Monitoring and tender procedures for infrastructure projects Baltic Retreat 2013 Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research EAER State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO

Analysing tender documents Tender documents have to be Fit for purpose, i.e. the documents have to be in compliance with the following basic principles for Public Procurement: Transparency; Equal and fair treatment of all tenderers; Strengthening of competition; Cost effective use of public resources.

Analysing tender documents Main questions (basis for ToRs to the backstopper): – General structure and completeness of the tender documents – Technical specifications – Qualification criteria – Evaluation criteria – Fairness and competitiveness – Realistic implementation plan – Tender and performance guarantees

Analysing tender documents Minimum time requirement optimal time requirement Provision of at least 40 working days to submit offers in order to allow bidders to… study tender documentation (including translation especially in the case of foreigner/international bidders) and ask clarification questions organise a short field visit estimate the required staff input arrange cooperation agreements with sub-contractors/partners arrange bank guarantees, certificates, official documents assess potential risks to come up with a reliable cost estimate

Quality, life cycle costs, guarantee, sustainability… Most economic offer Price should NOT be the only criteria Examples of qualitative criteria: 1) Time of delivery 2) Expertise of the project managers / key experts: personal references in similar projects (comparable size and construction costs) 3) Technical and professional capacity of the company: Number of reference objects (comparable size and construction costs) 4) Guaranteed operation/maintenance costs over x-years 5) Guarantees (years) on equipment and materials 6) Quality management: certifications (ISO 9001) Analysing tender documents

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC Federal Department of Economic Affairs FDEA State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO Publication of tender documents Form for all tenders above (PA art. 5) to be submitted to Switzerland at least 5 days before publication

Elements to be included (best practice Estonia): 1) Type of public procurement procedure 2) Date of publication & deadline for submission of offers 3) Number of bids and name of bidders 4) Number of disqualified companies and reasons for disqualifications 5) Evaluation criteria 6) Amount of contract Analysing confirmations of compliance with procurement rules

Precautionary checks in case there was only one offer: Is the offered price (for all sub-categories) realistic? Within budget? Reference prices? Are all technical specifications fulfilled? Did the company offer the full service required in the specifications? Did any specification limit competition? Sufficient time given to submit offers? Analysing confirmations of compliance with procurement rules

Precautionary checks in case the offered price is abnormally low: Has it been ensured that all technical specifications will be respected? Have all costs for equipment purchasing and delivery as well as costs for installation works been taken into account? Is there a reserve for additonal claims in case of «unforseeable» costs? Analysing confirmations of compliance with procurement rules

Coordination of NCU/SCO site visits Switzerland would like to visit some of the infrastructure projects with experts. Mutual information on planning of site visits, procurements, steering committee meetings Joint visits Exchange of results of monitoring visits (monitoring reports)

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