Hanoi, 16 December 2024,

Dear Madam, Dear Sir,
AFD is honoured to call on you for the consultation mentioned above. Please be aware of the submission requirements outlined in this consultation letter, as well as the attached package which consists of: (i) terms of reference, (ii) a proposed contract, (iii) a financial annex, (iv) Vietnamese experts have a curriculum vitae.
1. Purpose of the consultation

In the Dien Bien Province, in the district of Tuan Giao, Vietnam, AFD is currently finalizing the appraisal of a project to build (i) a dam allowing the creation of a reservoir of 5 million m3 of a watershed of 8km2 (ii) a primary and secondary pipeline system of approximately 120 km, and (iii) associated minor works (service roads, tarpaulins or storage tank at the end of the primary or secondary network, installation and operating and maintenance equipment).

Given the size of the Sai Luong dam and the associated risks, the objectives of social and environmental diligences concerning the Sai Luong dam were to conduct a compliance review of the Environmental Impact Assessment carried out, in relation to AFD’s reference standards and in particular the World Bank’s standards. The review by AFD of this compliance review led to an agreement with the Vietnamese side (Dien Bien Province) on several actions, including the mobilization of a panel of independent experts to analyze the safety of the dam, the dam being considered as a “Large Dam” as defined by international standards (reservoir volume and dam size). This panel is expected to analyze the dam plans, review the construction and produce an analysis and recommendations for regular monitoring of dam safety.

AFD invites you to submit an offer for the following services: an independent review of the safety of the new Sai Luong dam. For details of the services to be performed, it is necessary to refer to the attached terms of reference.

Your proposal must meet the presentation requirements described in this consultation, and include any additional information that you consider relevant.







2. Conditions of dispatch and deadline for delivery of the covers
Your offer must be received by 17.00 Hanoi time on 24 January by e-mail (using the standard Microsoft Office or equivalent versions) at nguyenta@afd.fr; vasseurd@afd.fr and nguyennhv@afd.fr.
In this case, your email response should not exceed 6 MB. If this is the case, please split your response into several emails. The period of validity of tenders is 90 days from the deadline for receipt of tenders.
3. Presentation of applications and offers
Your offer, written in English (or French), must include the following:

1. Application documents: a certificate of honour (see Annex 1)

2. Tender documents
Responses will be required to follow the following template:

A. Summary of your offer:
A.1 - Understanding of AFD’s expectations
A.2 - Summary of the steps in your intervention
A.3 - General Mission Schedule

B. Strengths and Added Value of your offer to carry out this mission
C. Detailed description of your offer:
C.1 - Detailed description of the content of the proposed steps (diagnosis, analysis, action plan, reporting, etc.)
C.2 - Means implemented
C.3 - Instances and practical methods of piloting the mission
C.4 - Detailed Deliverables Table
C.5 - Detailed planning

D. Recommendations of the Service Provider for the successful completion of the mission

E. Presentation of the team that will be involved in this mission:

E.1 – Team Building and Division of Responsibilities
E.2 – Speakers' CVs (maximum 3 pages per speaker)

F. Detailed financial proposal (based on the financial annex attached)

G. the completed draft contract

The answers to this consultation must be simple, concise and must respect the imposed format.
 
4. Bid judging

Incomplete proposals, delivered late or that do not meet the need expressed by AFD will not be accepted. Compliant bids will be judged and scored against the following weighted judgement criteria:

Criteria Weighting
1 - Price of services 20%
2 - Technical value 80%
2.1 – Quality of the methodology, organisation and means used to guarantee the performance of services 30 pts
2.2 - Demonstration of the skills, experience and knowledge of teams assigned to perform services 50 pts

After reviewing the offers, AFD reserves the right to enter into negotiations with all candidates who have submitted the most interesting offers in light of the criteria and weighting defined above.
AFD also reserves the right to award the contract on the basis of initial offers, without negotiation.
Where appropriate, in the context of these negotiations, successful candidates may be invited as many times as necessary by the contracting authority, under strict conditions of equality, to specify, supplement or modify their offer without substantial changes being made to the specifications.
A candidate who refuses to negotiate will be deemed to have maintained his last offer.
AFD reserves the right to organise several rounds of negotiations with all successful candidates.
5. Inquiries

For any additional information you may require, please contact us at the address indicated in the header of this consultation letter. Any questions concerning this consultation may also be addressed by e-mail to: Nguyennhv@afd.fr/ vasseurd@afd.fr/ nguyenta@afd.fr. Answers to candidates' questions will be sent exclusively by e-mail.

We remain at your disposal for any further information and please accept, Madam/Sir, our distinguished greetings.



Mr. Hervé Conan,
AFD Country Director in Vietnam 
Appendix 1 - Statement of Integrity, Eligibility and Social and Environmental Responsibility


This Call for proposal aims to:

Presentation of the candidate:

If the applicant is applying as one member of a consortium: (describe the consortium)

1. We hereby certify that neither we nor any other member of our joint venture or any of our subcontractors are in any of the following situations:
1.1) 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;
1.2) having been convicted, within the past five years by decision of a court decision, which has the force of res judicata in the country where the project is implemented or of any other offense committed during the procurement or performance of a contract;
1.3) 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;
1.4) having committed serious professional misconduct within the past five years during the procurement or performance of a contract;
1.5) not having fulfilled our obligations regarding the payment of social security contributions or taxes in accordance with the legal provisions of either the country where we are established or the Contracting Authority's country;
1.6) having been convicted, within the past five years by a court decision, which has the force of res judicata, of one of the acts mentioned in sections 5.1 to 5.4 below or of any other offense committed during the procurement or performance of an AFD-financed contract;
1.7) being subject to an exclusion decision of the World Bank since 30 May 2012, and being listed on the website http://www.worldbank.org/debarr ;
1.8) having committed misrepresentation in documentation requested by the Beneficiary as part of the contract procurement procedure.

2. In the case of a works or goods procurement procedure:
i. having prepared or having been associated with a consultant who prepared specifications, drawings, calculations and other documentation that are subject of the bid;
ii. 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;
3. If we are a government-owned entity, we certify that we have legal and financial autonomy and that we operate under commercial laws and regulations.
4. We undertake to bring to the attention of the Contracting Authority, which will inform AFD, any change in situation with regard to points 1 to 4 here above.
5. In the context of procurement and performance of the contract:
5.1) 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.
5.2) 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.
5.3) 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, 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.
5.4) We have not promised, offered or given and we will not promise, offer or give, directly or indirectly to any private 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 private person to perform or refrain from performing any act in breach of its legal, contractual or professional obligations.
5.5) 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.
5.6) Neither we nor any of the members of our joint venture or any of our subcontractors shall acquire or supply any equipment nor operate in any sectors under an embargo of the United Nations, the European Union or France.
5.7) We commit ourselves to comply with and ensure that all of our subcontractors 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 such as specified in the environmental and social management plan or, if appropriate, in the environmental and social impact assessment notice provided by the Contracting Authority.
6. We, as well as members of our joint venture and our subcontractors authorise AFD to inspect accounts, records and other documents relating to the procurement and performance of the Contract and to have them audited by auditors appointed by AFD.

Name:____________________ In the capacity of _____________________
Signature:______________________________
Duly empowered to sign the proposal in the name and on behalf of ____________________