Answers to questions following the call for tender for a Fund Operator for the EEA and Norway Grants Global Fund for Regional Cooperation

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1 Answers to questions following the call for tender for a Fund Operator for the EEA and Norway Grants Global Fund for Regional Cooperation Question 1: Does re-granting experience refer to direct experience in managing grants-based funding programmes? If YES, does it have to be programmes based on public funding or can it be private funding too? In the case of funding programmes based on private funding, is there any particular structure of the programmes you would expect the bidder to be able to present? Answer: Yes, re-granting experience refers to direct experience in managing grants-based funds and programmes. Programmes or funds may be public or private. Please see the Bid form for information on what kind of information to be presented in the application. Question 2: Can an organization like a private investment fund, or the investment division of a bank, be eligible to bid for the Global Fund for Regional Cooperation contract, given that such organizations have an ongoing activity and subsequently broad experience in allocating and managing financing/ funding to different projects and organizations? Answer: The Global Fund for Regional Cooperation is foreseen to provide grant funding. Therefore, the experience sought is primarily within public or private grants, not loans. Question 3: Is there any public information (name of contractor, contract value) about similar contracts awarded in the past by the FMO? Answer: The Global Fund for Regional Cooperation is a new fund and the FMO has not awarded similar contracts in the past. Question 4: Do the Regulations for the EEA Grants and Norway Grants apply and to what extent? Answer: The Global Fund for Regional Cooperation is not governed by the Regulation on the Implementation of the EEA/Norwegian Financial Mechanism currently being finalised by the Donor States. Question 5: What will be the procurement rules applicable to the Fund Operator in terms of the management costs? Answer: The management costs of the Fund Operator shall take the form of a fixed fee. Considerations as to the appropriateness of this fee shall be taken into account in the selection of the Fund Operator. In this respect, the FMO shall not require any specific procurement procedure to be followed by the Fund Operator in the execution of its own management obligations, to be defined in the contract for the provision of services to be concluded with the Fund Operator. Question 6: The Terms of Reference for the Fund state that the FO shall provide administrative and technical support to the FMO in calls for proposal and handling of applications. Which functions and responsibilities related to the process and the evaluation of applications would be the responsibility of the FO? Answer: The FO will publish calls, respond to questions from potential applicants, receive project applications and determine compliance with eligibility/administrative criteria, including a limited appeals procedure as and where foreseen in the call for proposals text. The FO will then pass applications that have met the administrative/eligibility

2 requirements to the FMO. Content evaluation and selection of projects shall be performed by the FMO and the Donors. Question 7: Can an entity acting as Fund Operator under the Global Fund for Regional Cooperation also apply for/be appointed Fund Operator/Programme Operator within other programmes/funds financed by the EEA and Norwegian Financial Mechanisms and managed by the FMO/Donor States? Answer: Yes, however applications and appointments of Fund Operators/Programme Operators under other programmes managed by the FMO/Donor States will be governed by the rules established for those programmes. Question 8: Is there a firm FMO decision on the number and timing of Calls for each of the two funds? Answer: The number and timing of Calls will be decided by the Donors, and as stated in the ToR it is currently planned to award about projects through Question 9: Regarding communication strategy, will the FO design its own communication strategy? Answer: The FMO will develop the communication strategy and have the overall responsibility for communication, including any press enquiries within the fund s remit. The FO are expected to assist FMO with administrative and technical solutions to assure beneficiaries, donors, the general public and other stakeholders have access to relevant information on projects and calls at the appropriate time. Additionally, in their position as FO, expected to make the donors more visible in the EU and communicate in terms with the overall aims of the EEA and Norway Grants. Question 10: Can the two eligibility criteria relating to previous experience be satisfied by different consortium members? Answer: Yes, provided that it is clearly demonstrated that the consortium as a whole satisfies both the criteria. Question 11: Please confirm that transnational project is any grant scheme involving at least two beneficiaries from different countries? Answer: A transnational project is a project involving multiple partners situated in different countries. Question 12: Is it possible to provide several options / alternatives to the information required, for example, to provide several alternatives or to provide several methods of irregularities management? Answer: Bidders are expected to propose one solution and one budget for the overall management of the Global Fund. Question 13: Is there a page limit to the proposal? Answer: No, but only information asked for in the bid form will be considered.

3 Question 14: May you please clarify whether there is a size limit to the (and attachments) and whether the bid can be submitted in parts (due to the size)? Answer: The proposal should be contained in a single electronic file and not split into fragmented files. Zipped files can be submitted. Question 15: Could the applicant prepare a bid for both funds in one bid form or must he apply for the two funds in separate bids? Answer: The Global Fund for Regional Cooperation is one fund that is divided into two overall support areas. The fund operator shall perform the same administrative and management roles with respect to both support areas and must have the capacity and competence necessary to do so. Please submit the proposal as one bid. Question 16: Can an entity bid with different consortium partners for Fund I and Fund II or should the setup of the consortium for both Funds be the same? Answer: The fund operator shall perform the same administrative and management roles with respect to both overall support areas and the proposal must describe the applicant s experience, skills and competence as well as capacity for performing the described tasks. The fund operator decides which partners it needs to set up a qualified consortium. Question 17: If technical evaluation is to be conducted by the FO, will there be a need for the FO to contract external evaluators or can the FO conduct technical evaluation using internal staff? Answer: The technical (quality) evaluation of project proposals will be carried out under the responsibility of the FMO and the Donor States. The Fund Operator will be expected to publish calls, respond to questions from potential applicants, receive project applications and determine compliance with eligibility/administrative criteria, tasks that should not normally require specific sectoral expertise. The FO is expected to perform its service with the best professional practice, independence and due diligence. The management fee is a fixed fee and should include any required external expertise foreseen to be sub-contracted by the FO. Question 18: What is the maximum management fee? Answer: Please see the Terms of Reference: The maximum management fee can be up to 5 million over a period of maximum 8 years. Proposals beyond the indicated maximum will be considered ineligible. Question 19: Will there be individual consultations of the entities applying for the FO? Answer: The bids will be subjected to an evaluation process after the deadline. There will be no individual consultations with prospective applicants before the deadline. Please see the bid form for further details. Question 20: Is there a limit as to the number of bids per applying entities/consortium? Answer: Yes, only one bid is accepted per applicant/consortium.

4 Question 21: How long is the examination time of the submitted tenders? Answer: The tentative timeline is that the applications will be processed following the deadline 15 September and contract negotiations with the successful bidder will be carried out ultimo 2016, provided that an acceptable bid has been submitted. Question 22: Would you kindly clarify whether there is any restriction regarding entities or organization eligible to apply as Fund Operator? Answer: Eligible to apply are any entities based in the EEA countries. As stated in the Terms of Reference, the entities must be independent of government at all levels (national, regional and local level; the entity cannot be wholly or partly owned or influenced by any government level) and be free of any conflict of interest. There is no request of previous experience as fund operator to the EEA or Norway Grants. Question 23: Is it expected that the Fund Operator (FO) have an office in Brussels to coordinate closely with the EEA and Norway Grants office? Answer: No, there is no requirement for the fund operator to be based in Brussels. Question 24: Could the applicant for the role of FO act solo or must it be a part of an international consortium? In which cases do you allow it to act individually? Answer: As stated in the ToR: The Fund Operator may be one single entity or a consortium of entities. If the Fund is operated by a consortium of entities, one entity shall be designated as the contact for the FMO and will assume all contractual obligations towards the FMO. Question 25: Will the FO be responsible for designing the calls for proposals? Answer: In the Global Fund for Regional Cooperation, the donors will decide the support areas for the calls, while the FMO will design and launch the calls. The fund operator will assist the FMO in publishing the call to eligible potential project partners. Question 26: Is the fund operator expected to develop strategies for meeting the overall goals or are these defined by the donor? Answer: The overall goals, objectives and outcomes will be decided by the donors. However, the fund operator is expected to develop strategies on how to support the projects in meeting these goals and outcomes. A high degree of support to the lead partners is expected from the fund operator. Question 27: What is the anticipated maximum duration of each project? Answer: The maximum duration of each project will be decided by the donors and information will be given in the calls for proposals. Question 28: Could donor programme partners be involved in the development and implementation of the programme and act as one of the involved entities/ beneficiary? Answer: There will be no donor programme partners in the Global Fund for Regional Cooperation.

5 Question 29: We understand from your Q&A document that direct experience in grant management is considered eligible, being grant or re-grant; can this requirement also be met by experience in grant management on the beneficiary side? Answer: No, the required experience is as stated in the ToR on re-granting funds. Having experience as a beneficiary does not qualify as re-granting experience. Question 30: According to the ToR all management and operational costs of the FO are to be covered by a fixed fee. Its maximum can be up to 5 million over a period of maximum 8 years. How high should the percentage of these costs in the year amount according into the applied amount - eg. 1 million? Answer: The proposal is expected to include a budget for the management fee, please see template. The proposal needs to contain information on which activities the fund operator plans to perform every year, and their corresponding costs. There are no restrictions as to how the fund operator divides the costs over the eight years. Question 31: Are there any eligible restrictions on the track records for this tender (except limiting these to the last ten years)? Answer: The applicant is expected to describe its organisation s experience, skills and competence in managing funds that are relevant for the bid. Question 32: May the participation in the call for bids of an association (NGO), which consists of a network of NGOs/think-tanks in several of the targeted beneficiary countries and neighbouring third countries, constitute a conflict of interest (in case its network organisations will be eligible for grants under the Global Fund)? Answer: Members of the Fund Operator s consortium will not be eligible to apply for projects under the Global Fund if it constitutes a conflict of interest. Question 33: May a company which is part of an international network of companies, where appropriate rely on the capacities of other entities from its network of firms without including them as separate members of the consortium? If this is acceptable, is it necessary to present a written proof to the FMO that the bidder will have at his disposal the other entities resources necessary for performance of the contract, for example by presenting a commitment on the part of those entities, specified in a Letter of undertaking. Answer: In case the bid is submitted by a consortium, one of the consortium members is designated lead bidder and is responsible for submitting the bid and concluding a contract with the FMO. The bid must demonstrate how bidders intend to allocate the responsibilities and work tasks between consortium members, where applicable. It must be clear in the application which consortium partner will perform which tasks and which tasks will be subcontracted. Bids submitted to the FMO should clearly describe such arrangements. Question 34: Is there a specific preliminary template for the contract to be concluded between the FMO and the selected Fund Operator? If yes, can you please provide it? Answer: The FMO is currently working on the template for the contract between the fund operator and the FMO, but it will not be finalised before the deadline 15 September.

6 Question 35: Are there specific territorial restrictions with regard to the relevant experience of the bidders? Is it acceptable to present references regarding re-granting experience in African countries implemented by a company registered in Africa? Answer: There are no territorial restrictions as to the experience sought by the fund operator. The applications will be assessed on whether the experience described is in line with the competence, skills and work experience requested in the terms of reference. Question 36: As external audits are going to be carried out under the responsibility of the Fund Operator, should the costs for sub-contracting an independent auditor be included in the fixed fee to be proposed by the bidders? Answer: Yes, external audits are to be covered by the management fee. Question 37: What kind of control over the bank account is intended in relation to the expected responsibility of the Fund Operator for managing of a bank accounts, established and owned by the FMO at a bank of its choice, intended for re-granting to projects? Is the Fund Operator going to have an ability to view balance of the bank account? Is the Fund Operator going to be the only authorized to make specific payments on behalf of the entities? Answer: The Fund Operator will have full control of day to day banking operations, including viewing the available balance and transferring funds to projects. This account is only for the purpose of transferring funds to project consortium members in line with the payment procedures outlined in the project contracts. Project consortium members pay their expenses themselves. Question 38: Has the FMO already drafted the Call for Proposals of the Global Fund for Regional Cooperation or will this be one of the tasks of the Fund Operator? Will the FO be responsible for drafting the project application form template? Answer: The drafting of the calls for proposals and application form is the responsibility of the FMO. Question 39: Will re-granting experience held by individuals (in previous positions) be relevant or is the requirement linked directly to the track record of the organisations (legal entities) of the consortium? Answer: Yes, the personal experience of staff is relevant to the requirement for re-granting experience. Question 40: Are the required CVs to be submitted with the application those of the senior staff only, and not necessarily the more junior team members? Regarding the re-granting experience as stated in the ToR, would the experience of individuals who are Directors/employees of the entity be considered as eligible? Answer: The applicant needs to submit CVs of the persons to be directly involved in the work tasks of the fund operator. If the work tasks are allocated to junior staff, the CVs of those persons need to be submitted. CVs should show previous work experience, competence and skills that (together with the rest of the staff involved) match the requirements in the terms of reference.

7 Questions 41: What regulations are these funds governed by? Answer: The GFRC is regulated by the Protocol 38c on the EEA Financial Mechanism ( ), article 7; and the Agreement between the Kingdom of Norway and the European Union on a Norwegian Financial Mechanism for the period , article 7. Question 42: With regards to public procurement shall projects abide by the Financial Regulations (EU) No 966/2012? Answer: The GFRC is not part of the general budget of the European Union and consequently the EU Financial Regulations do not apply to its implementation. Question 43: Is the FO required to set-up a website for the publishing of calls, receipt of project applications, guidelines and publicity or will the FMO website be used? Answer: The FMO will design a specific webpage for the GFRC under the website The fund operator is expected to use its own website to inform about the GFRC and link to the FMO s website. Question 44: Are Donor Country organisations to be directly involved in the projects (i.e. eligible for support); and if they are not to be eligible, by what other means is the Global Fund to contribute towards the strengthening of bilateral cooperation with the Donors. Answer: The Donor States are not eligible for funding under the GFRC. However, donor state entities may be involved in the projects as expertise partners, for instance sharing know-how and examples of good practice, thus fulfilling the objective of strengthening bilateral relations. Question 45: In the contract for funding with each beneficiary (consortium of beneficiaries) which will be the Contracting Party - the FMO or the Fund Operator? Answer: The fund operator will contract the lead partners of the projects. Question 46: We understand that the Fund Operator will use the FMO s IT system through the complete project life cycle. To increase efficiency and transparency of fund management, we are considering to apply grant management IT solutions/functions that are covered by this system. Do you plan to allocate extra funds for the development of additional IT functionalities to expand the present functions covered in FMO s system or any IT development shall be included in the proposed FO s budget? And The TOR s Section 4.1 make reference to web-based documentation, reporting and evaluation system of the FMO. Can you provide further details with regards to this system and what it includes? Answer: The FO will be granted access to the IT system developed by the FMO, allowing for reports and payment requests from the FO to the FMO to be integrated into this system, as soon as it is available. As regards the flow of information between the FO and the project partners, this will not be accommodated by the FMO s IT system, but is within the responsibility of the FO and should be covered from the management fee. Bids should describe the solution to be put in place. Question 47: Based on our experience, providing visibility for the fund is supported from a different budget line. Does the FMO cover the costs of conferences, marketing, and PR for communication purposes?

8 Answer: Visibility measures on project level are mainly the responsibility of the projects themselves. The FMO also provides visibility through its website eeagrants.org and other activities. The FO is expected to assist the projects and the FMO in this work. Question 48: Should the irrevocable bank guarantee be provided one time during the project implementation period or shall be provided under the entire duration of the project? The ToR states that the financing arrangements with the FO shall ensure that the fund operator has positive cash flow throughout the whole implementation period. How do you plan to ensure positive cash flow for the FO, if 10/30 % of the grant is retained until approval of final FO report? Answer: The purpose of the bank guarantee is twofold: (1) to ensure direct access to funds if the fund operator becomes unable or unwilling to reimburse misspend funds that may be lost due to apparent negligence on its behalf, and (2) to ensure that the creditworthiness of the bidder is reviewed by a national banking institution. It shall normally be valid during the entire contract period and until the FMO has unconditionally approved the final report. The retention of part of the management fee is complementary to the bank guarantee, and together with the bank guarantee, are deemed as necessary risk mitigation measures. To cover the estimated expenditure of upcoming period, the Fund Operator will receive the management fee in advance instalments during the entire implementation period and up to 90% (or 70% in case no bank guarantee is provided). The retained amount shall be released following the unconditional approval of the final report by the FMO. All funding in relation to payments to projects (advance, interim or final), and in accordance with the project contracts, will be made available for the Fund Operator in advance on the bank accounts open by the FMO for the purpose of re-granting to projects. Question 49: According to the ToR, the FO is responsible that projects that consists of at least 20 % of the Global Fund shall be covered by audit. According to our experience, financial audits should be covered by an independent party and directly financed by the FMO, while the audit plan can be elaborated by the FO. In addition to financial audit of projects, we consider project level external evaluations/impact assessments as useful tool in measuring success of interventions. When discussing audit in the ToR, do you mean also other types (not only financial) of audit methodologies to be covered? May we assume that regular project audits and external evaluation of grant projects are budgeted within the budgets of individual projects and program level (FO) audits and external evaluations are to be included in FO s budget? Answer: Audits shall be carried out under the responsibility of the Fund Operator assisted/sub-contracted to/by independent and certified auditor/s. The Fund Operator shall aim to audit projects covering at least 20% of the total Fund expenditure. Audits shall be spread across the lifetime of the projects in order to ensure that an acceptable level of expenditure is verified. The Fund Operator shall ensure that the audits comply with internationally accepted audit standards. An audit plan shall be presented to the FMO by the Fund Operator annually. Audits in projects performed by the FMO, if any, shall be seen as complementary to the audits performed under the responsibility of the Fund Operator and shall not be included in the audit plan developed by the Fund Operator.

9 Question 50: One of the co-bidders has a statute of non-for-profit NGO and is not subsidised by any governmental level budget and funds. If their President and/or member of the Managing Board has also a high level position in a local administration (secretary general or other) would the FMO consider them as dependent of government? Answer: The organisations in the consortium must be independent of government at all levels. The level of independence will be judged on a case by case basis, taking into account the management and decision making structures as well as the financing of entities. Question 51: Would relevant past experience in youth employment activities enable allocation of additional points in the evaluation process? If yes, how much? Answer: The requirements in the ToR and bid form do not specify that the Fund Operator needs experience in the support areas of the Global Fund for Regional Cooperation. The primary role of the Fund Operator is to provide administrative support to the FMO in managing the Global Fund for Regional Cooperation and contracting and following up the projects to be selected. Question 52: For the sole bidder/each consortium member (if applying in consortium): Please provide a detailed description of actions/projects/programmes showing your organisation s experience in managing funds. Please limit this to the last ten years. Can you please provide the last acceptable date for inclusion of references? (i.e. 1 August 2006). Answer: The limitation is set to 10 years. For the sake of clarity, please include relevant experience from 1. January Question 53: Please can you clarify what is meant by fixed fee in the ToR. Does it mean that: Answer: The contract is Time & Material based with a set maximum value ceiling The contract is Milestone Based with set payments at each milestone or Fixed Price contract with payment at fixed interval (e.g. monthly or quarterly)? A fixed-price contract (a single lump sum) for the fulfilment of the contract is foreseen, paid in agreed instalments at fixed intervals. Remuneration due shall not, normally, depend on the achievement of specific milestones or on the actual rate of resources used by the Fund Operator, but on the duration of the engagement, subject to the possibility for early termination. Question 54: Assistance to the Financial Mechanism Office (FMO) in calls for proposal and handling of applications: The answer to question 6 states that the FO determines the compliance of potential projects with eligibility and administrative criteria. If the submitted documents of a potential project do not meet these criteria, does the FMO expect the FO to coach the applicant in submitting an appropriate documentation? Answer: The control of the administrative and eligibility criteria of the applicant/application is done by the Fund Operator. The details of these criteria are not available yet, but it is expected that most of them will consist of simple questions related to the completeness of the application file and the

10 eligibility of the applicants. Coaching is not expected at this stage in the application phase (but see Question 55), however the Fund Operator will be expected to conduct a brief appeals period during which applicants rejected at this stage will be given the opportunity to clarify their application. Question 55: Is the FO expected to provide capacity building measures to the applicants (e.g. project development, project management )? Answer: The fund operator is expected to perform technical and administrative tasks for the FMO and provide support and clarifications to potential applicants in the pre-application phase. When projects have been selected, the fund operator will have an extensive role in supporting the project partners in implementing their activities in line with the applicable rules. Question 56: Point 3.b. of the bid form requires Management structure of the bidder and list of Executive Board members. Do we understand well, that this table will include the present Board members of each consortia partner, and the potential future board members of the project shall be introduced under point 4? Answer: The requirement under 3b asks for the present board members of the applicant (or of each member of the consortium if the bidder represents a consortium). Under point 4 the requirement is to present each of the consortium members - not the board members but the persons that will perform the work tasks. Question 57: As part of our bidding process, could you please advise if there is a template for the completion of CVs? Answer: No, there is no template for the CVs. Question 58: What is the deadline for submitting an application? Answer: The deadline is 15 September 2016 before midnight. Questions related to the calls for proposals and projects: The details concerning the calls for proposals and projects are currently being discussed by the donors, and should not be considered relevant for the application process of the fund operator.