Universal Service Fund (A company setup under Section 42 of the Companies Ordinance 1984) Request for Submission of Proposals (RFP) For Establishment of Computer Labs in Government Girl s Institutions of Islamabad Capital Territory Phase 2 Tender ID: USF/SP/CL@ICTGS/2017/02 Issued at Islamabad 12 th June 2017 USF Co Fifth Floor, HBL Tower, Jinnah Avenue, Islamabad Pakistan Tel: 051 9212308-09 Fax: 051 9214261 URL: www.usf.org.pk
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION... 3 2. BIDDING PROCESS... 3 3. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA... 4 4. GENERAL CONDITIONS... 5 5. BID SECURITY / PERFORMANCE GUARANTEE... 7 6. TECHNICAL PROPOSAL... 7 7. FINANCIAL PROPOSAL... 8 8. SUBMISSION, OPENING AND RECEIPT OF PROPOSALS... 9 9. EVALUATION CRITERIA... 9 10. AWARD OF CONTRACT... 10 11. PAYMENT TERMS... 11 2
1. INTRODUCTION In a world of global communications and far-reaching technologies, girls educational institutions face multiple challenges including the challenge to equip students for life in the 21st century. New approaches to learning and teaching skills and advance management practices are required to meet the educational needs of students, especially girl students. Provision of hardware, internet connectivity and supporting items to educational institutions can facilitate them in equipping students to face emerging challenges. Currently, educational institutions especially girls institutions are finding it hard to provide computer literacy to their students due to paucity of resources. In this pretext, upon the request of Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), USF Board of Directors has decided to implement a special project. Under the project state of art ICT facilities and trained human resources will be provided to the selected educational institutions in addition to operation and maintenance support for three years to those schools. Phase 1 of the project has already been launched, and this RFP is for phase 2 of the project. Detailed Scope of work is given in TORs, which includes; quantities and specification of essential hardware, software, and furniture; and service requirements. 2. BIDDING PROCESS i. A Company/Firm will be selected after an open, competitive and transparent bidding process in accordance with Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Ordinance, 2002, and Rules, Regulations and Guidelines made thereunder. ii. Save as otherwise provided, a Single Stage, Two Envelopes procedure as per Rule 36 (b) read with Rule 37 (a) of the Public Procurement Rules, 2004, as amended in 2006 (the Rules ) shall be opted. a. The bid shall comprise a single package containing two separate envelopes. Each envelope shall contain separately the financial proposal and the technical proposal. b. The envelopes shall be marked as FINANCIAL PROPOSAL and TECHNICAL PROPOSAL in bold and legible letters to avoid confusion. c. Initially, only the envelope marked TECHNICAL PROPOSAL shall be opened; d. The envelope marked as FINANCIAL PROPOSAL shall be retained in the custody of USF without being opened. e. USF shall evaluate the technical proposals in a manner prescribed under Table-1 of this document without reference to the price and reject any proposal which does not conform to the specified requirements. f. The financial proposal of bids found technically nonresponsive shall be returned un-opened to the respective bidders; 3
g. After the evaluation and approval of the technical proposals, the financial proposals of the technically accepted bids /technically qualified bidders will be opened at a time, date and venue announced and communicated to bidders in advance. h. Bid Security, in the shape of a Demand Draft or Pay Order in the name of Universal Service Fund, as per Rule 25 of the Rules shall be provided in a separate envelope along with the technical proposal. The eligible Bidder will be entitled to receive detailed bidding documents/information package from the office of USF against a non-refundable payment of PKR 1,000 (One Thousand Pak Rupees) in the shape of Demand Draft or Pay Order in favor of USF. No financial instrument other than specified in this clause shall be accepted. 3. Eligibility Criteria Bidders must comply to the below mentioned clauses a. The Bidder can be a single party or a consortium of multiple parties of which one must be a computer Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) or its authorized partner/ agent. In case of consortium, consortium agreement among all partners is required. b. In case of a consortium, only local company/firm can be the consortium leader. c. One member of the consortium shall be identified as the consortium leader and the leader s experience will be considered for clause e below. d. The consortium leader shall also enter into all contracts on behalf of consortium and shall otherwise be responsible for consortium performance. All members of the consortium shall be jointly and individually liable to USF in respect of the performance of the USF s Tender. e. Bidders must have a minimum five years of relevant working experience at national level, in provision of hardware and after sales service, from the date of registration of the firm. OEM of the quoted products must be in the manufacturing of the product for at least 10 years. f. The Bidder will ensure that the equipment is acquired from the original manufacturer and is procured through proper channel as advised by the original manufacturer. USF may request proof of originality. g. The equipment must be offered with required warranty, explicitly mentioned in ToR for each product offered. The Bidder has to bid for all Equipment / Services on Turnkey Basis as mentioned in the ToR. Please note that partial bids shall not be entertained. h. The Bidder shall quote only a single item against each category; otherwise the solution will be rejected for being non-compliant to this requirement. 4
i. Bidder must be registered with FBR for Income and Sales tax and will provide NTN and Sales Tax registration certificates, as per the applicable government regulation, in the proposal. j. The Bidders name must be on Active Taxpayers List (ATL) of FBR for Income tax and sales tax as on the date of bid submission and onward throughout the project tenure in compliance of the Eligible Bidders (Tax Compliance) Regulations, 2015. k. Proof of applicant s relationship with OEM (Gold, silver, platinum partners etc.) must be provided by the Bidder. l. The Bidder shall provide an undertaking that the Bidder itself or its partner in case of consortium have not been declared black listed by any Government/Semi- Government institutions. m. The Bidder must satisfy USF that it has sufficient financing capacity for the investments required to implement the project. The bidder shall provide relevant document(s) for determination of the following: i. Annual turnover more than PKR 100,000,000 (Pak Rupees hundred million only) ; and ii. Possession or access to a Line of Credit (LoC) equal to PKR 20,000,000 (Pak Rupees Twenty million only) which shall be issued by respective financial institution on its letter head, and the Bidder will submit an affidavit on stamp paper, duly attested by oath commissioner, in support and endorsement of LoC. 4. General Conditions a. The bidder will be selected after an open, competitive and transparent bidding process in view of Rule 20 of the Rules. b. Proposals shall be submitted in English language as per Rule 6 of the Rules, c. All prices mentioned in the Financial Proposal shall be in Pak Rupees (PKR). d. Each page of the Technical and Financial Proposal shall be signed by an authorized representative of the Bidder. The representative s authorization shall be confirmed by power of attorney accompanying the proposal. e. The interested Bidder must get registered with USF for the project latest by 15 days before the proposal submission date. f. For clarification on any item of this RFP, the bidder may send a written request, up till five (05) days before the proposal submission date. g. All clarifications will be communicated to the registered Bidders through e-mail and shall be uploaded on the USF website at the specific tender s web page. 5
h. USF may reject all bids or proposals at any time prior to the acceptance of a bid or proposal. USF shall, upon request, communicate to any supplier or contractor who submitted a bid or proposal, the grounds for its rejection of all bids or proposals, but is not required to justify those grounds as per as per as per Rule 33 of the Rules, i. USF may increase or decrease quantities of items as per provisions of Rule 42 of the Rules j. The bidders shall bear all costs associated with the preparation and submission of their respective bids and USF will, in no case, be responsible or liable for those costs, regardless of the conduct or outcome of the bidding process. k. The Bidder shall quote only single item against each category otherwise the whole bid will be rejected for being non-compliant to this requirement. l. The equipment shall be supplied in packed form and shall only be opened in the presence of the USF Officials or USF designated representative. Working manuals and other related literature shall accompany the equipment in original at the time of delivery. m. In case of non-conformity of the supplied items with the desired specifications, the item(s) shall be replaced by the Bidder free of cost. No additional time shall be permitted and any delay shall result in imposition of liquidity damages. n. The project is to be completed and executed within ten (10) weeks from the date of signing the contract. o. Successful Bidder shall complete the supply/delivery of equipment at the earliest but not later than eight (8) weeks from the date of signing the contract. p. The contracted services shall be completed within two (2) weeks after the supply of equipment. q. In case of delays in project implementation beyond ten (10) weeks, the penalty at the rate of 0.15% of total contract price per day for each day delayed beyond the final date of execution will be imposed. For delays exceeding four (04) weeks beyond the final date, USF may terminate the contract after deduction of the said penalty and USF will have the right to encash the Performance Guarantee. r. Bidders must quote highest quality equipment from well-established international brands. s. USF will inspect the equipment thoroughly and will issue a Job Completion Certificate upon successful acceptance. If the supplied equipment is found to be counterfeit, refurbished, or below specification/standards etc. it shall be rejected and replaced as per section 4(m) of this RFP. t. Bidders are under obligation to read and understand complete information package/bid documents, USF shall not be responsible towards the Bidders for any of 6
their claim or complaint which may arise in result of non-reading or misreading the bid documents/information package by Bidders. u. USF is the originator of information package/bidding documents, any clarification or interpretation communicated by USF, whether in response of a query or otherwise, shall be deemed final, conclusive and will remain unquestioned. 5. Bid Security / Performance Guarantee a. A bid security in the form of a pay order/demand draft, in the name of Universal Service Fund, of value PKR 4,000,000 (Pak Rupees Four Million Only) must be attached in a separate envelope, with the technical proposal otherwise the unopened proposals shall be returned and bid will be rejected. b. Payment of bid security in form other than that is specified at clause 5(a) shall not be entertained and accepted. USF shall return such bids unopened to respective bidders. c. Bid Security of Bidders who do not technically qualify shall be returned with the unopened financial bid within 10 days from issuance of technical evaluation report. d. Bid Security of technically qualified Bidders will be released after 10 days of the signing of the contract with the successful Bidder. e. Performance Guarantee equivalent to 10% of the signed contract value will be submitted by the successful Bidder, which is mandatory. In case of nonsubmission by the Bidder within the stipulated time as mentioned in Letter of Intent (LoI), USF shall proceed accordingly. f. 50% of the Performance Guarantee submitted will be released after the issuance of Provisional acceptance certificate (PAC- refer to section 11 of RFP) by USF. While remaining 50 % Performance Guarantee will be reduced proportionately after each year upon successful discharge of yearly warranty period obligations. g. The Performance Guarantee shall be valid for a period of 40 months from the date of signing the contract or any other extended period. 6. Technical Proposal Technical Proposals to be submitted by the applicants shall be in compliance with the requirements laid down in the RFP and ToR. The Technical proposal shall be clearly marked with the following:- The technical proposal shall include; USF/SP/CL@ICTGS/2017/02 TECHNICAL PROPOSAL a. A covering letter from the head of the company or an authorized representative of the applicant covering the key features of the technical solution. b. Bid security as per section 5 of this RFP. c. The following documentation will be provided as part of the technical proposal: i. Brief description of the company / consortium partners ii. Major areas of expertise 7
iii. Outline of work experience with references to work on similar projects preferably with public sector clients, name of the client along with their references, and project value in the following format for each of the five projects which are representative of firm s project similar to the current project: S.No. [Insert Serial Number of the project reference provided] Project Title [Insert title of the project] Client [Insert name of the Client ] Client Contact Information [Insert the Name and Contact details of Point of Contact who can be contacted for verification] Geographical [Insert the names of districts covered in the project] Coverage Value of the [Insert the value of the project ] Project Duration of the project [Insert the duration i.e. total time taken for the completion of the project] d. Details of local technical support of equipment / services. Complete address along with contact details and point of contact for all offices and CVs of technical resources should be provided. e. Warranty details of all hardware, software and services should be clearly mentioned in the bid as mentioned in the TOR. f. Audited financial statements of the Bidder for the last two years, prepared in accordance with internationally accepted accounting principles, including an income statement, balance sheet & cash flow statement and in case of credit line a letter from respective financial institution on its letter head and subsequent Affidavit from Bidder for endorsement of letter on stamp paper duly attested by oath commissioner. g. Compliance against each clause and sub-clause of RFP, ToR and Draft Contract, cross linked with the submitted Technical Proposal, must be attached. Following conventions shall be used in the compliance checklist; i. Fully Complied (FC) ii. Not Complied (NC) h. Additional Information which can facilitate USF in evaluation of technical proposal (If Any) 7. Financial Proposal The Bidder shall submit Financial Proposals specified in the ToR in separate sealed envelope. Envelop shall be clearly marked with the following:- Tender ID: USF/SP/CL@ICTGS/2017/02 FINANCIAL PROPOSAL Do Not Open With the Technical Proposal The Financial Proposal shall include the following; a. A lump sum cost along with the complete item wise cost breakup inclusive of all applicable taxes shall be provided. 8
b. All prices shall be in Pak Rupees. Any exchange rates fluctuations shall be the responsibility of the Bidder and USF shall not give any price escalation on that account. Bidder will be responsible to pay any fee, taxes, duties or charges required for successful completion of the project. c. The proposal must remain valid for a period of 180 days after the submission date. d. Taxes will be deducted by USF at the time of the payment as per government rules and regulations. 8. Submission, Opening and Receipt of Proposals a. The original proposal (Technical and Financial Proposal) shall be prepared without any interlineations or overwriting. b. Two printed copies (one original and one Copy) and one soft copy, for each Technical and Financial proposal, on a CD or DVD shall be submitted in separate envelopes. Each Technical and Financial Proposal shall be marked ORIGINAL and/or COPY as appropriate. c. The envelopes shall be marked separately as Technical Proposal and the Financial Proposal in bold and legible letters to avoid confusion. d. The proposal (Technical and Financial) must be delivered at the address given below on or before July 14, 2017 at 1500 Hrs (PST). Chief Technology Officer Universal Service Fund, 5 th Floor, HBL Tower, Jinnah Avenue Blue Area, Islamabad, Pakistan Tel: (92-51) 9212308-09 Fax: (92-51) 9214261 Email: projects.tenders@usf.org.pk e. Technical Proposals shall be opened the same day i.e. July 14, 2017 at 1530Hrs (PST), in presence of all the applicants who choose to be present. f. The evaluation of Technical Proposals will be carried out first as per the evaluation criteria given in section 9. The results of the technical evaluation will be communicated to all the registered Bidders, who submitted their technical proposals. The financial proposals of the Bidders who do not technically qualify will be returned unopened. g. Financial proposals of the technically qualified applicants will be opened publicly, for which the time and date will be communicated to the qualified applicants later on. 9. Evaluation Criteria USF will evaluate the proposals on the basis of their compliance with the RFP, ToR, evaluation criteria, and the point system as specified below. A proposal shall be rejected during technical evaluation if it does not comply with the RFP and ToR or if it fails to achieve the minimum score as indicated in Table I below: 9
Table I- Evaluation Criteria S/N Skills & Experience Weight 1 2 3 4 Technical Specification of the Equipment and Solution offered as per TOR Details of Points: Fulfills TOR Requirements 40 marks; and Non-Compliance 0 Mark Experience on projects similar to the project. Details of Points: No experience 0 marks; Each similar project undertaken will qualify firm to attain five marks up to a maximum of 25 marks. Local Support as per TOR Details of Points: Five technical resources is a minimum requirement. Availability of minimum of five technical resources in Islamabad will qualify firm to receive 10 marks. Less than 5 technical resources will be given zero marks, and each technical resource in addition to five resources, will qualify them to obtain 2 additional marks upto a maximum of 20 marks in this category. Experience of the firm Details of Points: Experience of the firm over 5 years will qualify firm to attain 5 marks and over 10 years of experience will qualify for 10 marks, and over 15 years of experience for 15 marks. Total 100 Minimum Score to Qualify 70% 40 25 20 15 10. Award Of Contract a. The Bidder with the lowest evaluated bid, if not in conflict with any other law, rules, regulations or policy of the Federal Government shall be awarded the contract, within the original or extended period of bid validity (PPRA Rule 38). b. A letter of Intent (LoI) will be issued to the lowest evaluated Bidder who shall submit Letter of Acceptance (LoA) within four (04) days of issuance of the LoI. c. The Bidder, to whom LoI has been issued, will have to submit the performance guarantee within ten (10) days of issuance of LoI. d. After submission of the Letter of Acceptance and Performance Guarantee it is expected that the contract will be signed within seven (07) days of receipt of Performance Guarantee by USF, failing which USF may proceed accordingly. 10
11. Payment Terms a. The successful Bidder will also have the option to obtain a mobilization advance up to 10% of the contract price. Such mobilization advance will be issued against an irrevocable unconditional Bank Guarantee of the same amount. The mobilization advance will be adjusted against the invoice for milestone 1. Advance payment bank guarantee will also be released upon settlement of advance payment. b. The payment for the subject procurement will be made as per the following plan:- MILESTONE PAYMENT TRIGGER PAYMENT DUE REMAINING PAYMENT Milestone 1: Delivery of Equipment & Furniture Milestone 2:Installation & Commissioning of LABs Milestone 3: Completion of Warranty Period (3Years) After delivery acceptance from all sites, and validation by USF. PAC (Provisional Acceptance Certificate) issued upon acceptance of Installation & Commissioning of Labs including Broadband Internet, Documentation and Trainings. Payable in three equal yearly installments at the end of each year of service obligation. The last installment shall be issued after issuance of FAC* by USFCo. 70% 30% 20% 10% 10% 0% *FAC (Final Acceptance Certificate): to be issued upon discharge of all contractual obligations by the successful bidder. Note: Payment against Broadband Internet is not included in the above payment schedule. Broadband internet payment will be paid separately in quarterly installment upon submission of billing invoices. 11