Extended Deadline / Tender Notice: Telephonic Beneficiaries’ Verification Services in Moldova

Part 1: Instructions to tenderers

I.  Scope of tender

Qualified tender offers (bids) are sought from competent contractors for the following services:

The overall objective of this consultancy is to hire an independent Moldovan-based firm, company or organisation for field data collection services (remote, by phone) covering the entire region of Moldova. The data will be collected through qualitative and quantitative data collection methods as per pre-defined tools. The aim of the data collection is to verify the eligibility criteria for the households which are listed for benefiting the financial support within the project. All data collection practices are subjected to carry out in line with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

Detailed requirements are specified in Annex 1: Terms of Reference (ToR) for Telephonic Beneficiaries’ Verification Services in Moldova

The winning tenderer may not subcontract the service, or its part(s) to person(s) who is/are not part of the original offer.  If the offer is submitted for a team, PIN requires reviewing all persons that will participate in the service pursued, as per the selection criteria stated below and in ToR.

Interested firms, companies or service providers must submit the following:

• A cover letter of no more than 3 pages introducing the applicant’s profile and how the past experiences, skills and competencies meet the expected qualifications, also detailing their relevance to the assignment with concrete examples. Please also use this cover letter to indicate the Applicants’ availability for the proposed period;
• An outline of no more than 5 pages of the proposed process including key considerations given in scope of assignment;
• At least 2 to 3 CVs of qualified individuals who will leading or managing the assignment throughout the process;
• Confirmation that applicant have enumerators available who are familiar with the local languages;
• Minimum 2 referees (with phone number and email address) details or reference letter or feedback from previous clients;
• A quote for daily consulting fee for enumerator in EUR including technical and non-technical cost. (telephonic data collection);
• A one-page budget of the offer, covering all major anticipated technical and non-technical costs;
• One to Two sample reports of previous similar work or relevant to this assignment.

Please note that the maximum price stipulated for this tender is 15 000 EUR (including any applicable taxes and fees). Tenderers quoting a higher price will be disqualified from the tender, however, the price can be subject of the negotiation.

II.  Tendering

1. If any of the Tenderers requires any clarification relating to the tender, such question should be sent to PIN by e-mail to the following e-mail address: cristian.slobodeaniuc@peopleinneed.net and concurs.moldova@peopleinneed.net If PIN answers the question, all other Tenderers will be copied the answer. Communication will be held through e-mail.

To ensure that PIN could copy the answer to all tenderers, all Tenderers are advised to send their e-mail contacts to the above specified PIN e-mail address, or otherwise ensure that PIN knows their contact details.

In case the Tenderer does not inform PIN about corresponding e-mail address PIN will send the copy of the answer to any e-mail address available to PIN from public sources and then the Tenderer cannot claim that they/it did not know the same information as other Tenderers.

Questions could be answered only until 10:00 AM Moldova time, January 14, 2022; PIN does not guarantee that all questions will be answered.

2. Each Tenderer shall submit only one Tender offer, either individually or as a partner in a joint A Tenderer who submits or participates in more than one Tender offer will be disqualified from the Tender.

3. Tender offer must remain valid for the period of 60 days from the date of closing unless withdrawn in writing before the close of tenders.

4. The contract is concluded with the winning tenderer. Should the winning tenderer fail to provide to PIN the necessary cooperation to conclude the contract within the period of 30 days upon the tender results notice, PIN can further negotiate with the second best tenderer that shall be considered the winning tenderer. Should they fail to conclude the contract with the second best tenderer within 15 days following the notice, PIN is allowed to cancel the tender. Notice of results shall be deemed the third day following the day of dispatch of the tender results notice.

5. Tender offers have to be submitted to PIN or sent by registered post to reach the PIN office before closing date and time: 5:00 PM Moldova time, January 17, 2022 to following email address: concurs.moldova@peopleinneed.net 

Bids received after the closing date & time will not be considered.

6. E-mail subject should be marked with the following text:

“People in Need Moldova Telephonic Beneficiaries’ Verification Services in Moldova”

III.  Qualification and evaluation criteria

1. To accept or reject the tender is the responsibility of the Tender Committee, decision of which shall be final.

2. The tender evaluation committee will evaluate and award the contract on the basis of the following evaluation criteria:

1^st stage of the technical evaluation

Note: Bidders who passed the technical evaluation (30 points and more) will be invited for a panel interview/presentation (in person or remote depending on actual situation because of COVID-19). Presentation will be evaluated as per following criteria:

2nd stage of technical evaluation (interview)

3. Evaluation method (performance of evaluation criteria):

Each evaluation criteria will obtain between 0 and 10/5 points, 10/5 points being the maximum, 0 points the minimum.

Bidder with highest sum of points is the winner of the tender.

IV.  Other provisions

Further negotiations with a tenderer the about price and conditions are allowed if the negotiation is directed at making the bid more favourable for PIN.

In justified cases after receiving bids and/or during the negotiation (especially if it becomes apparent, that none of the tenderers can execute the contract in its full extent) is PIN entitled to split the contract between two or more suppliers so, that each of them will supply part of the contract. This decision must be announced to all bidders so, that they have chance to modify their bids.

In case additional services would prove to be necessary for finalization of the activity for which this tender is published, PIN reserves the right to procure them from the winner of this tender under a negotiated procedure on the basis of a single tender if the potential extension of the contract for a value and duration wouldn´t exceed the value and the duration of the initial contract awarded under this tender.

Tenderers will be notified about the results of the tender via e-mail within 14 working days after the termination of the tender.

V.  Summary of requirements on tender offer

Tender offer (bid submitted by the tenderer) shall consist of the following documents:

Part 2: Terms and conditions

I.  Exclusion and disqualification

1. PIN shall exclude from the tender any bid of a tenderer falling into any of the following cases:

1. They are bankrupt or being wound up, are having their affairs administered by the courts, have entered into an arrangement with creditors, have suspended business activities, are the subject of proceedings concerning those matters, or are in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure provided for in national legislation or regulations;
2. They or persons having powers of representation, decision-making or control over them have been convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct by a judgement that has the force of res judicata;
3. They have been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means that the contracting authority can justify;
4. They have not fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of social security contributions or the payment of taxes in accordance with the legal provisions of the country in which they are established or those of the Czech Republic or those of the country where the contract is to be performed;
5. They or persons having powers of representation, decision making or control over them have been the subject of a judgment which has the force of res judicata for fraud, corruption, involvement in a criminal organisation, money laundering or any other illegal activity;
6. They do engage in the employment of children, disrespect basic social rights and working conditions based on international labour standards;
7. They have engaged in the trafficking in persons and have provided any support (direct or indirect) of terrorism, including the financing of terrorism, or transactions with persons connected with terrorism;
8. They are currently subject to an administrative penalty imposed by donor or have been listed by the donor as ineligible for participation in award procedures financed by donor´s money;
9. Candidate might be excluded on the basis of another procurement procedure or grant award procedure financed by PIN or donor of the project, under which they have been declared to be in serious breach of contract for failure to comply with their contractual obligations;
10. They or any of their employees, associates or other persons related to them provided technical assistance to PIN under that same procurement procedure.

Points (a) to (d) do not apply to the purchase of supplies on particularly advantageous terms from either a supplier which is definitively winding up its business activities, or the receivers or liquidators of a bankruptcy, through an arrangement with creditors, or through a similar procedure under national law.

Tenderers shall declare they are in none of the situations listed above by the signature of Sworn eligibility statement form.

2. Bids of tenderers shall be disqualified from the tender who, during the procurement procedure:

1. tenderer is subject to a conflict of interest;
2. tenderer has not stated true facts or has misinterpreted information required by PIN, or fails to provide timely such information or to provide required documents stated by PIN as condition for participation in the tender;
3. tenderer does not meet the PIN qualification criteria or requirements stipulated in the tender documentation;
4. tenderer has fulfilled the exclusion condition mentioned above in preceding article (Part 2, Article I.), points c) or i) during the last 2 years prior to the launch of the tender.

II.  Code of conduct for suppliers

In addition to the above conditions for disqualification, Code of Conduct for Suppliers defines all areas that PIN expects all of its suppliers at minimum to respect, and operate in ways that meet fundamental responsibilities in human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.  The Code of Conduct is defined by the Ten principles of the UN Global Compact^[1]:

• Support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights;
• No involvement in human rights abuses;
• Freedom of association and recognition of right to collective bargaining;
• Employment is freely chosen, not forced or compulsory;
• No exploitation of children and child labour;
• No discrimination in respect of employment and occupation;
• Support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;
• Accept greater environmental responsibility promotion;
• Encourage the development and spread of environmentally friendly technologies;
• Adhering to highest standards of ethical conduct behaviour, including: working against corruption and all its forms, conflict of interest disclosure, respect to local laws.

III.  Cancellation of the tender/non-conclusion of the contract with the winning tenderer

PIN may cancel the announced tender or not conclude contract with the winning tenderer in the following cases:

IV.  General conditions

1. The Tenderer shall bear all costs associated with the preparation and submission of the Tender, and PIN will in no case be responsible or liable for such costs.

2. The tenderer hereby declares and warrants that has seen and understood the terms of the below mentioned policies and it complies and shall comply with all applicable terms and conditions specified therein:

PIN Policy on Ethical Conduct, PIN Code of Conduct, PIN Anti-Corruption Policy and other related policies referred to therein, which are incorporated by reference and represent an integral part of this tender notice. Electronic copies containing the complete text are available at: www.clovekvtisni.cz/policies

3. The tenderer will immediately and without undue delay inform PIN of any event which interferes or threatens to materially interfere with this Tender notice, including suspicion of or actual fraud, corruption, bribery, theft, terrorist financing or other misuse of funds. Such information should be passed in the first instance to fraud@peopleinneed.cz.

All information will be treated with the upmost confidentiality. Information can also be reported directly to the PIN programme team where appropriate, these will be immediately passed on to the above-mentioned e-mail address.

4. PIN reserves the right to cancel the tender without giving any reason.

List of Annexes:

Annex 1 – Terms of References for Telephonic Beneficiaries’ Verification Services in Moldova

Annex 2 – Sworn Eligibility Statement

^[1] For more information, see https://www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/mission/principles