1 Background
Procurement assistance for Bijelo Polje Wastewater Treatment was instructed by the Administrative Order No. 5 (Item 1) by the Public Works Administration, as the Contracting Authority of PPF.
On 2 August 2021, the Key Expert on Procurement (and Deputy Team Leader of PPF) had met with the focal points of PROCON and had kicked off the procurement assistance by reviewing the procurement documents for construction of Works for WWTP, Design and Build, that was prepared using FIDIC Yellow Book as General Conditions of Contract.
Following several correspondence and a meeting the review was completed on 13 August 2021. Among others a major comment of PPF was that the potential complexities of harmonization the PART 1 of the TD – Instruction to Tenderers drafted using the PRAG templates with the FIDIC Yellow Book Contract. The tender documents were approved by the Municipality and forwarded to the IFI (EIB) for their non-objection.
EIB responded with three sets of comments on 23/12/2022, 02/02/2022 and 09/02/2022. Major comments were on:
- Procedure to be followed
- Selection criteria
- Arbitration
- Variants/alternative proposals to be allowed
- Terms for operation of the plant by the Contractor
- Remedy mechanism
- Duties, roles and responsibilities of the Engineer
- Price adjustment
Following the joint assessment of the comments of EIB by the PROCON and PPF, consultation meetings were implemented with the Municipality. The proposed revisions on the TDs were confirmed by the Municipality except the last bullet pint above.
PROCON and PPF concluded that the TDs require major revision, particularly because of changed strategy to restricted tender and cancellation of operation period that was defined in the TDs.
Ver 2.0 of the DoA refers to the fulfillment of the tasks for response of the EIB comments and Municipalities decisions.
Assignment objective The objective of the assignment is to support PROCON and Municipality of Bijelo Polje for the development of sound project documents for smooth implementation that will comply with the national, EIB and EU requirements.
Type of assignment A staged assignment is planned. 1st Stage refers to procurement assistance that will be included in the Description of Assignment (DoA). Additional services for preparation of the missing technical documents, if asked, will be defined as the Second Stage of this Assignment and a separate DoA will be published.
Key issues Access to all available documents, studies, reports and maps and full cooperation of the local institutions with the PPF is key of the success. The focal points of PROCON and Bijelo Polje Municipality shall be key for the success.
The implementation of this assignment shall be subjected to the approval of MESPU and the Contracting Authority following the completion of other procedural and contractual requirements.
2 The Assignment
The assignment will comprise of the following subtasks:
Subtask 1 Reviewing Tender Documents for Procurement of Works for Construction of WWTP and provision of comments.
This activity is already completed by the Key Expert on Procurement and no other resources were required.
Outputs of this 1st Sub-Task have been:
- Minutes of Meetings (2 and 9 August 2021)
- Memorandum on Review of the Tender Documents for the Bijelo Polje Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP)
Subtask 1A Redrafting/revision of Tender Documents for Procurement of Works for Construction of WWTP to comply with EIB comments and Beneficiary instructions. This subtask substitutes the earlier item in ver 1 under the Subtask 2 “Additional support during final adjustments of the tender documents for WWTP based on possible EIB comments (if and when required by the PROCON and Municipality of Bijelo Polje).”
The activities to be provided under this subtask are as follows:
- Preparation of the full Prequalification Documents for the restricted procurement process of the WWTP
- Preparation of the Volume 1 – Instruction to Tenderers (and other relevant documents such as Tender Data forms etc) for the restricted procurement process of the WWTP with a format and terms compliant to GtP of EIB.
- Preparation of the Contract Notice using the standard template of the EIB compliant to the GtP of the EIB.
- Revising the Particular Conditions of the Contract as per EIB comments.
- Revision the technical specifications to remove conflicts that might occur due to annulation of the operational period
Subtask 2 Procurement assistance
Procurement assistance will include provision of advisory assistance to the PROCON, Municipality and particularly to Bid Evaluation Committee concerning to the compliance to EC/EIB guides and procedures while providing them the liberty to have their independent decision, in compliance with the Montenegrin legislation and EIB loan requirements.
The assistance will be provided by, if and when asked, among others,
- Participation to the pre-bid meetings and site visits;
- Participation in the bid opening;
- Support for preparation of the MoMs;
- Support for preparation of requested clarifications by the Bidders and addenda;
- Support for preparation of clarification requests to the Tenderers during the evaluation process;
- Responding to any request of assistance of the Evaluation Committee (clarification of procedures, rules, best practices etc.)
- Observing the procurement and preparing a Compliance Report to EIB and Beneficiary as per EIB usual practice.
- Provision of professional advisory assistance to the Evaluation Committee and to the Contracting Authority for implementation of (intent of award/award) procedures.
- Consultation meetings with relevant stakeholders PROCON, Municipality, EIB. MESPU, etc) during the activity.
Subtask 3 Preparation of Additional Project Documents
Scope of this Subtasks is presently on hold and will be clarified later.
A meeting will be organized with participation of PPF, Municipality of Bijelo Polje and MESPU in order to agree on the detailed scope of activities. Activities tentatively will include preparation of detailed design(s) for (re)construction of sewerage network.