German Financial Cooperation with Bangladesh

Consulting Services for the Energy Sector

Bangladesh

Invitation for Expression of Interest

For the

Programme “Renewable Energy for

Productive Use” (PUREP), Phase I

Ref. No.: BMZ 2012 66 428

Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL)

Bangladesh

30 April 2015

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INVITATION FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

1. The Program-Executing Agency (PEA, §2) hereby invites qualified independent consultants to submit a pre-qualification document for required consulting services (see §4). Funds have been earmarked for this Program by the German Development Bank KfW.

2. PEA is the Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL). It has authorized its depart-ment Renewable Energy, Level-16, UTC Building, 8 Panthapath, Kawran Bazar, Dhaka-1215 to co-ordinate activities.

3. IDCOL has entrusted KfW with an agency contract, and a tender agent has been named to carry out the tender process.

4. The Consulting Services for the Programme will be implemented in the framework of Bangla-

deshi-German Financial Cooperation (FC) as a contribution to achieve the Government of Bang-ladesh’s (GoB) sector targets. The Program focuses on providing energy services primarily based on renewable sources that adequately and sustainably serve the demand for income generation activities, largely in remote areas in Bangladesh. This is to contribute to economic and social de-velopment in Bangladesh by improving access to modern energy services for productive use.

5. The Programme is based on an agreement between German Financial Cooperation (FC) repre-

sented by KfW, the Government of Bangladesh and the Programme-Executing Agency IDCOL. Under PUREP, IDCOL is to fund sub-projects of productive use of renewable energy in Bangla-desh. Such projects shall include, but are not limited to, investments such as solar based mini-grids, solar irrigation pumps, biogas based power generation and other RE technologies predom-inantly for productive use. To this end, IDCOL will channel on approximately EUR 10m investment grants by German FC together with loans from other donors to project sponsors for the above mentioned purpose. The programme implementation period is estimated to be around 48 months.

6. IDCOL is seeking the support of a Consultant to ensure that the Programme design and imple-

mentation are efficient and effective in promoting the overall objective. 7. The consultant shall support IDCOL and project sponsors with regard to project development,

including the screening of proposals, assessment of technical and business models and of com-pliance with the criteria set for PUREP, as well as assisting IDCOL in monitoring and verification of projects.

8. A financial contribution (grant) of up to EUR 500,000 will be provided to finance the Consultancy. 9. The requested services of the consultant comprise the following main tasks in assistance of ID-

COL: An implementation and verification consultant is to be employed to, among others, support ID-COL and project sponsors intermittently with regard to project development and monitoring. This includes the screening of proposals, assessment of compliance with the set criteria and the proposed technical and business models, as well as assisting IDCOL in monitoring and verification of projects. It is to be noted that IDCOL already has experience with and developed standards for such projects. It is not foreseen that the Consultant will have a permanent presence at IDCOL but allocate regular periods of varying frequency and length for their implementation and monitoring tasks.

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In the initial period of the programme (approx. 18 months), the Consultant shall support IDCOL more intensively with the setting up of project criteria and screening of project proposals. In the following period (approx. 30 months), the Consultant shall assist IDCOL on a less intensive basis, focusing on areas requiring continued support as identified during the first period as well as monitoring and verification of a sample of sub-projects. KfW will be consulted during implementation to provide its input and no-objection. Only such project proposals that ensure the sustainable operation and maintenance of infra-structure are to be selected. Responsibilities between IDCOL, project sponsors, operators, sup-pliers and users need to be clearly defined. Incentive systems that are favourable to the upkeep of the system need to be in place. Efficient and effective collection of tariffs or user fees must be enforced. Business plans shall be a standard feature of the upcoming project. Full coverage of the operation cost is a minimum requirement, while project proposals must be geared towards min-imising the need for capital subsidies. All projects need to comply with with IDCOL’s Environmen-tal and Social Management Framework (ESMF) and ESIA criteria elaborated in cooperation with KfW. The implementation consultant shall assist IDCOL and project sponsors in developing sus-tainable business models. This encompasses procedures that allow for cost-effective procure-ment from suppliers. Financing of the projects is feasible only when a concept regarding Operation, Maintenance and Repair Services for the entire lifecycles of the systems and respective funding schemes for the services are in place. This includes, where applicable, safe disposal of residual materials, in par-ticular batteries. IDCOL and the Implementation Consultant shall screen project sponsors and proposals in this regard. Where necessary, technical assistance and training activities on any of the above-mentioned areas shall be elaborated by the Implementation Consultant.

10. The duration of the Program is estimated to be up to 48 months. 11. Services shall be provided by an association of international and national consultancy companies

or qualified individuals, providing a team of international and local long term and short term con-sultants with skills and qualifications that satisfy the requirements of the above scope of work. The consultants must demonstrate experience with similar Programs. Other local professional and administrative support staff as well as efficient management and backstopping services from the home office shall be provided.

12. Consultants are free to associate themselves with other firms to ensure that all the required know-how and experience is available to them.

13. The pre-qualification document to be handed in shall be in English language and shall comprise

the items below. Its structure shall follow the table of contents shown in annex 5: (i) Covering Letter, comprising the firm’s name, address, contact person, telephone, fax

and email. If applicable mention the association partners for this Program.

(ii) Presentation of firm(s) showing the firms’ main activities and expertise (max. 5 pages per firm, Program-relevant). In case of an association, it must include clear statements regarding the nature and type of the association as well as the competences (use form in annex 6) and responsibilities of each association member.

(iii) Statements and Declarations: In case of an association the statements and declarations must be signed and submit-ted by all members of an association.

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Missing statements or declarations will lead to a rejection of the respective EoI. a) Declaration of submitting a proposal in case of being short-listed. b) Statement of no affiliations of any kind with other firms which may present a conflict of interest in providing the envisaged services or supplies. For an association, all mem-bers must provide this statement. c) In case of an association the intended contractual arrangement with the international and local firms (consortium member, subcontractor), nominating the lead consultant and including letters of intent of participating firms (in case of local partners a fax copy of such letter of intent is sufficient). d) Declaration to observe the highest standard of ethics during execution of the con-tract. Applicants should be aware that any fraudulent or corrupt activities disqualify them immediately from participation in the selection process and will be subject to fur-ther legal investigation. The said declaration (of “undertaking”) shall be submitted and duly signed by the lead consultant and all members of the association according to the form in annex 1. e) Certified statements of financial capacity of the lead consultant and all members of the association for the years 2010-2012 or preferably 2011-2013 (proof document: prof-it and loss statement certified by an independent certified auditor, not more than 3 pages per company and year) showing the necessary turnover of the association of at least the equivalent of 3.5 million € p.a. The lead consultant alone must have an annual turnover of at least the equivalent of 3.0 million € p.a. f) Proof of a professional liability insurance with indication of the maximum loss sum.

(iv) List of Program references. Up to 15 reference Programs ended, ongoing or started in the last 7 years (from 2008) in order to assess the firms’ experience. Reference Programs must be strictly related to the envisaged services. For presentation of the reference Programs the form in annex 2 has to be used. Only reference Programs using this format will be evaluated.

(v) List (no CVs) of the consultant’s personnel that are proposed for the envisaged ser-vices. Please provide information about their education, professional experience, re-gional experience, language capabilities, specific Program-related expertise and years with the firm (use form in annex 3). This list shall allow a profound judgement on the consultants’ general ability to provide the required personnel having the specific experience for the Program in case of an of-fer. Personnel belonging to or having a long cooperation with the firm receives more points. Personnel with more than 5 years’ experience and up to 10 years’ experience will re-ceive more points. Also use the form in annex 4 to give an overview of the development of the structure of the staff resources.

Interested consultants are requested to submit concise, clear and substantial documents and to adhere to the above structure. Non-compliance with this invitation or faulty information shall lead to exclusion. Any surplus of information not specific to the material requested will be pe-nalized.

14. The prequalification proposal shall be submitted in one original and one copy. The original hard-copy is decisive for the evaluation if in doubt. The original plus copy shall be submitted on or be-fore the below mentioned time by hand or courier as hardcopies and softcopies (on a CD-ROM with pdf file) to:

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IDCOL Att.: Md. Maidul Islam, Officer, Procurement, IDCOL Level-16, UTC Building, 8 Panthapath, Kawran Bazar, Dhaka-1215, Bangladesh.

15. 2 hardcopies shall be sent to: KfW Development Bank Dept. LEb Att.: Dr. Matthias Schmidt-Rosen Palmengartenstr. 5-9 60325 Frankfurt/Main Germany

16. Deadline for receipt of the pre-qualification documents is June 1, 2015, 15h Frankfurt time at KfW.

17. For timely delivery, receipt of the original hardcopy of the pre-qualification proposal at KfW Frankfurt is decisive. Failure to respect this requirement will constitute a formal error and will re-sult in the rejection of the tender. Copies shall be received by IDCOL at the most 3 calendar days later though.

18. All costs for a site visit (not obligatory), obtaining information/data and preparation / submission of the prequalification document, meetings, negotiations, etc. in relation with the prequalifica-tion or the subsequent proposal shall be borne by the consultants.

19. The tender agent may clarify details of this invitation either at his own initiative or in response to clarifications requested by an interested consultant at any time. Such question and its clarifica-tion will be sent by e-mail to all registered parties. Deadline for last enquiries is 2 weeks before submission date. All inquiries shall be sent exclusively to the Tender Agent Dr. Dieter Falk at tender.agent@gmx.eu .

20. It is planned to establish a short-list of not more than five qualified consultants not later than four weeks after the deadline for receipt of pre-qualification documents. The short-listed con-sultants will then be invited to present technical and financial proposals.

21. The evaluation procedure for the prequalification process will follow the latest version of the „Guidelines for Assignment of Consultants in Financial Co-operation Programs“ (refer to homep-age of KfW development bank http://www.kfw-entwicklungsbank.de). Only financially capable firms which have submitted the necessary statements and declarations (see § 12 iii above) and which satisfy the set conditions will be evaluated. Specific evaluation criteria and their individual weight are presented in the following table:

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Stage 1: Preliminary Examination

EVALUATION PASS or FAIL only

(1) Declaration of submitting a proposal (see § 12 iii a).

(2) Statement of no conflict of interests or of affiliations (see § 12 iii b).

(3) In case of an association – the intended contractual arrangement with international and local firms, nominating the lead consultant and includ-ing letters of intent of participating firms (in case of local partners a fax copy of such letter of intent is sufficient) (see § 12 iii c).

(4) Declaration to observe the highest standard of ethics (see § 12 iii d).

(5) Independently certified statements of financial capacity (see § 12 iii e).

Result of Preliminary Examination in Stage 1 Pass/Fail

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Stage 2: Technical Examination

CRITERIA MAXIMUM SCORE

1. Evidence of relevant experience gained by consultants during the past seven years (experience of the firm)

40

1.1. Experience in handling similar programs over longer periods in energy in-frastructure and equipment, especially as implementation and verification consultant to support project development.

1.1.1 Experience in handling similar projects of comparable size, complexity and technical specialty (off-grid renewable ener-gy, esp. solar PV)

1.1.2 Assistance in monitoring including quality control of projects (Screening of proposals, assessment of compliance with set criteria and proposed technical and business models)

1.1.3 Financial assessment of off-grid renewable power generation systems

1.1.4 Environmental and social requirements of rural electrification projects and irrigation pumping systems

20

(10)

(5)

(2.5)

(2.5)

1.2. Experience under various working conditions outside developing countries (reference Programs)

10

1.3. Experience with working-conditions in the region (Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Phil-ippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam) preferably in the same sector (reference Programs)

10

2. Suitability for this specific Program (experience of the available experts)

60

2.1 Assessment of available international technical expertise specific to this Program (list of available key personnel) 2.1.1 Project management, operation and implementation; 2.1.2 Planning, screening of proposals, assessment of compliance with set criteria and proposed technical and business models. 2.1.3 Supervision of quality of works, audits, monitoring, impact analysis and reporting.

(Minimum of 2 persons from each field, more points will be attributed for additional qualified persons per category until 5 persons per category)

40

(15) (15)

(10)

2.2 Assessment of the personnel structure in regard to the tasks expected (list of additional personnel)

10

2.3 Assessment of the key personnel in permanent employment and always available to monitor the team and provide back-up services from the home office (table of backstoppers with relevant information of max. 3 back-stoppers).

05

2.4 Form of the application documents: are they complete, well organised, concise and relevant to the Program

05

2 Consultants must reach at least 70 points to become short-listed. If more than five consultants reach 70 points, the five consultants with the highest scores will be short-listed. These firms will

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be invited to submit a technical and financial proposal. The others will be informed of their fail-ure to become shortlisted accordingly.

3 The bid evaluators are not obliged to qualify a consultant.

4 Preparation and submission of the prequalification document is the responsibility of the appli-cant and no relief or consideration can be given for any errors and omissions.

5 After opening of the prequalification documents and until preparation of the short-list of the qualified consultants, no communication of any type shall take place unless initiated by the KfW.

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Annex 1: Declaration to Observe the Highest Standard of Ethics

Declaration of Undertaking

We underscore the importance of a free, fair and competitive contracting procedure that precludes abusive practices. In this respect we have neither offered nor granted directly or indirectly any inad-missible incentives to any public servant or other person nor accepted such incentives in connection with our bid, nor will we offer or grant or accept any such incentives or conditions in the present tendering process or, in the event that we are awarded the contract, in the subsequent execution of the contract. We also declare that no conflict of interest exists in the meaning of the kind described in the corresponding Guidelines1. We also underscore the importance of adhering to minimum social standards (core labour standards) in the implementation of the Program. We undertake to comply with the core labour standards rati-fied by the country of Bangladesh. We will inform our staff of their respective obligations and of their obligation to fulfil this Declaration of Undertaking and to obey the laws of the country of Bangladesh. We also declare that our company/all members of the consortium has/have not been included in the list of sanctions of the United Nations, nor of the EU, nor of the German Government, nor in any other list of sanctions and affirm that our company/all members of the consortium will immediately inform the client and KfW if this situation occurs at a later stage. We acknowledge that, in the event that our company (or a member of the consortium) is added to a list of sanctions that is legally binding on the client and/or KfW, the client shall be entitled to exclude us/the consortium or, if the contract is awarded to our company/the consortium, to immediately cancel such contract if the statements made in the Declaration of Undertaking were objectively false or the reason for exclusion from the tender procedure occurs after the Declaration of Undertaking has been issued. .............................. ................... ....................................................... (Place) (Date) (Name of company) ....................................................... (Signature(s))

1 See “Guidelines for the Assignment of Consultants in Financial Cooperation with Partner Countries”

and “Guidelines for Procurement of Goods, Works and associated Services in Financial Coopera-tion with Partner Countries”

Annex 2: List of Program References Please complete the format below for presenting your reference Programs. Use one table of not more than one page per reference!

Ref no: 1 Program title

Name of legal entity (con-sultant)

Program Country

Overall Program value (EUR/USD/IDR)

Proportion carried out by the legal entity (%)

Provided staff input (person months)

Name of client Origin of fund-ing

Dates (start/end)

Name of association members, if any

… … … … … … … … …

Detailed description of the Program (background, objectives and main activities) Services provided by the legal entity for the Program

… …

Ref no: 2 Program title

Name of legal entity (con-sultant)

Program Country

Overall Program value (EUR/USD/IDR)

Proportion carried out by the legal entity (%)

Provided staff input (person months)

Name of client Origin of fund-ing

Dates (start/end)

Name of association members, if any

… … … … … … … … …

Detailed description of the Program (background, objectives and main activities) Services provided by the legal entity for the Program

… …

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Annex 3: Personnel List Please complete the format below for the personnel that you propose to carry out the envisaged services. Sufficient staff resources to cover contingencies are a bonus. Use one line per person! Backstoppers shall not be included in this list! Nr. Name Position in the firm* Education / De-

gree Program relevant expertise (Programs with person months spent per Pro-gram)

Years of pro-fessional experience

Years with the firm

Country experience (country/months)

* For associated freelance experts (e.g. with retainer contracts or formal agreements) complete field with “FE” and aggregated number of months or years working for you

Annex 4: Structure of Consultant’s Staff Resources Only mention professional experts (engineers, economists etc.). Administrative or other support staff must not be included!

Staff resources Year before last Last year This year

Total staff Staff rele-vant to this study

Total staff Staff rele-vant to this study

Total staff Staff rele-vant to this study

Permanent staff

Other staff*

Total

Permanent staff as a proportion of total staff (%)

% % % % % %

* Such as freelance consultants or associated staff (with contracts)

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Annex 5: Structure of Consultant’s EoI Document

Table of contents

1. Covering letter

2. Presentation of firms

3. Statements and declarations

3.1. Declaration of submitting a proposal

3.2. Statement of no conflict of interest / of affiliation

3.3. Declaration of association (if required)

3.4. Declaration to observe the highest standard of ethics

3.5. Certified statement of financial capacity

4. Program references

5. Personnel

5.1. List of consultant’s personnel

5.2. Personnel structure

5.3. Short bios of personnel proposed for backstopping and home office support

Annex 6: Consultants’/Consortiums’ Competences for the Execution of the Required Services

Competences Leader Member 2 Member 3 Etc. …

Relevant competence 1

Relevant competence 2

Etc. …

Please use the above format to indicate the relevant competences related to this contract for each legal entity making this application. Show the relevant com-petence(s) of each legal entity by placing a tick () in the box corresponding to those competences in which the legal entity has significant experience.