1. PRAG service – Evaluation Process
Gabriela Tanase
Kristel Haiba-Rillo

2. Evaluation Committee (1)
Establishing Evaluation Committee – non-voting Chairperson, Secretary and odd number of voting members (min 3)
The EvC should be formulated early enough (before the tender submission deadline)
NEW! Article 2.2: Contracting Authority is responsible for chairing tender Evaluation Committees.

3. Evaluation Committee (2)
Voting members should have:
Good command of language
Relevant qualification or experience in the field
Time 
Assessment of evaluators is based on their CVs
Within the Evaluation Committee there should not exist any subordination links that might jeopardize fair assessment, conflict of interest (towards tenderers, experts).

4. Evaluation Committee (3)
The members of the Evaluation Committee have to be aware of their rights, obligations and responsibilities
It is good to provide the voting members with the relevant documents (Instructions to tenderers, ToR, administrative and evaluation grid) beforehand

5. Evaluation Committee (4)
Once the Evaluation Committee composition (and observers) is approved the whole process has to be carried out with the same composition
NEW! The composition of the Evaluation Committee is deemed approved by the ECD if no objections is formulated within 5 working days (PRAG 2.8)
In case there is need to change the composition of EvC the procedure should start from the very beginning again
Collective responsibility!

6. Evaluation process (1) For services, the proceeding of
the EvC, from the opening of
tenders to the conclusion of the
work of the EvC, are conducted in
camera and are confidential,
subject to the CA’s policy on
access to documents

7. Evaluation process (2) Receipt and registration of tenders
The CA must register the tenders marking the number (in order of receipt), date and exact time on the envelope.
You can use the summary of tenders received (annex to the Tender Opening Report) for this purpose

8. Tender Opening session
Preparatory phase
- Tender dossier should have been circulated to the members of the EvC in advance.
- Chairperson introduces purpose of the tender and also the rules,
Compliance with formal submission requirements – summary of tenders received should be used for controlling the compliance
!!! Declarations of Impartiality and Confidentiality should be signed by every member of the EvC in the beginning of this phase

9. Tender Opening Report (B10)
Report should reflect (lots separately)
the shortages of the tenders which are marked also in the summary of tenders received;
discussions and suspicions;
clear indications/description of clarifications asked and answers provided (whether the answer satisfied the EvC or not – whether the offer is rejected or not)

10. Evaluation: Administrative compliance
Based on the requirements stated in the TD and the administrative compliance grid included in the TD
With the agreement of EvC members the Chairperson can ask for clarification leaving the tenderer reasonable time (fixed by the EvC) to respond - !! No longer the time limit of 48 hours!!

11. Evaluation: Technical compliance (1)
Commission examines the technical offers, the financial offers remaining sealed
Evaluation should be based on the Terms of Reference and evaluation grid included in the TD
Recommendation: the evaluators score each offer for certain criterion on offer after another, rather than scoring each tender for all criteria before moving to the next
Where the content of a tender is incomplete of deviates substantially from technical award criteria (e.g. profile of experts) the tender should be rejected and thoroughly justified in the evaluation report

12. Evaluation: Technical compliance (2)
Each voting member completes an evaluation grid for each technical offer separately – and in case points are reduced weaknesses should be described in the “comment” field
On completion of the technical evaluation the points awarded by the evaluators are compared duirng the session.
As a result of the discussions the evaluators may modify their grids
Finally the evaluators signs the grid before handing it over to the Secretary – as a result summary on comments is elaborated to be included in the evaluation report

13. Evaluation: Technical compliance (3)
5) After writing up the provisional conclusions and before definitively concluding technical evaluation the EvC may arrange interviews (if foreseen in the TD) – /notification 10 days in advance/
- only technically compliant (or close to compliance i.e close to 80 points) tenderers (key experts, team experts) based on the provisional evaluation carried out
- interviews must follow a standard format agreed beforehand by the EvC and applied to all experts or teams called to interview

14. Evaluation: Technical compliance (4)
6) After interviews the evaluators may change their scores filling in the relevant column in the evaluation grid. Any adjustments must be substantiated
7) Mathematical average of the final scores awarded by each voting member is calculated and as a result offers gaining less than 80 points are automatically rejected.
If no tender received 80 points or more the procedure will be cancelled
It is not foreseen in the procedures to ask clarification during the technical evaluation

15. Evaluation: Technical compliance (5)
8) Out of the tenderers reaching 80-point threshold, the best technical offer is awarded 100 points, the other receive points using the following formula:
Technical score = (final score of the technical offer in question / final score of the best technical offer) x 100

16. Evaluation: financial evaluation (1)
1) Financial offers of only those tenderers who were not eliminated during the technical evaluation will be opened
2) All originals of the financial offers should be initalled by the Chairperson and the Secretary
3) EvC verifies that the financial offers satisfy all formal requirements (e.g incidental expenditure as stated in ToR)
4) EvC performs arithmetical control over the financial offers – in case of mistakes the EvC has the authority to correct the offer (prevail: unit x unit price) without penalty to the tenderer

17. Evaluation: financial evaluation (2)
5) The total financial offer (fees, incidental expenditure, ependiture verification) is compared with the budget available fo the contract. Tenderers exceeding the maximum budget available will be eliminated
6) For financial evaluation total fees are compared

18. Evaluation: financial evaluation (3)
The tenderer with lowest total fees receives 100 points.
The others are awarded points as follows:
Financial score = (lowest total fees / total fees of the tender being considered) x 100

19. Evaluation: Conclusion
The most economically advantageous tender is established by weighings technical quality against price on an 80/20 basis. This is done by multiplying:
The scores awarded to the technical offers by 0,80
The scores awarded to the financial offers by 0,20
Finally: SUM! → final ranking

20. ….
The entire evaluation process including notification of the successful tenderer, must be completed while the tender is still valid
EvC’s decisions are collective and its deliberations must remain secret. The EvC members and any observers are bound to secrecy!!!!
The Evaluation Report is for official use only and may be divulged neither to tenderers nor to any party outside the authorised services of CA, EC and supervisory authorities

21. PRAG services – Modification, Tender Award and Cancellation

22. Modification of TD
Depending on the substance of the modification – whether there is also need to postpone the deadline for submission of offers
If not then the modifications should be sent to the tenderers latest 11 days before the submission deadline
The relevant document should be amended and relevant modifications outlined
No corrigendum form to be filled
Modifications to be approved by the ECD

23. Notifying successful tenderer
Based on the approved Evaluation Report the CA notifies the successful tenderer in writing that its tender has been accepted (A7 – for template) and draws attention to any arithmetical errors which were corrected during the evaluation process
When informing the successful tenderer the validity of tender is extended by 60 days
Tenderer must submit relevant evidence to confirm the declarations made in the tender submission form within 15 days of the date of the notification letter
AWARD NOTICE to be filled and submitted to OJ

24. Tender Award Notice (B14)
Content:
Publication reference
Publication date of the procurement notice
Lot number and lot title
Contract value
Date of award of the contract – different interpretations: notification, contract signature
Number of tenders received
Overall score of the chosen tender (technical and financial score)
Name and address of successful tenderer

25. Tender Cancellation (1) (PRAG 3.3.11)
The CA may cancel the tender procedure at any stage, but particularly in the light of the Evaluation Report, if:
The tender procedure has been unsuccessful, i.e. no qualitatively or financially worthwhile tender has been received or there is no response at all
The economic or technical data of the project have been fundamentally altered
Exceptional circumstances of force majeure render normal performance of the contract impossible
All technically compliant tenders exceed the financial resources available
There have been irregularities in the procedure

26. Tender Cancellation (2)
The procedure MUST be cancelled at the short-listing stage where there are fewer than 4 eligible candidates
DIS ex-ante: The responsibility for cancelling a tender procedure lies with the CA, with prior approval of the EC

27. Tender Cancellation (3)
Tender Cancellation Notice (A5)