COUNCIL OF EUROPE DEVELOPMENT BANK

PUBLIC CALL FOR TENDERS

N° 2022-12/ CEB/TAM/P-TAM_LD

FRAMEWORK CONTRACT
FOR THE PROVISION OF CONSULTANCY SERVICES
TO SUPPORT LOAN AND GRANT FINANCED PROJECTS

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CONTRACT NOTICE

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Deadline for submissions: 3 April 2023, 5:00 pm (Paris time zone)

55, avenue Kléber • F-75116 PARIS • Tél : +33 (0)1 47 55 55 00 • Fax : +33 (0)1 47 55 55 76
Swift : CEFPFRPP • www.coebank.org
Article 1. Presentation of the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) and object of the
contract

1.1. Presentation of the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB)

The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) is a multilateral development bank. Its mission is to
strengthen social integration in Europe. It does so by providing financing and technical expertise for projects
with a high social impact in its member states. The Bank provides loans mainly to public authorities and to
financial intermediaries such as banks or microfinance institutions. CEB also provides grants financed from
its budget and from trust funds, for the preparation and support to projects. In addition to that CEB provide
grants funded by other donors for the implementation of socially related infrastructure projects in its
member states.
The CEB supports socially oriented investment projects through three sectoral lines of action, namely:
▪ Investing in People and Enhancing Human Capital;
▪ Promoting Inclusive and Resilient Living Environments; and
▪ Supporting Jobs and Economic and Financial Inclusion.

In 2022, the Bank approved 36 projects worth EUR 4.2 billion.

At the end of 2022, the Bank employed 211 staff members of 33 nationalities, all based in Paris at the
following official address: FR-55 Avenue Kléber, 75116 Paris, France. In addition, 5 locally hired staff were
based in CEB Project Office based in Ankara, Türkiye.

The official languages of the Bank are English and French.

1.2. Object of the assignment

The CEB is issuing this Call for Tender in order to engage through Frameworks Contracts a pool of Service
Providers who can deliver high quality expertise and assistance to several CEB sectors of action and cross-
cutting areas of focus. The Framework Contracts are also intended to support the CEB in delivering advisory
services under the InvestEU Advisory Hub.

The Framework Contracts will be signed with maximum of five (5) Service Providers. Subsequently, the CEB
will address invitations to bid for the specific call offs to all Service Providers that have signed the Framework
Contract.

1.3. Scope of the tender

Service Providers would be expected to deliver high quality expertise and assistance to several CEB sectors
of action and cross-cutting areas of focus, including but not limited to:
a) Focus areas:
1. Housing for low-income persons
2. Urban and regional development, resilient cities
3. Health including health infrastructure, public health, social care
4. Education and vocational training
5. Supporting MSMEs for the creation and preservation of viable jobs
6. Microfinance

b) Core cross-cutting areas:

7. Social inclusion and support to vulnerable groups
8. Aid to refugees, migrants, displaced persons and other vulnerable groups
9. Gender equality and women’s empowerment

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 10. Climate change including climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation, Paris Alignment, Just
Transition
11. Environmental and Social Safeguards and related due diligence
12. Conflict prevention and resolution, post-conflict transition plans
13. Socially responsible procurement, including green procurement.

c) Other areas of expertise:

14. Water supply, sanitation
15. Sustainable waste management
16. Energy-efficiency and sustainable energy
17. Sustainable public transport
18. Disaster risk management
19. Protection and rehabilitation of historic and cultural heritage
20. Infrastructure of administrative and judicial public services
21. Digitalisation

This indicative list of areas will evolve over time in line with CEB’s strategic direction to enable the CEB to
respond to evolving social development challenges in a flexible manner and subject to change during the
contracting period. The Framework Contract may potentially represent a higher or lower number of areas
and activities, depending on the evolving needs of the CEB.

Service Providers are requested to submit offers covering at least three (3) of the Focus or Cross Cutting
Areas and are encouraged to provide for as many as possible of the other areas as well. That means that by
presenting an offer, Service Providers are committing to present offers in the specific call offs, irrespective
of the area of expertise.

1.3.1. Objective

Throughout the duration of the Framework Contract, whenever a need arises, the selected Service Providers
would be requested to submit a proposal in accordance with the detailed scope specified by the CEB. The
CEB would then select the most relevant proposal. This would serve as a second-round competition.

1.3.2. Expected Results

The results of the assignments should be concise reports providing clear statements on the questions
investigated by the consultant on every project in line with the assignment description. In the analysis, the
consultant should clearly state: a) findings and recommendations on the issues investigated; b) the elements
of the project dossier which are satisfactory and not satisfactory, including from a legal and policy point of
view; c) the main problems identified in relation either to the project itself or the accompanying information;
d) which additional information is needed from the project promoter; e) recommendations for improvements
of the project application. CEB will provide specific instructions on the required outputs at the call-offs stage
of each assignment.

1.4. Budget and duration of the Contract

1.4.1 Budget
The overall budget is still not defined, given the duration of the assignment. The budget may evolve during
the duration of the project.

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 1.4.2 Duration
The Framework Contract shall be concluded for a period of three (3) years and may be extended one or
several times, subject to performance, for a period of one (1) year, but not exceeding a total period of six (6)
years.

1.5. Provisional timetable

Deadline for request for any clarifications from the CEB 22 March 2023
Last date on which clarifications are issued by the CEB 28 March 2023
Deadline for submission of tenders 3 April 2023 5:00 pm (Paris time zone)
Provisional Date for Award Notification 12 May 2023
Provisional Date for Framework Contract signature From 31 May 2023

Article 2. Pre-Qualification Criteria

The CEB has set the pre-qualification criteria in order to assess the Tenderers in terms of their technical
knowledge and experience, capacity, organisational and financial standing. In order to be selected, Tenderers
will be required to demonstrate that they fulfil the following selection criteria:

1. Professional capacity, qualifications and experience:

a) General prior experience:
i. The Tenderer must demonstrate relevant experience in managing at least one
Framework Contract with subsequent individual requests of at least one thousand
(1 000) expert/days of inputs, over the last ten (10) years; and

ii. The Tenderer must present examples of assignments where services were provided
in at least three (3) of the Focus or Cross Cutting Areas stipulated in Article 2.1 of the
Terms of Reference:
→ Minimum three (3) examples of assignments for each area of expertise in the last
seven (7) years

b) Qualifications of the experts:

The Tenderer must demonstrate the ability to propose/hire technical experts:
→ by giving examples of 10 CVs of staff employed or associated with the Tenderer,
demonstrating the expertise and experience in the areas relevant for the tender, as per
Article 2.1. of the Terms of Reference
→ with at least one professional experience working for a company or an international
organisation in a context similar to that of the CEB.

2. Financial capacity:
a) Turnover: The Tenderer must have a minimum turnover of at least 1,000,000 EUR/year over
the last 3 years;
b) Profit/loss before taxes: The Tenderer must have a positive result for at least 3 years over
the last 5 years;
c) Solvency: The Tenderer must have a financial capacity to provide the required service;
NB: This is proved by the solvency certificate - a document signed by the Tenderer’s bank
certifying the financial situation and the existence of an active bank account in their
establishment.

Only those Tenderers that meet the aforementioned pre-qualification criteria will have their offers
evaluated.

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Article 3. Joint Venture (JV) or Consortium
The JV or Consortium may collectively meet the pre-qualification criteria of the tender, mentioned in Article
2. Each partner must individually not fall into the exclusion criteria situations as stipulated in the tender file.
All group partners are jointly and severally liable for the performance of the Contract. The group will be
represented by a single candidate who will act as sole representative of the group.

Article 4. How to obtain the tender file?

Any interested Tenderer can download the elements necessary for the preparation of their offers (Tender
Dossier including the Terms of Reference, the Draft Contract and the administrative documents to be
submitted) on the e-procurement platform (VORTAL).

Platform’s link: https://community.vortal.biz/sts/Login?SkinName=councileuropedevelopmentbank

Article 5. Additional information before the deadline for submission of tenders

All contact between the CEB and the candidates taking part in this call for tenders will be made via the e-
procurement platform VORTAL by using the following link:

Platform’s link: https://community.vortal.biz/sts/Login?SkinName=councileuropedevelopmentbank

Any questions related to this tender should be received by 22 March 2022. The CEB has no obligation to
provide clarifications to questions that would be submitted after this date.

The CEB will provide answers to the questions by 28 March 2022 at the latest.

Article 6. Acceptance and rejection of tenders

The CEB reserves the right to accept or reject non-substantive defects that might affect the tenders. The CEB
will reject tenders received after the submission deadline, without any penalty or justification.

Article 7. Modification or cancellation of the Call for Tenders

The CEB reserves the right to modify or cancel, at any time, all or part of this tender as necessary, without
having to justify its action or incurring any liability to potential bidders. In no event shall the CEB be liable for
any damages whatsoever, including, without limitation, damages for loss of profits, in any way connected
with the cancellation of this tender even if the CEB has been advised of the possibility of damages.

Article 8. Confidentiality
All information communicated to the Tenderers within the context of the call for tenders or the assignments
are confidential.

Article 9. Extension of the submission date

The CEB may, at its discretion, extend the deadline set for the submission of offers, in which case all of the
rights and obligations of the CEB and the Tenderers shall be governed by the new deadline.

Article 10. Evaluation criteria

Tenders will be evaluated on the basis of quality and price.

The weighting between quality and price will be on 70/30 basis.

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