Request for Expressions of Interest


INDIAN OCEAN COMMISSION

BUILDING REGIONAL RESILIENCE THROUGH STRENGTHENED METEOROLOGICAL, HYDROLOGICAL AND CLIMATE SERVICES IN THE INDIAN OCEAN COMMISSION (IOC) MEMBER COUNTRIES

CONSULTING SERVICES
Expressions of Interest
Technical Assistance Service to support the IOC in the implementation of the HYDROMET Project
N°COI/ HYDROMET /AO/2021/001

The Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) has received a financing from Agence Française de Développement ("AFD"), and intends to use part of the funds thereof for payments under the following project “Building regional resilience through strengthened meteorological, hydrological and climate services in the Indian Ocean Commission member countries (HYDROMET)”. This regional multi donor project is funded by the Green Climat Fund (GCF-52.8MUSD); the Agence Française de Développement (AFD – 5million euro) and the European Union (EU- 5.6million Euro).
The Services of the consultant shall consist of providing Technical Assistance Service to the Indian Ocean Commission in the implementation of the HYDROMET project . The IOC will be the Executing Entity. The Executing Entity will assume overall responsibility for the effective delivery of Project inputs and interventions in order to achieve the expected project outputs. To fulfil its role, the Executing Entity will set up a Project Management Unit (“PMU”). The IOC – with the assistance of the PMU – will manage the overall execution of the project. The PMU will be led by a Regional Project Coordinator (“RPC”).
The IOC will support four National Project Coordinators (“NPCs”) based in the NMHSs of the Host Countries. The NMHSs will act as the lead National Implementing Partner (“NIP”) within each beneficiary country. The NMHSs with the support of the EE, through the PMU team, will be strongly involved in the project implementation, progress and achieving national objectives. To ensure full involvement and ownership for the beneficiary countries, NPCs will be co-recruited by the Executing Entity and the NIPs with the support of the PMU. The NPCs will be part of the PMU. Each NIP will designate a National Focal Point (“NFP”), which is a permanent staff member of the NMHS to coordinate and liaise with the NPC.
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The Call for Expression of Interest is open to Firms of international standards interested to provide Technical Assistance Service to support the IOC in the implementation of the HYDROMET project. The Technical Assistance required will consist of one (1) long term key expert, five (5) specialised short-term experts and a pool of non-key experts(assessors) to form part of the Project Management Unit (PMU) of the IOC. The PMU will be located at the Headquarterts of the Indian ocean commission in Eben, Republic of Mauritius.
The Project Management Unit will be composed of:
1. The Technical Assistance Team comprising of:
• One (1) Regional Project Coordinator (RPC). The RPC will provide support to the IOC for the overall project implementation and coordination at regional level – (60 months);
• One (1) Hydrometeorological and Climate Services expert – part-time (30 months for the duration of the project);
• One (1) Environmental and Social officer (10 months for the duration of the project );
• One (1) Gender Officer (10 months for the duration of the project) ;
• One (1) Procurement Officer – part-time (30 months for the duration of the project );
• One (1) Monitoring and Evaluation officer – part-time (30 months for the duration of the project );
• A pool of non-key experts (50 days)to support the evaluation and assessment processes;
2. Other experts to be recruited by the IOC comprising of:
• Four National Project Coordinators (NPCs). Full-time NPCs will be based in each of the four beneficiary countries to support the NMHS Focal Points in achieving project goals and objectives;
• One (1) Financial Officer – part-time (30 months);
• One (1) Communication Officer – part-time (30 months); and
• One (1) Administrative Officer – part time (30 months) .
The duration of the assignment will be 60 months.

The Indian Ocean Commission hereby invites Applicants to show their interest in delivering the Services described above.
This Request for Expressions of Interest is open to: check only one box

Consulting firms q Individual consultants

q NGOs q Joint Venture between NGO(s) and consulting firm(s)

Eligibility criteria to AFD financing are specified in sub-clause 1.3 of the "Procurement Guidelines for AFD Financed Contracts in Foreign Countries", available online on AFD’s website: http://www.afd.fr.
The Applicant shall submit only one application, either in its own name or as a member of a Joint Venture (JV). If an Applicant (including any JV member) submits or participates in more than one application, those applications shall be all rejected. However, the same Subconsultant may participate in several applications.
If the Applicant is a JV, the expression of interest shall include:
 a copy of the JV Agreement entered into by all members,
or
 a letter of intent to execute a JV Agreement, signed by all members together with a copy of the Agreement proposal,
In the absence of this document, the other members will be considered as Subconsultants.
Experiences and qualifications of Subconsultants are not taken into account in the evaluation of the applications.
Interested Applicants must provide information evidencing that they are qualified and experienced to perform those Services. For that purpose, documented evidence (10 pages maximum) of recent and similar services shall be submitted.
Determination of the similarity of the experiences will be based on:
i. The experience and similar services provided over the past ten years in the field of technical assistance, including sources of funding, amount and purpose of services. The similarity of the experiences will be analysed based on:
o The contracts size; contrat value between 2 to 4million euro
o The nature of the Services: project management, coordination of multi-country and multi-actor activities (ministries, parastatals, communities, NGOs, researchers, etc.), technical assistance and institutional support, interaction with the research community;
o The technical area and expertise: climate change, meteorology, climatology, capacity building, climate services, early warning systems, natural disasters, etc.;
o The location: World Wide with experience in Africa, Carribean and Pacific .
o Knowledge of the geographical context: small islands developing states or least developed countries

ii. Understand of the services to be provided and the quality of the services offered;
o The expertise considered to carry out the requested services (name and CV of experts are not required)
o References pertaining to the execution of similar contracts;
o Skills and availability of in-house technical back-up experts provided to the on-site experts
iii. Administrative and Financial capacity ,
o The presentation of the companyAdministrative document (Registration of the firm, human resource capacity, financial turnover for the past three years

The Client will also take into account for the evaluation of the applications the following items:
 Any relevant documents that will support their application
 Quality assurance procedures and certifications of the Applicant – specify the type or the label of the certification: for example, ISO 9001 or environmental and social certification.
Due to the security risk in the areas where the Services are to be performed, the evaluation of Expressions of Interest will verify that the applications meet the following criteria:
 The Applicant has at least one experience providing services in an area with a similar security risk, for which it shall provide proof of implementation of security measures (invoice or contract with a security service provider, proof of security awareness training before departure on-site, etc.).
 The Applicant has set up internal security management procedures: it shall provide a description of its monitoring system and crisis management system.
 For services provided abroad, the Applicant has entered into an assistance and repatriation contract for its employees: it shall provide the certificate evidencing such contract.
 The Applicant shall describe its standard preparation process for departure on assignment in sensitive areas, and shall attach documents proving its implementation (service orders with related instructions, certificates of awareness-raising or training actions, etc.).
For a JV, its leader and any member that has its registered office outside the Client's country shall fulfil each of these criteria.
An application that does not meet any of these requirements will be rejected.
Among the submitted applications, the Indian Ocean Commission will shortlist a maximum of six (6) Applicants, to whom the Request for Proposals to carry out the Services shall be sent.
The Expressions of Interest must be submitted to the address below no later than August 18, 2021 at 16:00 (Mauritius time, GMT+4) .
General Secretariat of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC)
The Procurement and Contracts Department
Blue Tower, 4th floor, Rue de l’Institut, Ebene, Mauritius
Telephone: (+230) 402 6100 – Fax : (+230) 465 6789
Email: innocent.miada@coi-ioc.org ; gina.bonne@coi-ioc.org
Interested Applicants may obtain further information at the address below during office hours:
From 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. .

General Secretariat of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC)
The Procurement and Contracts Department.
Blue Tower, 4ème étage, Rue de l’Institut, Ebène, Maurice
Tél : (230) 402 6100 – Fax (230) 465 6789
E – mail : innocent.miada@coi-ioc.org; gina.bonne@coi-ioc.org

Appendix to The Request for Expressions of Interest
(To be sumitted with the application, signed and unaltered)
Statement of Integrity, Eligibility and Environmental and Social Responsibility

Reference of the bid or proposal (the "Contract")
To: (the "Contracting Authority")

1. We recognise and accept that Agence Française de Développement ("AFD") only finances projects of the Contracting Authority subject to its own conditions which are set out in the Financing Agreement which benefits directly or indirectly to the Contracting Authority. As a matter of consequence, no legal relationship exists between AFD and our company, our joint venture or our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants. The Contracting Authority retains exclusive responsibility for the preparation and implementation of the procurement process and performance of the contract. The Contracting Authority means the Purchaser, the Employer, the Client, as the case may be, for the procurement of goods, works, plants, consulting services or non-consulting services.
2. We hereby certify that neither we nor any other member of our joint venture or any of our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants are in any of the following situations:
2.1 Being bankrupt, wound up or ceasing our activities, having our activities administered by the courts, having entered into receivership, reorganisation or being in any analogous situation arising from any similar procedure;
2.2 Having been:
a) convicted, within the past five years by a court decision, which has the force of res judicata in the country where the Contract is implemented, of fraud, corruption or of any other offense committed during a procurement process or performance of a contract (in the event of such conviction, you may attach to this Statement of Integrity supporting information showing that this conviction is not relevant in the context of this Contract);
b) subject to an administrative sanction within the past five years by the European Union or by the competent authorities of the country where we are constituted, for fraud, corruption or for any other offense committed during a procurement process or performance of a contract (in the event of such sanction, you may attach to this Statement of Integrity supporting information showing that this sanction is not relevant in the context of this Contract);
c) convicted, within the past five years by a court decision, which has the force of res judicata, of fraud, corruption or of any other offense committed during the procurement process or performance of an AFD-financed contract;
2.3 Being listed for financial sanctions by the United Nations, the European Union and/or France for the purposes of fight-against-terrorist financing or threat to international peace and security;
2.4 Having been subject within the past five years to a contract termination fully settled against us for significant or persistent failure to comply with our contractual obligations during contract performance, unless this termination was challenged and dispute resolution is still pending or has not confirmed a full settlement against us;
2.5 Not having fulfilled our fiscal obligations regarding payments of taxes in accordance with the legal provisions of either the country where we are constituted or the Contracting Authority's country;
2.6 Being subject to an exclusion decision of the World Bank and being listed on the website http://www.worldbank.org/debarr (in the event of such exclusion, you may attach to this Statement of Integrity supporting information showing that this exclusion is not relevant in the context of this Contract);
2.7 Having created false documents or committed misrepresentation in documentation requested by the Contracting Authority as part of the procurement process of this Contract.
3. We hereby certify that neither we, nor any of the members of our joint venture or any of our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants are in any of the following situations of conflict of interest:
3.1 Being an affiliate controlled by the Contracting Authority or a shareholder controlling the Contracting Authority, unless the stemming conflict of interest has been brought to the attention of AFD and resolved to its satisfaction;
3.2 Having a business or family relationship with a Contracting Authority's staff involved in the procurement process or the supervision of the resulting Contract, unless the stemming conflict of interest has been brought to the attention of AFD and resolved to its satisfaction;
3.3 Being controlled by or controlling another bidder or consultant, or being under common control with another bidder or consultant, or receiving from or granting subsidies directly or indirectly to another bidder or consultant, having the same legal representative as another bidder or consultant, maintaining direct or indirect contacts with another bidder or consultant which allows us to have or give access to information contained in the respective applications, bids or proposals, influencing them or influencing decisions of the Contracting Authority;
3.4 Being engaged in a consulting services activity, which, by its nature, may be in conflict with the assignments that we would carry out for the Contracting Authority;
3.5 In the case of procurement of goods, works or plants:
a) Having prepared or having been associated with a consultant who prepared specifications, drawings, calculations and other documentation to be used in the procurement process of this Contract;
b) Having been recruited (or being proposed to be recruited) ourselves or any of our affiliates, to carry out works supervision or inspection for this Contract.
4. If we are a state-owned entity, and to compete in a procurement process, we certify that we have legal and financial autonomy and that we operate under commercial laws and regulations.
5. We undertake to bring to the attention of the Contracting Authority, which will inform AFD, any change in situation with regard to points 2 to 4 here above.
6. In the context of the procurement process and performance of the corresponding contract:
6.1 We have not and we will not engage in any dishonest conduct (act or omission) deliberately indented to deceive others, to intentionally conceal items, to violate or vitiate someone's consent, to make them circumvent legal or regulatory requirements and/or to violate their internal rules in order to obtain illegitimate profit;
6.2 We have not and we will not engage in any dishonest conduct (act or omission) contrary to our legal or regulatory obligations or our internal rules in order to obtain illegitimate profit;
6.3 We have not promised, offered or given and we will not promise, offer or give, directly or indirectly to (i) any Person who holds a legislative, executive, administrative or judicial mandate within the State of the Contracting Authority regardless of whether that Person was nominated or elected, regardless of the permanent or temporary, paid or unpaid nature of the position and regardless of the hierarchical level the Person occupies, (ii) any other Person who performs a public function, including for a State institution or a State owned company, or who provides a public service, or (iii) any other person defined as a Public Officer by the national laws of the Contracting Authority’s country, an undue advantage of any kind, for himself or for another Person or entity, for such Public Officer to act or refrain from acting in his official capacity;
6.4 We have not promised, offered or given and we will not promise, offer or give, directly or indirectly to any Person who occupies an executive position in a private sector entity or works for such an entity, regardless of the nature of his/her capacity, any undue advantage of any kind, for himself or another Person or entity for such Person to perform or refrain from performing any act in breach of its legal, contractual or professional obligations;
6.5 We have not and we will not engage in any practice likely to influence the contract award process to the detriment of the Contracting Authority and, in particular, in any anti competitive practice having for object or for effect to prevent, restrict or distort competition, namely by limiting access to the market or the free exercise of competition by other undertakings;
6.6 Neither we nor any of the members of our joint venture or any of our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants shall acquire or supply any equipment nor operate in any sectors under an embargo of the United Nations, the European Union or France;
6.7 We commit ourselves to comply with and ensure that all of our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants comply with international environmental and labour standards, consistent with laws and regulations applicable in the country of implementation of the Contract, including the fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and international environmental treaties. Moreover, we shall implement environmental and social risks mitigation measures when specified in the environmental and social commitment plan (ESCP) provided by the Contracting Authority.
7. We, as well as members of our joint venture and our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants authorise AFD to inspect accounts, records and other documents relating to the procurement process and performance of the contract and to have them audited by auditors appointed by AFD.

Name: In the capacity of:
Duly empowered to sign in the name and on behalf of :
Signature:
Dated:


INFORMATIONS COMPLEMENTAIRES / ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

- Question 1. L’Avis de marché étant publié en anglais et la langue d’origine étant le français, devons-nous soumettre la manifestation d’intérêt en anglais ou en français ?
- Réponse 1: au vue de la conception de ce projet, il est fortement conseillé d’envoyer un dossier de manifestation d’intérêt en « Anglais »

- Question 2. Au vu de l’extrait de l’Avis de marché “Interested Applicants must provide information evidencing that they are qualified and experienced to perform those Services. For that purpose, documented evidence (10 pages maximum) of recent and similar services shall be submitted.” . Pouvez-vous nous préciser si nous devons présenter les références en 10 pages maximum ou bien est-ce la manifestation d’intérêt qui doit faire 10 pages maximum (hors documents administratifs) ?
- Réponse 2: C’est le dossier de manifestation d’intérêt incluant les références à présenter qui sera au maximum de 10 pages. Si le soumissionnaire juge qu’il doit encore remettre des informations pertinentes il fera le nécessaire et en informera la COI.

- Question 3.: In the request for expression of interest reference is made to: “For a JV, its leader and any member that has its registered office outside the Client's country shall fulfil each of these criteria”, Would it be possible to list exactly which are those “each of these criteria”?
- Réponse 3: It is the criteria referred to in this paragraph which must be fulfilled by the parties concerned. To know:
The Client will also take into account for the evaluation of the applications the following items:
 Any relevant documents that will support their application
 Quality assurance procedures and certifications of the Applicant – specify the type or the label of the certification: for example, ISO 9001 or environmental and social certification.
Due to the security risk in the areas where the Services are to be performed, the evaluation of Expressions of Interest will verify that the applications meet the following criteria:
 The Applicant has at least one experience providing services in an area with a similar security risk, for which it shall provide proof of implementation of security measures (invoice or contract with a security service provider, proof of security awareness training before departure on-site, etc.).
 The Applicant has set up internal security management procedures: it shall provide a description of its monitoring system and crisis management system.
 For services provided abroad, the Applicant has entered into an assistance and repatriation contract for its employees: it shall provide the certificate evidencing such contract.
 The Applicant shall describe its standard preparation process for departure on assignment in sensitive areas and shall attach documents proving its implementation (service orders with related instructions, certificates of awareness-raising or training actions, etc.).

- Question 4: On page 4, it is stated that “for a JV, its leader and any member that has its registered office outside the Client's country shall fulfil each of these criteria”. Could you please clarify whether this statement is referring to the four security risk management criteria, or all of the criteria listed in the Request for Expression of Interest including the technical, administrative and financial criterion?
- Réponse 4:
It is the criteria referred to in this paragraph which must be fulfilled by the parties concerned. To know:
The Client will also take into account for the evaluation of the applications the following items:
 Any relevant documents that will support their application
 Quality assurance procedures and certifications of the Applicant – specify the type or the label of the certification: for example, ISO 9001 or environmental and social certification.
Due to the security risk in the areas where the Services are to be performed, the evaluation of Expressions of Interest will verify that the applications meet the following criteria:
 The Applicant has at least one experience providing services in an area with a similar security risk, for which it shall provide proof of implementation of security measures (invoice or contract with a security service provider, proof of security awareness training before departure on-site, etc.).
 The Applicant has set up internal security management procedures: it shall provide a description of its monitoring system and crisis management system.
 For services provided abroad, the Applicant has entered into an assistance and repatriation contract for its employees: it shall provide the certificate evidencing such contract.
 The Applicant shall describe its standard preparation process for departure on assignment in sensitive areas, and shall attach documents proving its implementation (service orders with related instructions, certificates of awareness-raising or training actions, etc.).

- Question 5:Secondly, could you please kindly clarify if an expert who participated in the implementation of the following AFD-funded contract: “Building regional resilience through strengthened climate services in the IOC” would be considered to be in conflict of interest for this procurement?
- Réponse 5: conflict of interest is established for this call for expression of interest if the results of previous interventions consultant have an influence in the realization of the present recruitment and that the results of the said intervention cannot be shared with the public.

- Question 6: Which language do we have to use for the application : English or French ?
- Réponse 6: au vue de la conception de ce projet, il est fortement conseillé d’envoyer un dossier de manifestation d’intérêt en « Anglais »

- Question 7: In the publication, it is said : « Interested Applicants must provide information evidencing that they are qualified and experienced to perform those Services. For that purpose, documented evidence (10 pages maximum) of recent and similar services shall be submitted »
For the 10 pages maximum, is it the number of maximum pages for the whole consortium or is it 10 pages maximum for each partner in the Consortium ? In our case, our consortium will be made up with 2 companies.
- Réponse 7: This is the overall expression of interest file including the references to be presented that will be a maximum of 10 pages. If the bidder considers that it still needs to provide relevant information, it will take the necessary and inform the IOC accordingly.


- Question 8. Au vu de ce qui est indiqué dans l’Avis de marché “For a JV, its leader and any member that has its registered office outside the Client's country shall fulfil each of these criteria. An application that does not meet any of these requirements will be rejected. ”: ces phrases se réfèrent-elles uniquement aux critères concernant la sécurité ou bien à tous les autres critères ?
- Réponse 8:
L’ensemble des critères précisé dans le dossier d’Appel à Manifestation d’Intérêt doit être rempli.

- Question 9. Est-ce que tous les partenaires du Consortium doivent également disposer d’un « Quality assurance procedures and certifications of the Applicant » ou bien seulement le lead ? Si tous les partenaires doivent disposer du certificat ISO, ce critère nous semble pas conforme au principe d’« égalité des chances » et est très restrictif.
- Réponse 9: L’avis publié précise que l’évaluation prendra en compte « Quality assurance procedures and certifications of the Applicant » : la disponibilité de ces procédures et certifications pour le lead et/ou les partenaires du consortium sera donc prise en compte dans l’évaluation.