Public Finance Management Modernization Project 2: Procurement of servers, network equipment and computer equipment for EoP RT

SPECIFIC PROCUREMENT NOTICE

Tajikistan

Public Financial Management Modernization Project-II

Component 4: Managing public administration reforms

 Procurement of servers, network equipment and computer equipment for EoP RT. Loan Grant / Credit Number IDA D (0555), C (5631 TJ), TF (0A1735)

Project ID No. P150381

Contract/Bid No. PFMMPII/ICB-5-1/2021

The Ministry of Finance, Republic of Tajikistan has received a credit and grant funds from the International Development Association toward the cost of the Public Financial Management Modernization Project II, and it intends to apply part of the proceeds of this fund to payments under the agreement(s) resulting from this IFB: Procurement of servers, network equipment and computer equipment for EoP RT.

The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Tajikistan serves as the implementing agency for the project and now invites sealed bids from eligible Bidders:

3. Bidding will be conducted using the International Competitive Bidding (ICB) procedures specified in the World Bank’s Guidelines: Procurement under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits published by the Bank in January 2011 and revised in June 2014, and is open to all Bidders eligible as defined in these Guidelines, that meet the following minimum qualification criteria: -

Lot-1

a. For the last five (5) years the Bidder MUST implement two (2) successful contracts of comparable scope as the general contractor or joint venture partner, including design, supply, configuration, installation, and accomplishment of similar functional / technical specifications requirements and the Bidder MUST have experience in building at least two fault-tolerant data centers (Main and DR) over the past five years using an integrated approach to protect against cyber threats.

b. Financial Requirements: Average annual turnover for the last three years preceding the submission of the Bid (2018, 2019, 2020) MUST be at least USD 3,000,000 (three million US dollars). In case of a joint venture, the responsible partner MUST provide at least 50% of the average annual turnover, and each member of the joint venture MUST have at least 15% of the average annual turnover. The Bidder MUST submit audited financial statements (including balances), or bank statements or balance sheets certified by a registered accountant and verified by tax returns for the last three years (2018, 2019 and 2020) to demonstrate the Bidder's current financial stability and the anticipated long-term profitability.

c. Information technology and software manufacturer (s) MUST have certificate ISO 9001:2015 «Quality Management System Standard». The applicant MUST provide a copy of the certificate of conformity issued by the certification bodies.

d. Availability of certificate of partnership issued by the respective manufacturer.

e. Availability of PMP (Project Management Specialist) or PRINCE2 certified project managers.

Lot-2

a. For the last five (5) years the Bidder MUST implement two (2) successful contracts of comparable scope as the general contractor or joint venture partner, including design, supply, configuration, installation, and accomplishment of similar functional / technical specifications requirements.

b. Financial Requirements: Average annual turnover for the last three years preceding the submission of the Bid (2018, 2019, 2020) MUST be at least USD 500,000 (five hundred thousand US dollars). In case of a joint venture, the responsible partner MUST provide at least 50% of the average annual turnover, and each member of the joint venture MUST have at least 15% of the average annual turnover. The Bidder MUST submit audited financial statements (including balances) or bank statements or balance sheets certified by a registered accountant and verified by tax returns for the last three years (2018, 2019 and 2020) to demonstrate the Bidder's current financial stability and the anticipated long-term profitability.

c. Information technology and software manufacturer (s) MUST have certificate ISO 9001:2015 «Quality Management System Standard». The applicant MUST provide a copy of the certificate of conformity issued by the certification bodies.

“Interested eligible Bidders may obtain further information and inspect the bidding documents at the address below from 09:00 – 17:00 (Dushanbe time) on Monday to Friday:

Attn: Mr. Shavkat Sohibov,

Ministry of Finance, Academician Radjabov St, 3

Public Financial Management Modernization Project-2, Room#2

Dushanbe

Republic of Tajikistan

Telephone: +992-37-221-58-11

Facsimile number: +992-37-221-58-11

Electronic mail address: k.bobro@pfmmp.tj

A complete set of bidding documents will be sent by electronic mail in *.PDF format to all interested Bidders on submission of a written application to the address above.”

Bids must be delivered as per the procedures below at or before 14:00 (Dushanbe time), August 30, 2021.

The procedures for submission of bids through email shall be:

The Bidder must archive and encrypt its folder in a separate ZIP archive. Bidders shall use password that should be kept securely for the entire procurement process and only be disclosed to the Purchaser as per instructions below. Disclosure of password by the Bidder is compromising the confidentiality principle and may result in the rejection of its proposal.

We recommend using the free 7-Zip (https://www.7-zip.org) (Archive format: zip) with AES-256 (Encryption method: AES-256). For security reasons the password shall have at least 12 characters.

Prior to the Bid Submission Deadline, Bidder sends the Bid (Bid.zip;) as attachment(s) to the e-mail address Procurement.scispm with copy to the email of the Purchaser’s k.bobro@pfmmp.tj. The e-mail message including all attachments must not exceed 20MB. The subject line of the e-mail message should specify the Name of the Bid and Name of the Bidder. Password must NOT be sent at this stage. Bids containing passwords are compromising the confidentiality principle and are subject to rejection. Bidders must safely store the zip archives as submitted for the entire procurement process.

Important Note: If for technical reasons the archived bid exceeds the recommended size (20MB), then the archives must be split in volumes when archiving with each volume hashed separately and submitted in individual e-mails. In this case e-mails shall be numbered, and all volumes be received by the Purchaser not later than the bid submission deadline.

The Purchaser shall confirm the receipt of each bid by e-mail with verification of integrity of the bids in the following 8 working hours. Therefore, the Bidders are recommended to send their bids in advance to allow the Purchaser to confirm the receipt before the submission deadline. If such confirmation is not received by the Bidder in the specified timeframe, the Bidder shall contact the Purchaser for clarifications.

The Bidder shall be available to interact with the Purchaser via e-mail, phone and online conferencing tool proposed by the Purchaser for at least 2 hours starting with the bid submission deadline.

Both Purchaser and Bidders should check Inbox and SPAM folders for the receipt of electronic Bidding Documents, Bids, and any related communication.

Original documents may be requested as part of the evaluation process and will be verified by the Purchaser before the signing of the contract.

The online opening procedure shall be:

At the bid submission deadline, the Purchaser starts online conference for opening bids through:

Theme: Tender Investcom

Join the conference Zoom

Link: https://zoom.us/j/5300969928?pwd=ZmxQb2hKc0laY0dMdU95LzFWZE9BZz09

Conference ID: (Login) 530 096 9928

Access Code: (Password) 30082021

All bidders may join the conference either in person or through the link. Bidders must send the password of their bids encrypted file (Bid.zip) to the Purchaser by email at the address specified in the ITB 20.2(a) not later than 30 minutes from the bid submission deadline.  If the Bidders have technical difficulties submitting the password for technical proposal, they shall immediately inform the Purchaser to get further instructions on alternatives on submitting the password. Technical proposals that cannot be decrypted due to a corrupt file or invalid password but having the correct hash, or those for which the Bidders have not submitted/provided the passwords in the specified time, are subject to rejection.

Minutes of bids opening signed by the members of the opening committee will be promptly shared with all Bidders who submitted bids by email.

 Bids need to be secured by a Bid Security. The amount of Bid Security required is:

Lot 1 = $24,000 (twenty-four thousand) USD

Lot 2 = $5,000 (five thousand) USD

Or in Tajikistan Somoni (TJS) an equivalent amount or in any other freely convertible currency.

In case of bid on both lots, Bid Security should be in an amount that covers the combined lots.

Late bids will be rejected. Bids will be opened in the presence of Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend the online conference at 14-00 30 August 2021.

6. The attention of prospective Bidders is drawn to (i) the fact that they will be required to certify in their bids that all software is either covered by a valid license or was produced by the Bidder and (ii) that violations are considered fraud, which can result in ineligibility to be awarded World Bank-financed contracts.

7. The Bidder may bid for one or more than one of the lots identified above. Each lot will be assessed and evaluated individually.