Regional (TCS 32949): Project Coordinator - EBRD-UNCITRAL Initiative on Public Procurement

Procurement ref: Country: Sector: Project number: Funding sources:

32949

Contract type: Notice type: Issue date: Closing date:

Regional (TCS 32949): Project Coordinator - EBRD-UNCITRAL Initiative on Public Procurement

Regional (TCS 32949): Project Coordinator - Joint EBRD - UNCITRAL Initiative on Enhancing Public Procurement Regulation in selected CIS Countries and Mongolia

Assignment Description:

As a significant investor in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries and Mongolia, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD or the Bank) is concerned with the laws governing public procurement (PP), with respect to the effectiveness of PP in particular. Several countries in the EBRD region are considering or implementing reforms in PP, and the Bank is committed to promoting a balance between transparency safeguards and efficiency instruments in the development of PP regulations

Several CIS countries originally based their PP legislation on the 1994 UNCITRAL Model Law on Procurement of Goods, Construction, and Services (PP Model Law or Model Law), which is now outdated. UNCITRAL revised the Model Law and the new standard will be officially adopted in 2011. Therefore, if improvements are to be made to PP legislation in the CIS countries, the revised PP Model Law is expected to be the main reference.

In view of those recent developments the EBRD and UNCITRAL have developed a joint initiative on enhancing PP regulation in selected CIS countries and Mongolia intended to support government in PP legal reform (EBRD UNCITRAL Programme or the Programme).

The Programme embraces seven countries in the CIS region, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The list of the target countries may change dependent on the level of commitment from the national regulatory PP authorities.

The Bank is now seeking to recruit a consulting company (the Consultant) to provide general support and assistance to the EBRD-UNCITRAL team and to organising a series of seven policy dialogue workshops in the selected CIS countries and Mongolia (the Assignment).

These countries are identified as those interested in upgrading their national PP frameworks originally based on the 1994 UNCITRAL Model Law (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) or those wishing to adopt the revised UNCITRAL PP Model Law (Belarus, Russia and Turkmenistan).

The Consultant will be responsible for the logistics and related services necessary for the planning and implementation of series of seven PP policy workshops. Required services will include preparing and coordinating the administration of all workshops, activities and publications, as well as designing, hosting and maintaining the Programme website.

In addition, the Consultant shall edit and publish in English and Russian the legal articles and case studies presented at the workshops as practical guidelines on how to develop a PP reform project for the transition country (the Manual on PP Reform). The Manual on PP Reform will be published traditionally as a book as well as online on the Programme website.

In addition, the Consultant is expected to provide following services for a period of approx. 12 months:

(a) Regular project office services, provided by a full time project assistant, to coordinate all administrative and logistics tasks involved in organising seven workshops in seven different countries in the CIS and Mongolia. The project office services should be provided both in English and Russian;

(b) Regular communications adviser services, in English and Russian, to prepare and publish, including online publication, all workshop reference materials produced with inputs from other firms hired to implement the Programme;

(c) Additional communications adviser services, in English and Russian, to produce/publish the Manual on PP Reform as a book and in an online version;

Furthermore, the Consultant is expected to provide following services for a period of approx. 36 months:

(i) Programme website design and development, including all licence fees necessary to develop the website, as agreed with the IT department of the Bank;

(ii) Programme website hosting and IT maintenance;

(iii) Content updates of the Programme website every 4 weeks and all editorial work required to publish news regarding workshops and workshop reference materials.

Status of Selection Process: Interested firms are hereby invited to submit expressions of interest.

Assignment Start Date and Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in approx. August 2011 and has an estimated overall duration of 36 months.

Maximum Budget available for the Assignment: EUR 430,000 (exclusive of VAT).

Subject to availability of funding, the performance of the selected Consultant and the specific needs of the Bank the Assignment may be extended beyond the current scope.

The Consultant must determine whether any VAT would be chargeable on the services and the basis for that determination, without taking into consideration the special status of the Bank as an IFI and state this to the Bank in their response to the Invitation for Expressions of Interest. To the extent that a Consultant incurs input VAT on goods and services purchased in connection with the provision of services (e.g. VAT on airline ticket) which is not otherwise recoverable by the consultant from the local tax authority, the gross cost to the consultant of such expenses shall be treated as a reimbursable expense.

Funding Source: The Assignment will be financed through the EBRD Slovak Republic Technical Cooperation Fund. Please note selection and contracting will be subject to the availability of funding.

Eligibility: Participation is restricted to firms/institutions that are registered in the Slovak Republic. Experts shall be citizens of the Slovak Republic or permanent employees of consulting firms/institutions registered in the Slovak Republic. Up to 25% of the contract value may be used to subcontract local consultants from the concerned countries of operation which are to be defined at later stage.

Consultant Profile: Corporate services are required. The Consultant will be a firm or group of firms with:

1. Previous project experience related to public procurement, specifically in UNCITRAL Public Procurement Model Law;
2. Previous project experience in planning and implementing workshops and conferences including all logistics and administrative services, webpage design and maintenance, editing and publishing of presentations held at workshops etc;
3. Previous project experience (organising conferences, workshops etc) in selected CIS countries and Mongolia.

The Consultant is expected to nominate an expert team capable of carrying out the Assignment. The expert team is expected to at least include key experts as follows:

(a) Project Manager with preferably more than 5 years of relevant professional experience;
(b) Communication Adviser with preferably more than 5 years of relevant professional experience;
(c) IT Specialists with preferably more than 3 years of relevant professional experience.

Submission Requirements: In order to determine the capability and experience of Consultants seeking to be short listed for this Assignment, the information submitted should include the following:

 1. Company profile, organisation and staffing (max. 2-4 pages);
2. Details of previous project experience or similar assignments undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contract value, contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided (if different from duration) , main activities, objectives;
3. CVs of key experts who would be available to work on the Assignment;
4. Completed contact sheet, the template for which is available from the following web-link:
http://www.ebrd.com/pages/workingwithus/procurement/notices/csu/contact_sheet.doc

The above information should not exceed 25 pages excluding CVs and contact sheet.

The complete expression of interest (including CVs and Contact Sheet) shall be one file (pdf or Word) to be uploaded to eSelection. The EBRD reserves the right to reject applications of firms submitting more than one file. Only if the permissible file size is exceeded, the Consultant may split the expression of interest into further files.

Expressions of Interest shall be submitted, in English, electronically through e-Selection, to reach the Bank not later than the closing date.

Bank Contact Person:

Martin Ehrenberg
Senior Advisor
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
One Exchange Square
London EC2A 2JN
Tel: + 44 20 7338 7657
e-mail: [email protected] (submissions should be sent through eSelection and NOT to this email address)

Notes:

1. Following this invitation for expressions of interest, a shortlist of qualified firms will be formally invited to submit proposals. Consultant selection and contracting will be subject to availability of funding.

2. The shortlist criteria and respective weights are as follows:

(a) Previous project experience related to public procurement, specifically in UNCITRAL PP Model Law � 15%
(b) Previous project experience in planning and implementing workshops and conferences including all logistics and administrative services, webpage design and maintenance, editing and publishing of presentations held at workshops etc.- 30%
(c) Previous project experience (organising conferences, workshops etc) in selected CIS countries and Mongolia � 15%
(d) CV of key experts � 40%