Embassy of ItalyAccra

Transcription

1 Embassy of ItalyAccra CALL FOR TENDERS PROCEDURE FOR THE SELECTION OF AN EXTERNAL SERVICE PROVIDER TO SUPPORT THE ITALIAN EMBASSY IN PROCESSING VISA APPLICATIONS AND CONSULAR SERVICES For the purpose of this procedure, the following definitions are adopted: "VISA" means individual entry visa for Italy, type A, C or D; "OFFICE" is the Consular Section of the Embassy of Italy in Accra (Ghana); "OUTSOURCER" is the counterpart in the contract as identified through the selection procedure; "MINISTRY" is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Italy; "USER" is the applicant availing him/herself of the services provided by the Outsourcer. SECTION I: CONTRACTING AUTHORITY I.1) Official name and address of the contracting Authority: Embassy of Italy Accra Address: Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Cantonments Accra (Ghana) P.O. Box CT 885 Certified address: amb.accra@cert.esteri.it Website Officer in charge of the procedure: Ms. Mara Borserini I.2) TYPE OF CONTRACTING AUTHORITY Administration of the Republic of Italy SECTION II: OBJECT OF THE CONTRACT II.1.1) Services outsourced: services related to the issuance of entry visas for Italy and to the legalization and certification of the translation of documents issued by local Authorities. In particular: IN CONNECTION WITH VISA APPLICATIONS 1

2 (a) providing general information on visa requirements and application forms; (b) informing the applicant of the required supporting documents, on the basis of a checklist; (c) collecting applications and data (including biometric identifiers) and forwarding both hard and soft copy of the applications to the Office; (d) collecting visa fees and transferring them to the Office; (e) booking the appointments for the applicants interview at the Office; (f) collecting documents, including refusal notifications when issued, from the Office and returning them to the applicants. IN CONNECTION WITH DOCUMENTS TO BE TRANSLATED/LEGALIZED a) providing general information on legalization and certification of the translation of documents; b) collecting the documents to be legalized and / or certified and transferring them to the Office; c) collecting the fees due for the legalization and /or for the certification of the translation and transferring them to the Office; d) collecting the documents whose legalization and / or certification has been requested, included those that couldn t be legalized and/or certified, and return them to the documents. The prospective offer of additional services will be assessed by the Office in the framework of a comprehensive assessment of the quality of the service provided. The examination of the applications, the interviews (when needed), the decision on the application and the issuance of visa stickers will be performed only by the Office. In compliance with EU rules, applicants can lodge their applications directly at the Office. II.1.2) Title given to the outsourcing procedure: PROCEDURE FOR THE SELECTION OF AN EXTERNAL SERVICE PROVIDER TO SUPPORT THE ITALIAN EMBASSY IN PROCESSING VISA APPLICATIONS AND CONSULAR SERVICES Procedure number: 1314 II.1.3) Decision to outsource: Act n. 1/2014 of the 12 June 2014 II.1.4) Place of execution: consular district of the Embassy of Italy in Accra (Ghana and Togo). 2

3 II.2.1) Value of the contract: The Outsourcer will receive directly from the User the payment of the service fee for each visa application and for each request of legalization and certification received. The average number of visa applications received by the Office over the last three years has been 6,300 per year, while the average number of documents submitted for legalization and/or certification has been 4,800 per year. The estimated value of the outsourcing contract for three years is 650,000 euros. The Office cannot be held responsible for modifications of Annex 1 of the Regulation (EC) n. 539/2001 that could lead to a decreased number of visa applications. II.3) Duration of the contract : three years, at the end of which the Office, should it decide to keep on outsourcing, at least six months before the expiration of the contract in place will either call for new tenders or extend in writing the existing contract for a maximum of three more years. In the latter case, the Office will review the contract in compliance with the Visa Code. SECTION III: RULES OF PARTICIPATION III.1) Legal subjects allowed to participate: please refer to art. 2 of the Rules of participation. The legal subjects wishing to participate in the selection shall be duly registered under their national law. The winning bidder agrees to register in Ghana or to create a company under the Ghanaian law within 60 days from the award notification, under the penalty of the exclusion from the contract. III.2) Deposit and guarantees required: Refundable deposit equivalent to 2% of the estimated value of the outsourcing contract, as indicated at point II.2.1; bank guaranty for the execution equivalent to 10% of the value of the contract. III.3) Legal requirements for partnerships: comprehensive mandate resulting from an authenticated private deed and official power of attorney granted to the legal representative; all partners will be jointly and severally responsible. III.4) Special conditions: in case of events in the fields of sport, tourism and economy, social or commercial events taking place in Italy and strongly affecting the number of visa applications, the Office can withdraw from the contract or extend the contract with a notice of at least 6 months. III.5) Status of participants: business entities, participating individually or jointly, shall fulfill the general admission requirements listed at point 3 of the Rules of participation. III.6) Economic and financial capacity: please refer to point 4 of the Rules of participation. 3

4 SECTION IV: SELECTION PROCEDURE IV.1) Type of procedure: open tender. Prospective bidders shall participate in the selection by sending the application enclosed herewith, the offer and the refundable deposit within Friday 18 th of July, 2014, 12:00 noon. The application, the offer and the deposit shall be delivered to the Office as indicated at point 7 of the Rules of participation. IV.2.1) Selection criteria: Best offer based on the following criteria: a) Previous experience.....up to 20 points [previous experience with Italian and/or foreign missions in Countries with high volume of applications] b) Organization...up to 15 points [familiarity with the environment, office opening hours, possible additional services] c) Structure provided... up to 20 points [quality and location of the premises, call center, website, equipment] d) Staff.....up to 10 points [qualification of the staff, presence of staff with knowledge of the Italian language] e) Improvement suggestions... up to 5 points f) Financial offer.....up to 30 points [cost for the user, excluding optional services] IV.3.1) Reference number assigned to the file by the contracting authority: n. IV.3.2) How to get Terms of contract (specifications) and additional documents: documents can be obtained and accessed within Friday 11 th July 2014at 12:00 noon. Documents downloaded from the website are f.o.c. IV.3.3) Deadline for the offers: Friday 18 th July 2014 at 12:00 noon. IV.3.4) Opening of envelopes containing the offers : will take place at the Embassy of Italy in Accra, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Cantonments on Monday 21 st July 2014 at 12:00 noon. IV.3.5) Language to be used for the bids: Italian or English. In case of discrepancy, text in Italian prevails. IV.3.6) Minimum validity of the offer: 180 days from the deadline for the submission. 4

5 IV.3.7) Opening of the bids: the event is open to the public and may be attended by legal representatives of the bidders or by their representative delegated to this specific purpose. SECTION V: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: V.1) Recurring contract: YES V.2) Contract related to a project and / or program funded by the EU: NO. V.3) Sole bidder: the Office will finalize the tender also in case only one bidder has taken part in it. V.4) Additional information: All costs related to the contract shall be covered by the Outsourcer. The Rules of participation, the Terms of contract (specifications) and the Application form enclosed herewith are essential to this Call for tenders and reference should be made to them. The aforementioned documents are available on the website Information and clarifications on the documents can be requested by at the following address contabile.accra@esteri.it. Questions and answers will be published on the website. The officer in charge of the procedure is Ms. Mara Borserini. V.5) Complaints: any dispute between the Office and the counterpart falls under the jurisdiction of the Tribunal of Rome Italy. V.6) Date: NB: All documents related to this Call for tenders are in Italian, although an unofficial translation of them into English has been provided. In case of controversy, the original text in Italian will prevail. 5