Judicial Capacity building in insolvency (reorganisation cases) Serbia

Country: Serbia
Business sector: Other
Project number: 50087
Funding source: UK Investment Climate and Governance Fund
Contract type: Consultancy Services
Notice type: Invitation for expressions of interest (CSU)
Issue date: 08 Feb 2016
Closing date: 22 Feb 2016   at  23:59   London

Project Description

Many countries in South Eastern Europe are burdened with high non-performing loan (the “NPL”) levels. Judicial reorganisation of debt is an important instrument for resolving distressed corporate loans. It permits the restructuring of liabilities of NPL borrowers with the agreement of majority creditors and conformation of the court.

Effective judicial reorganisation relies on a competent and well –trained judiciary. There are, nonetheless, indications that judges in many transition countries lack the necessary training and experience to deal effectively with more complex commercial matters, including insolvency proceedings generally and corporate reorganisations in particular.

In Serbia judicial training authorities have consistently raised lack of judicial capacity in relation to more difficult insolvency matters as a concern with reorganisations posing particular problems. Corporate reorganisation is an area outside the experience of many judges, especially in countries which do not possess specialised courts. As a result of this deficit of judicial competence and experience, reorganisations are not conducted in a timely and effective manner. This has a negative effect on the quality of the relevant insolvency regime.

The Judicial Academy of Republic of Serbia (the “Client”) has therefore requested the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the “EBRD” or the “Bank”) to provide technical assistance for increasing the capacity of insolvency judges in court reorganisation/restructuring procedures (the “Project”).

Assignment Description

The Bank now intends to engage a consulting company (the “Consultant”) to conduct various activities that aim to increase the capacity of judges dealing with court reorganisation/restructuring procedures (the “Assignment”).

The expected outcome of the Assignment is increased capacity of judges to deal with court reorganisation/restructuring procedures.

The selected Consultant is expected to provide the following services:

Task 1: Assessment report

An assessment of corporate reorganisation and the role of the judiciary. The report shall include:

• General analysis of existing judicial corporate reorganisation procedures and types of reorganisation cases.

• Analysis of judicial discretion, power and practice in reviewing the terms of judicial reorganisation plans and the admission and classification of creditors’ claims for voting purposes.

• Identification of the various commercial and legal skills needed by judges to exercise their judicial discretion and powers and handle corporate judicial reorganisation cases effectively.

• Analysis of the difficulties experienced by judges in dealing with corporate reorganisation cases, including any areas of weakness or inexperience in the judiciary and issues in the existing insolvency legal framework.

• Recommendations for targeted training and guidance for the judiciary in corporate reorganisation building on existing training practices and facilities.

• To the extent applicable, proposals for any key improvements that are needed to the insolvency legal system to clarify and assist the role of judges in corporate reorganisation cases.

Task 2: Methodology report

Following the results of the assessment report, a methodology report to contain:

• The teaching methodology to be used for judges e.g. the use of actual and hypothetical case studies, and involvement of legal and financial experts, taking into account any existing local training materials and training systems (including any e-learning systems).

• A proposal for the sustainability and maintenance of judicial training following completion of the project.

• A proposal for the preparation and dissemination of judicial guidelines for reorganisation.

Task 3: Judicial training programme

In accordance with the results of the assessment report and the methodology report, and in close collaboration with any existing local judicial training body:

• Delivery of a training programme in live seminar format to a specified number of classes, each comprising of up to 25 judges.

• Preparation and dissemination of training materials, including hand-outs and slides.

• All logistical arrangements for the delivery of the training.

• Training of any local trainers to enable delivery of the training post-project completion.

• Implementation of an e-learning training module on the e-learning platform of the Judicial Academy.

• Feedback and evaluation of the project from participants.

Task 4: Judicial handbook for reorganisation cases

A substantive judicial handbook to act as an invaluable source of information and reference point for judges handling corporate reorganisation cases by:

• Setting out the main areas of judicial decision-making in corporate reorganisation and related timeframes in the insolvency law framework.

• Identifying the key aspects of judicial involvement and discretion and the role and interests of the various parties.

• Identifying common key issues in reorganisation cases and potential approaches, illustrated with reference to practical examples.

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

Assignment Start Date and Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in March 2016 and has an estimated overall duration of 24 months.

Maximum Cost Estimate for the Assignment: EUR 200,000.00 (exclusive of VAT).

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 funded by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland through the EBRD-UK Investment Climate and Governance Fund.

Eligibility: There are no eligibility restrictions.

Consultant Profile: Corporate services are required. The Consultant will be a firm or a group of firms with previous extensive international experience in:

1. Legal and financial matters related to insolvency and restructuring;

2. Development and delivery of training programmes.

The Consultant’s team of experts is expected to include key experts as follows:

a) Key Expert No 1 Team Leader with preferably 10 years of previous professional experience in insolvency and restructuring, preferably including in the countries of South Eastern Europe;

b) Key Expert No 2 Training Expert with preferably 8 years of previous professional experience in development and delivery of training programmes, preferably including in the countries of South Eastern Europe;

c) Key Expert No 3 International Legal Expert with preferably 8 years of international legal experience in insolvency and restructuring, preferably including in the countries of South Eastern Europe;

d) Key Expert No 4 Local Legal Expert with preferably 8 years of legal experience in insolvency and restructuring in Serbia;

e) Key Expert No 5 Financial Expert with preferably 8 years of experience in financial matters related to insolvency and restructuring, preferably including in the countries of South Eastern Europe;

f) Key Experts No 6 Pool of Local Training Experts with extensive experience in delivery of training programmes, fluent in Serbian.

Key Experts No 1-5 above should be fluent in English.

Non-key experts are expected to include administrative and translation support team members.

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

1. Company/group of firms’ profile, organisation and staffing (max. 2-4 pages).

2. Details of previous project experience or similar assignments particularly 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 could carry out the Assignment detailing qualifications, experience in similar assignments, particularly assignments undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided, assignment budget, main activities, objectives.

4. Suggested methodology for this Assignment, including approach to its implementation.

5. Completed Consultant Declaration Form and 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.

Failure to submit the signed Consultant Declaration may result in disqualification of the candidate from the selection for this Assignment.

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

The complete expression of interest (including CVs, Consultant Declaration and Contact Sheet) should be submitted, in English electronically through e-Selection, to reach the Bank not later than the closing date referred to above. The expression of interest shall be one file (pdf). The EBRD reserves the right to reject applications of firms submitting more than one file. Only if the permissible file size is exceeded (4MB), the Consultant may split the expression of interest into further files.

Bank Contact Person:

Marina Matushina

Advisor, Technical Co-operation

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

One Exchange Square

London EC2A 2JN

Tel: + 44 207 338 6577

e-mail: MatushiM@ebrd.com (submissions should be sent through eSelection and NOT to this email address)

Notes:

1. The selection will normally be made from responses to this notification only. Consultants will not be asked to submit a proposal. The highest-ranked Consultant will be selected from a shortlist and be invited to negotiate the contract, subject to availability of funding.

2. The shortlist criteria are:

(a) Firm’s international experience in legal and financial matters related to insolvency and restructuring - 25 %

(b) Firm’s international experience in development and delivery of training programmes - 25 %

(c) CV of Key Experts as per requirements indicated above - 50 %