Executing Agency (Client):
Public Procurement Review Body of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Titova 11 a,
71 000 Sarajevo
Bosnia and Herzegovina
f.: +387 33 259 266
The Client Contact Person:
Ms Sejla Omanovic
Public Procurement Review Body of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Email: sejlao@gmail.com
Tel: +387 33 207 682
EBRD Contact Person
James Yoo
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
One Exchange Square
London EC2A 2JN
United Kingdom
Tel: + 44 20 7338 6369
E-mail: YooJ@ebrd.com
Assignment Description
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“EBRD” or “the Bank”) places special emphasis on institutional capacity building in its countries of operations. The Bank has stressed capacity building as a primary goal for the enhancement of public governance and in particular procurement to achieve transition objectives.
The Bank’s traditional approach has been to focus solely on the demonstration effect of good procurement practice under the Bank’s procurement policies and rules (PP&R). However, this covers only procurement carried out directly under Bank financing and does not support the client for the long-term for procurement conducted using their own budget financing, which is carried out under national procurement rules.
EBRD and BiH have embarked, since 2011, on constructive and poly-phased policy dialogue in the area of Public Procurement, with emphasis on professionalization and capacity building. Following three years of cooperation between EBRD PPD and BiH institutions and authorities, both sides engaged on an intense campaign of high level consultations, training and support in Procurement and specially during the preparation and promotion of the Public Procurement Law approved by the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina in April of 2014. Among other achievements, the most important one was the preparation and signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote the development of the Public Procurement Sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina, signed in November 2014.
The purpose of this MoU was to outline the co-operation between the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina (GoBiH) and the EBRD, concerning the needs and opportunities for improvement of public procurement performance in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In particular, MoU within the objective to promote the development of the Public Procurement reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina, aims to:
i. develop and strengthen further cooperation in the sphere of public procurement policy, regulation of utilities and natural monopolies and monitoring of public procurement, as well as, PPP procurement framework;
ii. exchange information on a regular basis as appropriate, concerning technical assistance and public investment projects;
iii. render consultations with regard to the matters of mutual interest, wherever deemed necessary and upon initiative of either party;
iv. adopt forms of interaction in the field of public procurement policy and regulation, including (a) rendering methodological assistance, exchange of expert surveys and consultants’ reports, (b) exchange of experience in the field of conducting reviews, concerning the infringement of competition legislation, and (c) providing mutual and joint training, including training of trainers for the public procurement specialists with the purpose to exchange experience from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the EBRD;
v. seek to find ways to develop and provide structured and comprehensive Capacity Building in Procurement Programmes for public entities and EBRD Clients in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Bank now intends to engage an experienced firm (the “Consultant”) to provide support to the Public Procurement Review Body of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to enhance the public procurement practice in BiH and to adopt good procurement practice and adequate procedures which will then promote transparency and accountability within the demand side of the economy (the “Assignment”).
In particular, the purpose of this Assignment is to undertake concrete steps to improve the system of protection of tenderers rights through institutional strengthening and capacity building of the “Public Procurement Review Body of Bosnia and Herzegovina” (PPRB), including the interaction with other regional peer-bodies and tenderers by:
- improving the skills of the PPRB members: by providing high quality, practical and targeted training to allow the PPRB to function at an optimal level;
- promoting the cooperation and exchange of information with other regional complaint review bodies, as well as, with EBRD experts;
- training of tenderers both from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as, from other Western-Balkans (WB) countries on essential issues related to the system of protection of rights in public procurement procedures in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Consultant is expected to achieve the specific objectives through the delivery of the following outputs:
1. Institutional Strengthening and efficiency measures for the PPRB. The number of employed procurement professionals in the PPRB who are responsible and have the capacity to resolve complaints, is disproportionally insufficient. At present there are only 12 trained professionals responsible to attend and resolve complaints that amount to more than 1500 per year, from the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FB&H and RS). Main impediment to resolve this issue is PPRB’s “Ordinance on the Internal Organization” that limits the number of employees. Therefore, PPRB is looking for a solution to alleviate the attendance of the high volume of complaint cases. This TC Programme should assist the Client to identify different ways to modernize and optimise the complaint process, a Piloting phase would be highly recommended.
2. Compendium of Legal Complaint Cases – from precedent cases in the Region. PPRB emphasizes the positive experience in the Region caused by the publication of "Legal principled positions". This publication has proven to be extremely effective in reducing the number of complaints while at the same time increasing the transparent nature and shared knowledge of legal practice in procurement within the Region. This has further helped contracting authorities to improve the quality of Tender Document’s legal definitions and aspects. Therefore, and based on the need and PPRB’s assessment, a comprehensive and well organized/structured compendium of complaint cases, in the form of a book which, at present does not exist, would be very useful both for domestic and foreign companies - tenderers, as well as for contracting authorities. The preparation and publication of this book – compendium of PPRB complaint cases, would further increase the transparency of PPRB’s work. This initiative could also be part of the Action Plan that can be implemented with this TC assistance programme.
3. Proposal of digitalization of complaint appeal cases. Digitalization has been identified by PPRB as a promising tool that can greatly expedite the speed of complaint resolution. The proposed IT technology solution is required both at the level of design and/or application of a similar system already with proven record. A pilot/demonstration module should be designed, applied and tested in practice as part of this TC, by the Consultant.
This Assignment covers one component of a two parts technical assistance programme in the country. A second component will be separately procured and it will provide Capacity Building to the Public Procurement Review Body of Bosnia.
The Consultant is required to coordinate with the Consultant awarded for the Component No.2 - Capacity Building of the Public Procurement Review Body of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to avoid overlapping in the consultancy activities and in order to achieve common goals and outcomes.
It is not envisaged that there are any potential conflict of interest between this Assignment and second assignment relating to Component No. 2. Consultant can decide whether to apply for one or both consultancy opportunities.
Status of Selection Process: Interested firms or group of firms (corporate or academic entities) are hereby invited to submit expressions of interest, as well as information relevant for the selection process, as detailed under “Submission Requirements” below
Assignments Start Date and Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in Q3 2017 with an estimated overall duration of 12 months.
Cost Estimate for the Assignment: EUR 108,000; exclusive of VAT. No extension is envisaged.The Consultant must determine whether any indirect taxes/VAT are chargeable on the proposed services and state the basis for such. If any indirect taxes/VAT are payable, the Client will have to pay indirect taxes/VAT element to the services directly to the Consultant unless otherwise agreed.
Funding Source: It is anticipated that the Assignment will be financed by the DFID/FCO Good Governance Fund. Selection and contracting will be subject to the availability of funding.
Eligibility: There are no eligibility restrictions.
Consultant Profile: The Consultant will be a firm or a group of firms (corporate or academic/educational institution) preferably with:
1. Previous experience on similar projects and/or with other MDBs,
2. Knowledge of sector and respective legislative frameworks.
3. Knowledge of regional procurement frameworks.
The Consultant’s expert team is expected to include the key experts as follows:
Key Expert 1: Institutional/ Legal experts
Key Expert 2: Procurement Specialists/ Claim Expert
Key Expert 3: Technical Standardisation Experts
Key Expert 4: Local IT and other technical experts
All key experts should have a university degree in their relevant discipline, preferably 8-10 years of previous professional experience in similar projects, in particular in technical assistance project in the procurement sector, professional experience in related technical matters and experience in working in the region would be an advantage and a good knowledge of the English language is essential. Knowledge of the local language would be considered as an advantage for a more efficient analytical work of communication.
Submission Requirements: In order to determine the capability and experience of Consultants to be shortlisted, 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. 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.
The expression of interest, including the above items outlined in the submission requirements, shall not exceed 25 pages (excluding CVs Consultant Declaration and Contact Sheet).
The complete expression of interest (including CVs, Consultant Declaration and Contact Sheet) should be submitted, in English via one original hard copy and two hard copies to the Client contact person and a soft copy in PDF via Email to the EBRD’s contact person, to reach EBRD not later than the closing date and time. The delivery of the expression of interest to the Client at the address specified will be decisive regarding timely delivery of proposals as per the closing date.
Important Notes:
1. The shortlist criteria are as follows:
(a) Firm’s previous project experience in similar assignments (30%);
(b) Firm’s previous project experience in the region (20%);
(c) CV of key experts (50%).
2. 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.
