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SERVICE PROCUREMENT NOTICE

Assistance to the Reform of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training System in the Arab Republic of Egypt
Location - Arab Republic of Egypt

1. Publication reference

                        EUROPEAID/116311/C/SV/EG

2. Procedure

                        Restricted

3. Programme

                        MEDA

4. Financing

                        Budget Line B2004-14.080201

5. Contracting Authority

                  European Commission, represented by the EC Delegation in Cairo, Egypt, on behalf of the Arab Republic of Egypt

 

CONTRACT SPECIFICATION

6. Nature of contract

                        Fee-based

7. Contract description

The Government of Egypt (GOE) is faced with the challenge of finding balanced responses to the political, economic and social implications of the present difficult economic situation and the increased international competition resulting from the gradual economic liberalisation. The development of a skilled labour force will be a key factor for the private sector to be competitive on international and local markets, and in generating employment for a growing labour force. Through this programme, under three contracts, the EC will provide institution and capacity building, training as well as policy advice with a view to supporting the development of human and institutional capacities for the formulation and implementation of a systemic national TVET reform policy.

Contract 1 concerns the provision of long- and short-term TA services in support of the overall management structure of the programme, overall policy advice and co-ordination as well as implementation of one public-private partnership. Contracts 2 and 3 will later attract short-term expertise for institution/capacity building and training activities fostering establishment of additional public-private partnerships. This tender refers to Contract No. 1 only. Contract 2: TVET Phase 2 and Contract 3: TVET Phase 3 will be subject to other, separate tenders.

8. Numbers and titles of lots

One single Lot (Contract 1): TVET - PMU and Phase 1

9. Maximum budget

EUR           7,450,000.00

10. Scope for additional services

Not applicable 

CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION

11. Eligibility

Participation is open on equal terms to all natural and legal persons of the EU Member States and countries addressed by the MEDA programme Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey.

12. Candidature

All eligible natural and legal persons (as per item 11 above) or groupings of such persons (consortia) may apply.

A consortium may be a permanent, legally-established grouping or a grouping which has been constituted informally for a specific tender procedure.  All members of a consortium (i.e., the leader and all other partners) are jointly and severally liable to the Contracting Authority.

The participation of an ineligible natural or legal person (as per item 11) will result in the automatic exclusion of that person.  In particular, if that ineligible person belongs to a consortium, the whole consortium will be excluded.

13. Number of applications

No more than one application can be submitted by a natural or legal person (including legal persons within the same legal group), whatever the form of participation (as an individual legal entity or as leader or partner of a consortium submitting an application). In the event that a natural or legal person (including legal persons within the same legal group) submits more than one application, all applications in which that person (and legal persons within the same legal group) has participated will be excluded.

14. Shortlist alliances prohibited

Any tenders received from tenderers comprising firms other than those mentioned in the short-listed application forms will be excluded from this restricted tender procedure. Short-listed candidates may not form alliances or subcontract to each other for the contract in question.

15. Grounds for exclusion

As part of the application form, candidates must provide the evidence required in Section 2.3.3 of the Practical Guide to contract procedures financed from the General Budget of the European Communities in the context of external actions (available from following Internet address: http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/index_en.htm).

16. Sub-contracting

Sub-contracting will not be allowed

17. Number of candidates to be short-listed

On the basis of the applications received, at least 4 and at most 8 candidates will be invited to submit detailed tenders for this contract.

PROVISIONAL TIMETABLE

18. Provisional date of invitation to tender

December 2004

19. Provisional commencement date of the contract

Quarter 1, 2005

20. Initial period of execution and possible extension of the contract

72 months

 

SELECTION AND AWARD CRITERIA

21. Selection criteria

The following selection criteria will be applied to candidates. In the case of applications submitted by a consortium, these selection criteria will be applied to the consortium as a whole:

1)         Economic and financial standing of candidate, based on item 3 of the application form:

(a) The average annual turnover of the candidate must exceed 5 times 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).

2)         Professional capacity of candidate, based on item 4 and 5 of the application form:

(a) At least 25% of all staff working for the candidate this year in fields related to this contract are permanent.

3)         Technical capacity of candidate, based on item 5 and 6 of the application form:

(a) Each consortium or single potential bidder must have solid experience in managing at least 3 large-scaled programmes/projects of the same size of this contract within the last five years. The programmes/projects must relate to institution and capacity building, training, curriculum development as well as to policy advice in the field of VET, ideally in countries in economic transition;

(b) The candidate has sufficient and proven expertise and experience to be able to handle the proposed contract organisationally.

4)         If more than 8 eligible candidates meet the above selection criteria, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the applications of these candidates will be reexamined to identify the eight best applications for the tender procedure. The only factors which will be taken into consideration during this re-examination are:

(a) Overall number of successfully executed contracts in VET-related institution and capacity building, training, curriculum development as well as to policy advice in transition countries;

(b) Specific experience in the Meda region.

22. Award criteria

As specified in the tender dossier annexed to the letter of invitation to tender which will be sent to short-listed candidates.

 

APPLICATION

23. Deadline for receipt of applications

November 28th,  2004 at 12:00 noon Cairo local time.

Any application received after this deadline will not be considered.

24. Application format and details to be provided

Applications must be submitted using the standard application form (available from the following Internet address:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/index_en.htm),

whose format and instructions must be strictly observed.

Any application which does not observe these provisions will be automatically eliminated.

Any additional documentation (brochure, letter, etc) sent with an application will not be taken into consideration.

25. How applications may be submitted

Applications must be submitted in English exclusively to the Contracting Authority:

1.        EITHER by recorded delivery (official postal service) to:

Finance & Contracts Section

Delegation of the European Commission

37, Gamaet El Dowal El Arabiya Street

El-Fouad Office Building, 11th floor

Mohandessin, Giza

Cairo, Egypt

2.        OR hand delivered (including courier services) directly to the Contracting Authority in return for a signed and dated receipt to:

Finance & Contracts Section

Delegation of the European Commission

37, Gamaet El Dowal El Arabiya Street

El-Fouad Office Building, 11th floor

Mohandessin, Giza

Cairo, Egypt

 

The Contract title and the Publication reference (see item 1 above) must be clearly marked on the envelope containing the application and must always be mentioned in all subsequent correspondence with the Contracting Authority.

Applications submitted by any other means will not be considered.

26. Operational language

All written communications for this tender procedure and contract must be in English. 

27. Additional information

The winning consortium as a whole, single members of this consortium or the winning single bidder for Contract 1 is not entitled to participate in tendering for Contracts 2 and 3.

28. Date of publication of contract forecast

Official Journal no S 71 on 10 April 2003, EuropeAid/11 63 11/C/SV/EG

29. Legal basis

Council Regulation no. 1488/96, amended by Council Regulation no. 2698/2000 of 27/11/2000.