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Service procurement notice - All ACP States 30/01/2008 S20 External aid programmes – Tender notice
7. Contract description:
This contract is part of an all-ACP project aiming at developing a coordinated system of regional integration indicators through inter-regional comparisons between different models and paths of integration, with a view to defining a verifiable basis and benchmarks to be used by the Regional Integration Organisations (RIOs) of the 6 ACP regions in order to monitor progress towards regional integration and effect the necessary adjustments. The project should specifically lead to the availability of a functional regional integration indicator system by region and at all-ACP level, an enhanced capability of RIOs to elaborate and use regional integration indicators and improved collaboration, synergy and networking among RIOs with regard to monitoring systems of regional integration. The ultimate objective of the project is to enhance regional integration processes thereby improving integration of ACP States into the regional and world economy, fostering sustainable development at national and regional levels and enhancing poverty alleviation in ACP States.
11. Eligibility:
Participation in tendering is open on equal terms to natural and legal persons (participating either individually or in a grouping (consortium) of tenderers) from ACP States and Member States of the European Union contributing to the European Development Fund and international organisations as authorised by the instrument applicable to the programme under which the contract is financed (see also point 30 below).
12. Candidature:
All eligible natural and legal persons (as per point 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 members) are jointly and severally liable to the contracting authority. The participation of an ineligible natural or legal person (as per point 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 1 application can be submitted by a natural or legal person whatever the form of participation (as an individual legal entity or as leader or member of a consortium submitting an application). In the event that a natural or legal person submits more than 1 application, all applications in which that person has participated will be excluded.
14. Shortlist alliances prohibited:
Any tenders received from tenderers comprising firms other than those mentioned in the shortlisted application forms will be excluded from this restricted tender procedure. Shortlisted 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 submit a signed declaration, included in the standard application form, to the effect that they are not in any of the exclusion situations listed in Section 2.3.3 of the 'Practical Guide to contract procedures for EC external actions'.
21. Selection criteria:
The selection criteria should be clear and non-discriminatory and may not go beyond the scope of the contract. Consideration has to be made regarding which proof documents should be requested for the relevant selection criteria. See Section 2.4.12 of the 'Practical Guide to contract procedures for EC external actions'. 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 capacity of candidate (based on item 3 of the application form): — the average annual turnover of the candidate must exceed EUR 1 000 000 during the last 3 years. 2) Professional capacity of candidate (based on items 4 and 5 of the application form): (a) at least 5 staff currently work for the applicant in fields related to this contract (namely management, administration and monitoring of similar projects); and (b) at least 20 % of all staff working for the candidate this year in fields related to this contract are permanent. 3) Technical capacity of candidate (based on items 5 and 6 of the application form): — the candidate has worked successfully on at least 3 projects with a budget of at least that of this contract in fields related to this contract in the past 5 years. An economic operator may, where appropriate and for a particular contract, rely on the capacities of other entities, regardless of the legal nature of the links which it has with them. It must in that case prove to the contracting authority that it will have at its disposal the resources necessary for performance of the contract, for example by producing an undertaking on the part of those entities to place those resources at its disposal. Such entities, for instance the parent company of the economic operator, must respect the same rules of eligibility and notably that of nationality, as the economic operator. 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 8 best applications for the tender procedure. The only factors which will be taken into consideration during this re-examination are: 1) knowledge of regional integration processes; 2) relevant experience of working with similar or related projects in ACP countries.
23. Deadline for receipt of applications:
29.2.2008 (16:00), Central European 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 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: — either by recorded delivery (official postal service) to: Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group), Political Affairs and Human Development Department, Avenue Georges Henri 451, B-1200 Brussels. Tel. (32-2) 743 06 00, — or hand-delivered (including courier services) directly to the contracting authority in return for a signed and dated receipt to:
Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group), Political Affairs and Human Development Department, Avenue Georges Henri 451, B-1200 Brussels. Tel. (32-2) 743 06 00. The contract title and the publication reference (see point 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. Alteration or withdrawal of applications:
Candidates may alter or withdraw their applications by written notification prior to the deadline for submission of tenders. No application may be altered after this deadline. Any such notification of alteration or withdrawal shall be prepared and submitted in accordance with point 25. The outer envelope (and the relevant inner envelope) must be marked 'Alteration' or 'Withdrawal' as appropriate.
27. Operational language:
All written communications for this tender procedure and contract must be in English.
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