PRAG Procurement

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Bölgesel Rekabet Edebilirlik Operasyonel Programı’nın Uygulanması için Kurumsal Kapasitenin Oluşturulmasına Yönelik Teknik Yardım

Technical Assistance on Institutional Building for the Implementation of RCOP in Turkey

This project is co-financed by the European Union and the Republic of Turkey

Advanced Training PRAG Services 15-17 March 2011

Service Contracts – version November 2010

Advance Module – Day I

RCP-CICBy: Berk Babila, Managing Director - Ecorys in [email protected]

Ankara, 15 March 2011

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Content

1. Introduction2. Individual Contract Forecasts3. Procurement Notice4. Selection Criteria5. Establishment of Shortlists

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Service Contracts

Introduction

• Technical and economic support in the course of cooperation policy involves recourse to outside know-how on the basis of service contracts, most of them for studies or technical assistance

- Studies (global price): Identification and preparation of projects, feasibility studies, economic and market studies, technical studies, evaluations and audits

- Technical Assistance (fee based): To play an advisory role, to manage or supervise a project, to provide the experts specified in the contract

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Individual Contract Forecasts

Setting out the specific characteristics of the tender procedure

• Restricted Tenders – Contracts ≥ €200K- Widest possible participation – competitive tendering- Transparency

• Brief indication of the subject, content and value of the contracts (Annex B1)

• Not binding the CA to finance the proposed contract(s)• Published on the OJ of the EU, EuropeAid website and other

appropriate media • At least 15 days before the intended day of publication• At least 30 days before the publication of the PN

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Individual Contract Forecasts (2)

Checklist

• Conformity- Tender foreseen by FA/FM and OIS?- Budget in line with FA/FM and OIS?- Conditionality (if any) fulfilled?

• FN- Type of procedure?- Programme?- Financing?- CA?- Nature of the contract? - Contract description short and clear and in line with OIS?- Intended time of publication? Procurement Plan?- Legal Basis?

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Exercise

Forecast Notice

• Preparing a Forecast Notice

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Setting the framework• For all service contracts ≥ €200K• Setting the criteria for determining the capacity of ‘would be

service providers’ to fulfill the contract in question (Annex B2)• Published on the OJ of the EU, EuropeAid website and other

appropriate media • At least 15 days before the intended day of publication• Minimum deadline for submitting the applications is 30 days

(depending on the contract’s size and complexity) from the publication in the OJ of the EU

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• Conformity

- Tender is covered by FA/FM and OIS?

- Realistic timing?

- Beneficiaries, objectives and purposes, scope of services, budget in line with FA/FM and OIS?

- Conditionality (if any) fulfilled?

- Suspension Clause?

• PN

- Ref. no., contract title, programme, financing, CA and contract description in line with FN?

- Provisional timetable acceptable?

- Selection criteria verifiable on the basis of the application format?

- Re-examination of the technical criteria justifiable?

- Legal basis?

Checklist

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• Clear and non-discriminatory regardless of the contract value and the type of procedure

• The selection criteria must be:

- clearly formulated, without any ambiguity

- easy to verify on the basis of the information submitted using the standard application form (Annex B3)

- devised to allow a clear YES/NO assessment to be made as to whether or not the candidate satisfies a particular selection criterion

- possible to prove by the tenderer (what type of documentary evidence required?)

• The selection criteria should be adapted to the nature, cost and complexity of the contract

General Principles

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Selection Criteria (2)AVOID!

• Request of annual turnover, no. of staff, no. of previous projects beyond the amount of the contract

• Use of words; “sufficient”, “major”, “relevant”• Requesting information dating back more than 3 years

(regulated by Imp. Reg of Fin. Reg.). Only exception for works contracts

• Limiting technical experience to EU projects

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Selection Criteria (3)Process

• Verification of the eligibility of tenderers or candidates• Verification of the financial and economic capacities of

tenderers or candidates• Verification of the technical and professional capacities of

tenderers, candidates and their managerial staff

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Selection Criteria (3)Checklist

• Economic and financial capacity of candidate - will not be economically dependent on the CA in the event that the

contract is awarded to it; and- has sufficient financial stability to handle the proposed contract

• Examples of financial criteria for legal persons - the average annual turnover of the candidate must exceed the

annualised maximum budget of the contract (i.e, the maximum budget stated in the procurement notice divided by the initial contract duration in years, where this exceeds 1 year); and

- the averages of cash and cash equivalents at the beginning and end of year are positive

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Checklist (2)• Professional capacity of candidate

- has sufficient ongoing staff resources and expertise to be able to handle the proposed contract

- is not a so-called 'body shop', i.e, a candidate with no real expertise in fields related to the contract but which simply identifies and proposes experts to fit the project description

• Examples of professional criteria for legal persons - has a professional certificate appropriate to this contract, such as

<specify>;- at least <number related to the quantity of expertise required for this

contract> staff currently work for the applicant in fields related to this contract; and

- at least 20% of all staff working for the candidate this year in fields related to his contract are permanent.

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Selection Criteria (5)Selection Criteria (5)

Checklist (3)

• Technical capacity of candidate - has sufficient expertise and experience to be able to handle the proposed

contract • Example of technical criterion for legal persons

- the candidate has worked successfully on at least < one / two / three > project<s> with a budget of at least that of this contract in fields related to this contract in the past three years

• If more than 8 eligible candidates meet the above selection criteria, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the applications of these candidates must be re-examined to identify the eight best applications for the tender procedure.

- The only factors which will be taken into consideration during this re-examination are ...

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Selection Criteria

• Determining the selection criteria (Article 21 of the PN)

16Advanced Training PRAG Services 15-17 March 2011

The Evaluation Committee

minimum 3 for service & supply tenders andminimum 5 for works tenders

have equal voting rights

Evaluator

Evaluator

Evaluator

Secretary

Chairperson

must sign a Declaration of Impartiality & Confidentiality (including non-voting members)

should attend all meetings whereby any absence has to be recorded and explained in the evaluation report

are appointed and nominated on a personal basis by the Contracting Authority

keeping minutes, registering attendance and drafting the Evaluation Report

to ensure respect for PRAG procedures, impartiality and transparency of the evaluation

Non-voting MembersVoting Members

possess the technical and administrative capacities necessary to give an informed opinion on the tenders

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Verification of the capacity of the tenderers

• The selection procedure- Establishing a long list- Eliminating candidates who are ineligible

or fall into one of the situations under PRAG 2.3.3 and 2.3.5

- Applying the selection criteria WITHOUT any modification

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Establishment of Shortlists (3)Longlist

• Registering the applications- Leader (nationality)- Other members, if any (nationality)- Time of receipt (within the deadline)- Use of standard application form and verification of only one

application submitted per candidate• Eliminating the candidates who are ineligible

- Eligibility of nationality- Declaration(s) – PRAG 2.3.3 (as per Article 7 of the application form)

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Establishment of Shortlists (4)Longlist (2)

• Applying the selection criteria WITHOUT any modification - Economic and financial capacity- Professional capacity- Technical capacity

• Comments (such as ‘satisfying all the eligibility criteria’ or ‘failed on 21.1.1’ or ‘no satisfactory references – failed on 21.3.1’ or ‘relatively weak at 21.3.1 compared to other satisfactory applicants after re-examination’ or ‘Stronger references than those of the re-examined other applicants 21.3.1’ or ‘not received within the deadline’)

• Status after re-examination: (E)liminated/(R)etained• Shortlisted: (Y/N)

ALWAYS justify/explain the basis of your selection/rejection in order toavoid rejections from the EU Delegation

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Establishment of Shortlists (5)

Shortlist

• The service providers offering the best guarantees for the satisfactory performance of the contract are shortlisted

• Shortlist contains between 4 and 8 candidates• No. of candidates > 8, apply the additional criteria published

in the PN• No. of candidates < 4, the CA may only invite those

satisfying the criteria to submit a tender

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Exercise

What should we do if,

• there is an application in fewer number of copies than required• there is a declaration which has not been signed or contains a scanned signature • more than 15 references are submitted in one of the applications• the numbering of references is incorrect• a single reference appears to contain more than one project • there is a reference referring to a joint undertaking with another entity• inconsistent declaration of shares for the same project reference by the

tenderers• a voting member(s) having some knowledge or experience with a tenderer(s)• a voting member using her/his mobile phone in the shortlisting meeting room

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Exercise

• Register the application submitted by consortium X and assess the ‘economic and financial capacity’, ‘professional capacity’ and ‘technical capacity’ of the tenderer

Longlist

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End of Day I

• Questions and Answers

Documents

PRAG Procurement