Open Request for Tender (RFT)

EXTERNAL EVALUATION OF BRIDGE – Building Resilience, Inclusive Development and Gender Equity in Sierra Leone

Invitation to Consultatns

The Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs has allocated funds to be used for the acquisition of the following CONSULTANCY SERVICES:

Reference No. UTN24060367: External Evaluation of BRIDGE – Building Resilience, Inclusive Development and Gender Equity in Sierra Leone

The Ministry hereby invites interested parties to submit tenders for the consultancy work described in the evaluation Terms of Reference (ToR). Bidding is conducted in accordance with an open selective bidding method. The laws applicable to this procurement are Government of Iceland laws, especially the Public Procurement Act and related regulations. Any modification that may specified in the bid document or contract documents shall conform with Government of Iceland requirements.

Proposals must be delivered electronically to [email protected] no later than 12:30 hours GMT 27 December 2024. Late proposals shall be rejected. There shall not be a pre-bid meeting; any inquiries should be addressed to:

Erla Hlín Hjálmarsdóttir, Chief of Internal Affairs
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Reykjavik
Tel: +345-545-7323, [email protected]

The planned procurement schedule (subject to changes) is as follows:

Proposals will be opened by the Procuring and Disposing Entity, represented by the Chief of Internal Affairs, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Reykjavik.  Tender proposals must remain valid 120 days.

Instructions to Consultants

Submission of proposals

Proposals should be submitted to the e-mail address indicated in the invitation above, no later than the date and time of the deadline in this invitation. Any proposal received by the Procuring Entity after the deadline for submission of proposals shall be declared late, rejected. The subject line of the submission shall be:  Ref. UTN24060367 “Consultant’s name”. Submit one set only comprising a soft copy by e-mail.

Interested parties are requested to submit (1) documents evidencing eligibility, (2) technical and (3) financial proposals, as detailed below.

(1) Documents evidencing eligibility:

Consultants are requested to submit the following documents as evidence of eligibility (which may be included in the technical proposal submission):

Eligibility Criteria: 

Interested parties are required to meet the following criteria to be eligible to participate in public procurement and submit a signed statement thereof:

• have the legal capacity to enter into a contract;
• commit to ethical conduct in business for bidders and providers;
• not be insolvent, in receivership, bankrupt or being wound up or subject to legal proceedings for any of these circumstances;
• not have had business activities suspended;
• have fulfilled obligations to pay taxes and social security contributions;
• not to have a conflict of interest in relation to this procurement requirement; and
• not to be subject to suspension by a Public Procurement Authority.

Consultants are also requested to submit copies of the following documents as evidence of eligibility and sign the declaration in the Technical Proposal Submission Sheet:

1. A certificate of registration, a trading license or equivalent.
2. Evidence of fulfilment of obligations to pay taxes where applicable. 
3. Any other documentation to evidence eligibility that may be relevant for the bid.

(2) Technical Proposal:

Technical proposals should contain the following documents and information: 

1. Methodology for performing the services;
2. A work plan, showing the inputs of all key staff;
3. CVs of key consultant(s);
4. A summary of your experience in similar assignments;
5. A copy of a report written by the bidder, or a link to such a document online (latter preferred).

(3) Financial Proposal:

Financial proposals should contain a breakdown of Lump Sum Price for proposal, showing all costs for the assignment. Proposals should be priced in Euros (EUR) and should include any added tax, as appropriate.

Assessment of Proprosals 

The evaluation of Proposals will use the quality and cost-based selection (QCBS) methodology as detailed below:

• Preliminary examination to determine availability and eligibility and administrative compliance to this Request for Proposals on a pass/fail basis;
• Detailed evaluation to determine technical qualification of the bidder (60% of assessment);
• Financial comparison to determine the best evaluated bid (40% of assessment).

Technical Assessment Criteria: Proposals shall be awarded scores out of the maximum number of points indicated below for each of the following criteria:

The minimum technical score required to pass the technical evaluation is 75 points.

Financial Evaluation Criteria: When allocating points to the financial offer, the maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the proposal with the lowest price. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion, according to the following formula:

p = y * μ/z      Where

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated
y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal
μ = price of the proposal with the lowest price
z = price of the proposal being evaluated

The proposal obtaining the overall highest score after adding together and weighing the score of the technical and the financial proposals is the one that offers best value for money.

Selection

Best Evaluated Bid: The best evaluated bid shall be the one that offers best value for money and shall be recommended for award of contract. The Procuring and Disposing Entity shall issue a Notice of Best Evaluated Bidder within 5 working days from the decision of the contracts committee to award a contract and communicate the Notice by e-mail to all Consultants prior to proceeding with contract award.

Award of contract: Award of contract shall be by Contract for which format is supplied by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Iceland.

Right to Review: Consultants may seek administrative review by the Procuring Entity if they are aggrieved with the decision, provided that the decision of the authorised representative of the Procuring Entity (Chief of Internal Affairs, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Iceland) shall be final and not subject to further appeal.

Right to Reject: The Procuring Entity reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal or to cancel the procurement process and reject all proposals at any time prior to contract signature and issue by the Procuring Entity, without incurring any liability to Consultants.

Documents of Relevance for Bid

Details of the evaluation work is set forth in the Terms of Reference (ToR), to include scope, evaluation focus, deliverables and timetable:

• Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Evaluation

Other sources of relevance:

• BRIDGE mid-term evaluation