Service Contracts
Service contracts are used to obtain consultancy, studies, know-how and training for the pre-accession programme. Restricted tenders Services are generally contracted by means of international restricted tenders, where a limited number of firms are invited (short listed) to submit a bid. However, tendering for services over Euro 10 million is generally carried out using open tendering procedures.
Tender announcements All programmes are published on the Internet, even before the stage at which parts of them (sub-programmes or projects) are offered for tender.
All tender opportunities are publicly announced before a tender is launched, inviting eligible suppliers to express their interest. The information given in a tender announcement provides the would-be tenderer with all the information necessary to express an interest in the project. Information on all forthcoming service tenders is published on the Internet, on the web site of the EC Delegation to Turkey. For projects estimated at over Euro 10 million, the tender announcement appears in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ).
In addition to giving the project title and partner country concerned, the tender announcement contains a description of the project, the experience required, and the estimated budget in Euro. It also contains the full address, phone and fax of the Contracting Authority, details of a contact person, the expected project start date and the deadline for expressions of interest. The tender announcement is accompanied by instructions to potential bidders on how to register their interest. Interested bidders must state their interest in being short listed using the official expression of interest form attached to the announcement. The expression of interest must be submitted before the deadline given; a period of three weeks is usual between the tender announcement and the deadline.
Getting onto the shortlist All firms which expressed an interest, using the official expression of interest form and within the deadline, are potential candidates for the shortlist. The shortlist of firms who will be invited to tender is then drawn up by reviewing all the expressions of interest received from these firms. All expressions of interest will be retained on file irrespective of whether a firms is selected for the shortlist or not.
The shortlist of tenderers contains as many firms as are necessary to ensure reasonable choice and competition. As a general rule, between 4 and 8 companies are shortlisted.
The firms short listed must be eligible under the EU regulations. They must also possess competence and experience in the relevant sector – in other words, they must be technically capable of doing the job as described. The shortlist for any tender is made public at the tendering stage.
The tender dossier Short listed firms will receive a tender dossier which includes a standard set of documents. The tender dossier contains
- The invitation to tender – a standard cover letter
- A list of all the firms invited to tender, with full address and contact details,
- Instructions to tenderers – how, when and where to submit the tender, including full details on the content of the technical and financial proposals and the evaluation criteria that will be applied
- A copy of the “general regulations for the tenders and award of service contracts”
- The Terms of Reference (TOR) – instructions and guidance to tenderers about the nature of the proposal that they need to submit
- A draft standard contract including a copy of the “General conditions of service contracts financed from EU Funds”.
The offer
The tenderer will need to submit a technical proposal and a financial proposal under the “double-envelope” system. The tenderer normally has 50 days to prepare and submit his tender.
In addition to some formal documentation, the technical proposal must contain detailed information on the organisation, methods and staff that the tenderer intends to use to provide the services required. The tenderer must demonstrate his or her understanding of the project and give an opinion on the key issues related to the achievement of its objectives. The tenderer must also provide a work plan, which gives an outline of the approach proposed, a list of activities needed, the inputs (expertise, equipment, direct costs, etc.) and outputs envisaged, and the timing and duration of the proposed activities. A list of the key staff to be used on the project must also be provided, along with CVs describing their relevant experience and the tasks they are to carry out.
In the financial proposal, the tenderer must provide a breakdown of the budget that he deems necessary to carry out the activities described in the technical proposal. All prices must be given in Euro.
How and when must tenders be submitted?
Offers may be either sent by registered mail with proof of receipt, or delivered by hand against receipt to the address stated in the tender dossier. The Contracting Authority will not be held liable for proof of arrival if any other method of transmission is used.
Offers must be received at the address and no later than the date and time specified in the instructions to tenderers. The tenderer shall bear all risks of transmission, including “force majeure”. Offers received at a later date or time or at a different address than specified will be rejected and returned to the tenderer.
The Contracting Authority may, in exceptional cases and at its discretion, extend the deadline for the submission of offers. Any such extension will be notified to the tenderers in the same way as the invitation to tender.
On receipt of the tenders, the envelopes are entered in a special register in the order in which they arrive. The registration number and the date and time of arrival are recorded on the envelope. Envelopes remain sealed and are kept in a safe place until they are opened during the “tender opening session”.
Tenders evaluation
An Evaluation Committee is established to evaluate the tenders in a fair and transparent way. The Evaluation Committee will judge each tender against a set of pre-determined criteria and will decide which tenders are acceptable.
To be acceptable, a tender must comply fully with the Terms of Reference (TOR) and with all the instructions given in the invitation to tenderers, and must be within the price parameters if these have been provided.
The Evaluation Committee
The Evaluation Committee is a group of selected officials and experts which assist the Contracting Authority in evaluating the tender proposals submitted by the tenderers and in determining the most advantageous offer. The Committee members will be selected and formally nominated on a personal basis by the PAO.
A service tender Evaluation Committee may comprise, for example, a non-voting chairperson (usually the PAO), two representatives from the Contracting Authority, an independent technical expert, a representative from both the beneficiary organisation and the responsible line Ministry, and a non-voting observer from the EU Delegation. All voting committee members have equal voting rights.
A declaration of impartiality and confidentiality is signed by each Evaluation Committee member, and any member who has a past or existing link with any tenderer must declare it and withdraw from the selection process. In addition, committee members must have a reasonable command of the language in which the tender is submitted. Finally, the composition of the Evaluation Committee remains strictly confidential.
Before starting the tender evaluation itself, the Committee meets for a preparatory session to discuss and agree on the criteria and “evaluation matrix” to be used for the technical and financial evaluations.
The tender evaluation starts with the ”tender opening session”, which is divided into two parts. Part I is a formal process in which the number of bids received and their compliance with the formal requirements of the tender submission are established. Once compliance with the formal requirements has been recorded in writing, Part II of the tender opening session can begin.
Part II is a session in which compliance of the technical offers with formal requirements is checked and recorded. The committee examines each tender document to check that it complies with the instructions given to tenderers. Tenders which are incomplete or substantially fail to meet formal requirements are rejected. Once the formalities are completed, the evaluation of the technical proposal can begin.
Selection of tender winner
For services, the offer with the best performance/price ratio will be selected.
The evaluation of tenders is based upon a “double-envelope” system. Under this system, tenders are evaluated first on their technical merit. Using the “evaluation matrix” included in each tender, each Committee member scores each technical proposal. The results of the individual evaluations are then computed and averaged. Only firms which score over a minimum number of marks (80 per cent) will then have their financial proposal evaluated. Envelopes containing the financial proposals of firms that have failed to reach this 80 percent threshold will remain unopened and will be considered no further. It is important to note that the evaluation grid included in the tender is never modified.
The technical proposal carries a possible 80 per cent of overall points. The performance criteria taken into account are, the CVs of the key staff proposed to carry out the activities and the organisation and methods proposed. The technical evaluation may also include interviews of the proposed experts; such interviews take place after the evaluation of the written proposals.
The financial proposal caries the remaining 20 per cent of points. The lowest financial offer is automatically awarded the maximum points available, i.e. the full 20 points.
The results of the technical evaluation are compounded with those of the financial evaluation to arrive at the composite rating. The firm scoring the highest number of points in the composite rating is deemed to have made the economically most advantageous offer, and will be awarded the contract. Unsuccessful tenderers will be advised of the evaluation result in writing. Tenderers have the right to a motivated response from the CFCU if they feel that an earlier response was wrong or incomplete. The proceedings of the Evaluation Committee are also recorded in writing, along with its conclusions and its final decision, and are kept on file.
Framework contracts
EU has a system of framework contracts (FWCs) for smaller contracts (below Euro 200,000). Contractors were chosen by restricted tender following an open call for pre-qualification in the OJ. The commission has concluded separate FWCs with a number of consortia covering sectors such as: agriculture, administrative reform, banking and finance, energy, environment, export development and investment promotion, health, information technology, posts and telecoms, privatisation and restructuring, SME and regional development, social development, and transport. Each of the framework contractors specialises in its own particular sector and offers consultants, expertise and other services for that sector. No public announcement of a contract is required and a “request for services” is sent directly to the framework contractors. The framework contractor prepares an offer that details the CVs and prices of the proposed experts. A choice is then made between the offers submitted following an evaluation. If the framework contractor cannot provide a particular service from her own resources, she may subcontract work to other parties. It is therefore possible for other individuals or companies to obtain work through framework contractors.
The framework contractors bring to the external assistance programme the combined resources of numerous specialised consultancies from across the Member States and the candidate/acceding countries.
Competitive Negotiated Procedures, Negotiated Procedure
When a Framework Contract is not applicable or unsuccessful, Competitive negotiated Procedure is used. The Contracting Authority consults with at least 3 Services Providers with a complete tender dossier and evaluates at least 3 compliant offers.
Finally, a Negotiated Procedure can be used for getting services at any value in urgencies and unforeseeable cases. If the extension of the activities is needed, if a tender was cancelled or if somebody has a monopoly, a negotiated procedure can be applied.
Last update: 18.3.2008