REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)

TENDER TITLE: Formative evaluation of the Single Window Project for the Rwanda Revenue Authority.

TENDER NUMBER: PRQ20140553

ISSUE DATE: 03 November 2014

DUE DATE: 24 November 2014 (5.00 P.M. KENYA TIME)

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

Refinement of the TMEA Results Framework

INVITATION TO TENDER INSTRUCTIONS

CONTENTS

Introduction

1. General

2. Acceptance of Tenders

Instructions for Submitting a Tender

3. Format of Your Tender

4. Part A Preliminary requirements

5. Part B Executive Summary

6. Part C General & Technical Aspects

7. Part D Commercial Tender

8. Confirmation of availability

9. Government Tax

10. Evaluation Criteria & Process

11. Technical Evaluation

12. Financial Evaluation

13. Packaging and Delivery of Tenders

Other Information

14. Terms of Reference

15. Conflict of Interest

16. Disclosures

17. Joint Venture Tenders

18. TMEAs Treatment of Your Tender

19. Sustainable Development

Annexes

20. Annex 1: Pro-Formas

21. Annex 2: Contract

22. Annex 3: Technical Bid Submission Form

23. Annex 4: Fair Price Declaration

24. Annex 5: TMEA Code of Ethics

25. Annex 6: Financial Bid Submission Form

Introduction

1. This Request for Proposal (RFP) and in particular the Instructions for Compiling and Submitting Your Tender are designed to help you produce a tender that is acceptable to TMEA as well as ensuring that tenders are given equal consideration. TMEA will select the most economically advantageous tender. It is essential, therefore, that you provide the information requested in the specific format and no other.

2. TMEA is not bound to accept the lowest, or any, tender. We also reserve the right to request any, or all, to clarify the bids submitted.

Instructions for Compiling and Submitting your Tender

3. Format of Your Tender

Your tender should be submitted in English and be set out in four (4) main parts

Part A Preliminary requirement

Part B - Executive Summary

Part C - General and Technical

Part D Financial

4. Part A Preliminary requirements

Bidders are required to submit certified scanned copies of statutory requirements which MUST include:

Copy of Certificate of Registration/Incorporation;

Tax Compliance Certificate from your Revenue Authority;

Copy of passport/ Identification Card (if individual vendor); and

Copy of VAT/ TIN/ PIN/ Social Security Certificate.

Failure to submit the above requirements may lead to disqualification.

Parts A, B & C may be contained in one document including signed Technical Bid Submission Form (Annex 3), signed Fair Price Declaration (Annex 4) and signed TMEA code of Ethics (Annex 5); however, Part D alongside Financial Bid Submission Form (Annex 6) must be separate to enable Technical and Financial bids to be evaluated independently. Please do not include any financial/ price information in Part A, B or C. Inclusion of any price information may lead to bid rejection.

5. Part B Executive Summary

This should be a brief overview of your tender covering how you intend to achieve the outputs and your assessment of the resources required.

6. Part C General and Technical Tender

Your Technical submission should contain the following;

a) Any Qualification to Terms of Reference including scanned copies of relevant certificates.

b) Technical Response (including method of implementation and your proposed quality assurance mechanisms).

c) Your CV with information relevant to this project to support (a) above.

d) Personnel Inputs include person days without any reference to fees.

e) Previous relevant Experience.

7. Part D Financial Tender

All prices must be for the duration of the contract. Your Financial bid should contain the following information:

Signed and stamped Financial Bid Submission Form (Annex 6);

Confirmation of acceptance of TMEAs Conditions of Contract without amendments (available on TMEA website under work with us link button & specifically Supplier resources and information);

Pricing details using the enclosed pro-formas. Besides completing proforma 1, bidders must complete proformas 2, 3 and 4 on a fees and expenses basis to demonstrate the cost breakdown of the milestone payments. Innovation is encouraged in the development and pricing of technical and commercial proposals; and

A list of the names and designation of all nominated personnel proposed to work on this project.

NOTE: TMEA shall determine, on a case by case basis, whether the contract will be based on fees/ reimbursable or on milestone.

8. Confirmation of availability

You must confirm that you will be available to provide the required services for the duration of the contract.

9. Government Tax

Bidders are responsible for establishing the status of the Services for the purpose of any government tax in any East African country. All fee rates proposed by the tenderer should be inclusive of all taxes applicable. The contract shall be domiciled in Kenya and Government of Kenya tax laws shall apply.

10. Evaluation Criteria and Process

In assessing the proposals submitted, the evaluation committee will use the Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS) selection as per 11 below.

11. Technical evaluation

A. Technical submission evaluation

The Technical evaluation will be based on a point - system marked out of a maximum of 70 points. Only proposals that score at least 50 points in this Technical evaluation will be deemed to be substantially responsive. Marks will be awarded according to the following matrix:

NO

DESCRIPTION

Max score (70)

A. Qualification and competence of Consultants

1

Experience/ Expertise in relevant field

10

2

Qualification of consultants

5

3

Similar work carried out and supervised in EAC

10

4

Evidence of meeting specific requirements in the TORS

10

B. Technical approach (35)

1

Understanding of assignment objectives

10

2

Adequacy of proposed methodology/work plan

10

3

Logic, sequencing, interrelation of activities

5

4

Evidence of capacity to undertake work in terms with TOR and quality assurance

10

TOTAL SCORE

70

If deemed necessary, the top three bidders from the Technical evaluations shall be invited to make presentations to the evaluation committee.

12. Financial Evaluation

All substantially responsive proposals that score 50 points or more from the Technical submission evaluation shall have their Financial proposals evaluated.

The formula for determining the Financial score (SF) shall be as follows:

Sf =30 x fm/f where:

Sfis the financial score

Fm is the lowest fees quoted and

F is the fees of the proposal under consideration.

The lowest fees quoted will be allocated the maximum score of 30%.

The bidders proposals will be ranked according to their combined Technical score (st) and financial score (sf) and weighted accordingly. The formula for the combined scores shall be as follows;

S = ST x T% + SF x P%

Where:

S, is the total combined scores of Technical and financial scores

St is the Technical score

Sf is the Financial score

T is the weight given to the Technical proposal (in this case 70%) and

P is the weight given to the Financial proposal (in this case 30%)

Note P + T will be equal to 100%.

13. Packaging and Delivery of Tenders

All tender documents must be submitted online on the TMEA procurement portal http://procurement.trademarkea.com on or before 24 November 2014 (by 5.00 p.m. Kenya time). The Technical and Financial proposal will be submitted as two separate secure documents in PDF format. Please note that the maximum size of the attachments is 10MB.

Late tenders will not be accepted in any circumstance. No special pleadings will be accepted. Faxed, email or hard copy tenders/ submissions shall be rejected.

14. Terms of Reference

FORMATIVE EVALUATION OF THE SINGLE WINDOW FOR THE RWANDA REVENUE AUTHORITY PROJECT

1. Background

TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) programme aims to improve trade competitiveness in East Africa by reducing transport time/costs and improving the trade environment. It targets an increase in trade of 10% (above trend) by 2016, contributing to sustained economic growth and poverty reduction. TMEA was officially launched in February 2011 as a specialist not-for-profit agency to implement a programme to promote trade growth in East Africa. TMEA is currently funded by the UK, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden and USA. TMEAs secured budget to date totals about 330 million ($540m). The programme is currently scheduled until December 2017 with the possibility of a new programming phase beyond that.

Over the past three years, the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) with support from TradeMark East Africa (TMEA ) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) launched the Rwanda Electronic Single Window Phase 1. The Electronic Single Window system was conceived to facilitate international trade by expediting and simplifying information flows between traders and government i