TENDER FILE / TERMS OF REFERENCE

(Competitive bidding procedure / One-off contract)

Purchase of Capacity Building to MPALSG to Programme SSTPs

Contract N° 4708/2021/47

The Council of Europe (CoE) is currently implementing a joint European Union (EU)/CoE Programme “Human Resources Management in local self-government” - phase 2 (2018 -2021). In that context, it is looking for a Provider for the provision of Capacity Building to Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-government (MPALSG) to Programme Sectoral Special Training Programmes (SSTPs) (See Section A of the Act of Engagement).

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 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 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: Capacity Building to MPALSG to Programme SSTPs. 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: Capacity Building to MPALSG to Programme SSTPs

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 ►	14 April 2021
Email for submission of tenders/offers ►	LSG.[email protected]
Email for questions ►	l[email protected]
Expected starting date of execution ►	26 April 2021

 

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,^[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:

• 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 or are likely to be in a situation of conflict of interests;

·         are public servants employed at central, local or provincial level;

·         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

• University degree in law, political science, economics, public administration, social sciences, psychology or the related field OR equivalent 10 years’ relevant work experience;
• Minimum of 3 years of professional experience with HRM policy within public administration reform;
• Proven experience with the professional development system for civil servants and employees of local self-governments in Serbia;
• Proven experience in developing and/or conducting TNAs;
• Proficiency in Serbian and English language.
• Award criteria

• Quality of the offer (90%), including:

-   Specific knowledge of legislative framework related professional development of local government employees (including TNA methodology for public administration);

-   Familiarity with the Law on Employees in Autonomous Provinces and Local Self-government and needs of local self-governments;

-   Experience in working directly with public administration on professional development, preferably within HRM-reform;

-   Experience in generating reports based on data from surveys/questionnaires/interviews;

-   Desirable experience in conducting focus groups/interviews with public sector employees.

• Financial offer (10%).

For Consultancy ONLY: The Council reserves the right to hold interviews with eligible tenderers.

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 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;

·         CV (no longer than 4 pages);

·         Motivation letter (no longer than 2 pages) showing the understanding of the scope of this programme assignment and main challenges for its successful delivery.

All documents shall be submitted in English or Serbian, 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.

* * *