TENDER FILE / TERMS OF REFERENCE
(Competitive bidding procedure / One-off contract)
Purchase of national consultancy services in the area of human rights and operational support to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
Contract N° 9214/2025/20
The Council of Europe is currently implementing the Project “Rights of Veterans and Personnel of Armed Forces in Ukraine” (hereinafter – the Project), duration - 24 months (1 February 2024 – 31 January 2026).
In that context, it is looking for a Provider for the provision of national consultancy services in the area of human rights and operational support to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
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 Act of Engagement (See attached). 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 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: Tender - Operational support to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. 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 2 (two) 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 - Operational support to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
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Type of contract ► |
One-off contract |
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Duration ► |
Until complete execution of the obligations of the parties (See Article 2 of the Legal conditions as reproduced in the Act of Engagement) |
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Deadline for submission of tenders/offers ► |
10 August 2025 23:59 EEST |
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Email for submission of tenders/offers ► |
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Email for questions ► |
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Expected starting date of execution ► |
15 August 2025 |
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;
- 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, 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 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;
· are subject to restrictive measures applied by the United Nations Security Council or the European Union. In the case of legal persons, the restrictive measures imposed on the tenderer’s owner(s) or executives will also exclude the tenderer from participating in this tender procedure.
Eligibility criteria
- A university degree in law, political sciences, social sciences, public administration, project management, business administration or related fields;
- At least 3 (three) years of professional experience in the thematic area of the tender;
- Minimum of 2 years of experience in the development of strategic and or operational documents and materials independently, or as co-author;
· Experience of cooperating with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Security Service of Ukraine, law enforcement agencies or other relevant public bodies;
· English language proficiency at B1 level or higher.
Award criteria
- Quality of the offer (80 points), including:
- Professional experience in the fields of expertise (45 points)
§ Length of relevant experience;
§ Proven record of excellent knowledge of the Ukrainian legislation (regulatory framework) and practice relating to human rights of members of the armed forces and good governance in this area including but not limited to military legislation, strategic documents in the field, criminal justice sector legislation, disciplinary and/or administrative legislation etc.
- Quality of sample deliverables (35 points)
§ Coherence of drafting;
§ Relevance and adequacy of content and its correspondence to the Ukrainian context and international human rights standards.
- Financial offer (20 points).
The Council reserves the right to hold interviews with tenderers.
Multiple tendering is not authorised.
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 Act of Engagement[3] (See attached)
- For tenderers subject to VAT only: a quote, describing their financial offer, in line with the requirements of section C of the Tender File (see above);
- A list of all owners and executive officers, for legal persons only;
· A detailed CV, preferably in Europass Format, demonstrating clearly that the tenderer fulfils the eligibility criteria;
· Up to 2 examples of operational and/or strategic documents on the similar topics – in Ukrainian.
All documents shall be submitted in English (except for the ones explicitly required in Ukrainian), 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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[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;
- For legal persons, an extract from the companies register or other official document proving ownership and control of the Tenderer;
- For natural persons (including owners and executive officers of legal persons), a scanned copy of a valid photographic proof of identity (e.g. passport).
[3] The Act of Engagement must be completed, signed and scanned in its entirety (i.e. including all the pages). The scanned Act of Engagement may be sent page by page (attached to a single email) or as a compiled document, although a compiled document would be preferred. For all scanned documents, .pdf files are preferred.