedure is completed, you will be informed accordingly. Deliverables will then be delivered on the basis of Order Forms submitted by the Council to the selected Provider (s), by post or electronically, on an as needed basis (there is therefore no obligation to order on the part of the Council).

Pooling

For each Order, the Council will choose from the pool of pre-selected tenderers the Provider who demonstrably offers best value for money for its requirement when assessed – for the Order concerned – against the criteria of: 

-          quality (including as appropriate: capability, expertise, past performance, availability of resources and proposed methods of undertaking the work);

-          availability (including, without limitation, capacity to meet required deadlines and, where relevant, geographical location); and

-          price.

Each time an Order Form is sent, the selected Provider undertakes to take all the necessary measures to send it signed to the Council within 2 (two) working days after its reception. If a Provider is unable to take an Order or if no reply is given on his behalf within that deadline, the Council may call on another Provider using the same criteria, and so on until a suitable Provider is contracted.

Providers subject to VAT

The Provider, if subject to VAT, shall also send, together with each signed Form, a quote[2] (Pro Forma invoice) in line with the indications specified on each Order Form, and including:

-     the Service Provider’s name and address;

-     its VAT number;

-     the full list of services;

-     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 .

Signature of orders

An Order Form is considered to be legally binding when the Order, signed by the Provider, is approved by the Council, by displaying a Council’s Purchase Order number on the Order, as well as by signing and stamping the Order concerned. Copy of each approved Order Form shall be sent to the Provider, to the extent possible on the day of its signature.

E.     ASSESSMENT

Exclusion criteria and absence of conflict of interests

(by signing the Act of Engagement, you declare on your honour not being in any of the below situations)^[3]

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 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

• An advanced university/higher education degree in law, human rights, children’s rights or a related field;
• At least 3 years of professional experience at national level (in the Republic of Slovenia) in the fields of expertise as indicated under the scope of this contract.

·         Native Slovenian speaker and very good command of the English language both verbally and in writing.

·         At least 3 years of experience on either development of tools, or legal analysis and drafting on integrated response mechanisms to child sexual exploitation and abuse, e.g. Barnahus model, in particular on interagency multidisciplinary approach and investigative interviewing evidence-based models.

Award criteria

• Quality of the offer (80%), including:

o    Professional experience in the fields of expertise covered by this tender, including length of experience and proven track record of practical achievements in the given field;

o    If provided, relevance and quality of examples and sample deliverables (e.g. draft materials recently produced, training outlines or training methodologies employed).

• Financial offer (20%).

The Council reserves the right to hold interviews with eligible tenderers.

Multiple tendering is not authorised.

F.     NEGOTIATIONS

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

G.    DOCUMENTS TO BE PROVIDED

·         A completed and signed copy of the Act of Engagement[4] (See attached);

·         A detailed CV, preferably in Europass Format, demonstrating clearly that the tenderer fulfils the eligibility criteria;

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

• CVs of persons allocated to the execution of the contract, for legal persons only;
• Motivation letter demonstrating the tenderer’s understanding of the Council of Europe needs and clearly indicating relevant professional experience and expertise for fields of expertise as described under the scope of this contract;
• Additional as relevant: links and/or samples of previous work if available in English.

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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