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SIEA 2018 OPSYS Guidelines
These Guidelines complement section 3.5.1 of the PRAG and the
OPSYS Online Wiki documentation
for internal and external users and are intended mainly to
provide guidance to the European
Commission users but are also made available for information to
the Framework Contractors.
The only legally binding provisions are those contained in the
Special Conditions of the Framework
Contract and its annexes.
Users
The Contracting Authority for each individual Specific Contract
may be the European Union
represented by the European Commission, acting on behalf of
Third Beneficiary Countries1
Conditions of use
There are 5 main conditions of use:
a) Operations must be:
i. in the exclusive interest of Third countries benefiting from
EU external aid or
ii. in the interest of the European Commission together with
Third countries benefiting
from EU external aid (mixed interest) ;
b) Operations must be financed by external aid funds (Heading IV
of the MFF or EDF);
c) The maximum amount for each Specific Contract, addenda
included, cannot exceed 999 999
EUR
d) The total implementation period of a Specific Contract cannot
exceed 3 calendar years,
addenda included.
e) The use of the dedicated IT Tool (OPSYS) is compulsory
Procedure
1. Availability of the funds
No request for services may be issued under the FWC SIEA 2018 if
funds are not available to cover
the operation. No suspension clause may be added. Specific
Contracts must be preceded by a
budgetary commitment.
2. Identification of the lot
Lot 1 – Sustainable management of natural resources and
resilience
Lot 2 – Infrastructure, sustainable growth and jobs
Lot 3 – Human Rights, Democracy and Peace
1 The use of the FWC by Third countries under indirect
management is not possible in the current version of OPSYS.
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Lot 4 – Human Development and safety net
Lot 5 – Budget Support
Lot 6 – Innovative financing for Development
The detailed description of the lots is available on the SIEA
2018 intranet webpage.
An assignment may cover any of the sectors of Part A “Expertise
common to all lots” and Part B
“List of sectors”. The list of B sectors is not exhaustive and
users may call on any additional
expertise falling within the sectors defined in the title of the
lot.
The expertise may be required at any stage of the project cycle
except financial audits (which
are covered by a dedicated framework contract) and may cover any
sector(s) within a lot. The
expertise may also cover any geographic area of the world.
For multidisciplinary assignments, the choice of lot must
correspond to the most important
sector for the given assignment.
3. Request for services
The SC contracting Authority sends to the Framework Contractors
the following documents:
A. Request for Service
B. Specific Terms of Reference
C. Budget Breakdown + pricing methodology
D. Evaluation Grid
A. Request for service: specifies type (Fee-based/Global Price)
and the deadline for
submission of offers (min. 14 calendar below 300 000 EUR min. 30
calendar days if
300 000 EUR or above).
B. Specific Terms of Reference: the templates to be used are
available on the intranet .
The project manager will indicate under which EU External Aid
Instrument the specific
contract will be financed which will determine the eligible
nationalities of the consortium
members and possible subcontractors.
For Fee-based: The specific Terms of Reference must stipulate
the expertise required from a
team or the profiles/skill per expert. In both cases, the
specific Terms of Reference must
indicate the categories of experts and related input per
category (number of working days
and expertise), the timing for reports, and the normal place(s)
of posting of the specific
assignment (main location(s) where the specific assignment will
be implemented).
A specific contract may have several experts and each expert may
have a different normal
places of posting.
There is no limit on the input per expert (under BENEF 2013 it
was 260 working days)
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For Global Price: The precise time inputs of the experts will be
left to the discretion of the
Framework Contractor to recommend in the specific offer2.
However, the Contracting
Authority may indicate an absolute minimum input in terms of
working days and/or
qualifications for one or more experts.
The project manager will define whether or not the presence of a
member of the
Management Team is required for the briefing and/or debriefing
session.
C. Budget breakdown + pricing methodology
This document must be completed by the Framework Contractor.
For Fee-based, the provision for incidental expenditure and the
provision for expenditure
verification will not be considered in the comparison of the
financial offers.
The incidental expenditure must be included in the budget
breakdown by the contractor.
When the specific Terms of Reference indicate a fixed amount for
the incidental expenditure
(global amount or per type of incidental expenditure), the
latter must be included unchanged
in the budget breakdown by the contractor.
The financial evaluation for a global price is performed on the
total contract price.
For both fee-based and global price, contractors will provide in
the specific offer a Pricing
Methodology regarding the fees of each category of expert by
means of a separate
document (following the template available on the website)
attached to the specific financial
offer.
D. Evaluation Grid (see templates in our intranet website)
The evaluation grid contains the details and relative weights of
the technical evaluation criteria
for the offers. The Grid indicates whether or not an interview
of experts will be carried out as
part of the technical evaluation and fixes the indicative dates
and the position for which the
interview is envisaged.
4. Sending the request
The request for service for a Specific Contract must be encoded
in OPSYS. Please refer to the
wikis3 for a step-by-step guide.
For each assignment, a request for services is sent to 3
eligible Framework Contractors for
request for services with a budget under 300 000 EUR and to 4
eligible Framework
Contractors for request for services with a budget of 300 000
EUR or more.
2 the SC Contracting Authority may choose to evaluate an expert
in a global price contract (this should remain exceptional). 3
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/wikis/display/RelexInternalWiki/Request+for+Service#RequestforService-2.2PreparationoftheRequestforService
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OPSYS automatically selects the framework contractors ensuring a
fair balance between
them in the consultation. This selection should not be changed,
with the following
exceptions:
A professional conflicting interest that must be duly justified
and
documented.
In case no qualitatively and/or financially satisfactory offer
is received, the
Authorising Officer must cancel the procedure. He may choose,
after
redrafting the specific terms of reference, to re-launch a
request for services
with the same framework contractors.
The conditions determining a professional conflicting interest
must be assessed at the time
of the offer. However, before sending the request for service,
the project manager might
already identify a professional conflicting interest (for
example if the envisaged assignment is
incompatible with a contract executed by the contractor or by
any member of the
consortium). In such case, before excluding any framework
contractor for a conflict of
interest the framework contractor should be duly notified and
given the possibility to provide
comments on the contracting authority’s decision.
If a professional conflicting interest is found during the
submission period or during the
evaluation, the same procedure should be followed. The framework
contractor should be
duly notified and given the possibility to provide comments on
the contracting authority’s
decision. The Project Manager may continue the procedure with
the remaining Framework
Contractors.
The Project Manager submits the Request for Service to the FWCs
via the Funding and
Tender Portal (SEDIA - Single Electronic Data Interchange
Area).
The Framework Contractors contacted must send an acknowledgement
of receipt and their
confirmation of the intention to submit an offer by the next
working day. If the
acknowledgement is not received, the Project Manager must
contact the Framework
contractor concerned.
5. Receiving the Offer: Content, validity and clarifications
5.1 Content of the Offer
Unless stated otherwise in the specific Terms of Reference, the
Framework Contractor will
submit via the Funding and Tenders Portal:
A. The Financial Offer, including the Price Methodology
document.
B. The methodology. The methodology will identify the consortium
members involved in
the assignment and all sub-contractors with their tasks and
nationalities. All must respect
https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/homehttps://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/homehttps://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/home
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the eligibility rules of the EU External Aid Programme under
which the Specific Contract
is being financed.4
C. The CVs of all the experts proposed with their statements of
exclusivity and availability.
D. The data for contacting the experts in case of interview
during the offer validity period.
The statement of exclusivity and availability is necessary for
all experts proposed in the offer.
The statement is specific to the assignment and therefore cannot
be a general overall
commitment signed prior to the Request.
The Request for Services and/or the Specific Terms of Reference
may not foresee experts
to be identified and added at a later stage during the
implementation period of the specific
contract.
The Contracting Authority will acknowledge the receipt of the
offer.
5.2 Validity of the Offer
The Offer is valid 14 calendar days after the final date of
submission for Request for Services
with a budget under 300 000 EUR and 30 calendar days for a
budget of EUR 300 000 EUR or
more.
The framework contractors must be notified of the results of the
evaluation within the
validity period of the offers. Notifying the results outside of
the validity period of the offers
is contrary to the Global Terms of Reference of the SIEA
Framework Contract.
The Project Manager may request an extension of the validity
period before the deadline.
If one of the participating Framework Contractors does not agree
with the extension of the
validity period, the Contracting Authority may proceed
evaluating only the offers of those
whose validity has been extended.
5.3 Clarifications
Any of the Framework Contractors consulted may ask for
clarifications during the submission
period.5 The Project Manager will answer sending the
question/request for clarification and
the answer to all Framework Contractors consulted
simultaneously. The deadline for
submission must be extended if a substantial change is
introduced by the clarification.
The Framework Contractor who raised the question should not be
identified in the reply.
4 See annex a2a of the PRAG 5 Addressing the e-mail to the
functional mailbox indicated
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6. Evaluation of the offers
6.1 Evaluators.
In case of a Request for Services of 300 000 EUR or more, the
Contracting Authority formally
appoints an Evaluation Committee comprising a chairperson, a
secretary and an odd number
(usually 3) of evaluators. A simplified SIEA 2018 evaluation
report must be completed, signed
by the evaluators and uploaded in OPSYS - My Workplace
In case of a Request for Services below 300 000 EUR three
evaluators are required. All
evaluators must sign the statement of confidentiality and
impartiality.
6.2 Administrative conformity.
The following criteria of admissibility are checked:
a. The deadline for the submission has been respected
b. The offer complies with the eligibility rules of the EU
External Aid programme under
which the Specific Contract is financed
c. The fee rates (expert fees + management fees) do no exceed
the maximum global
fees. This applies in the case of a global price too.
d. The maximum budget is not exceeded.
Even if only one offer is received or is admissible, the
evaluation process may continue with
that offer.
If the pricing methodology document is not included in the offer
sent by the framework
contractor, the CA will request it by e-mail and indicate a
deadline by which the document
must be provided. If the framework contractor does not provide
the document by this
deadline, that particular offer shall be rejected.
6.3 Technical and Financial Evaluation
The Technical Quality of the offers is assessed following the
evaluation grid. Any offer falling
short of the technical threshold of 75 points is rejected.
The other offers receive points calculated using the following
formula:
Technical score = (final score of the technical offer in
question/final score of the best
technical offer) x 100.
As a consequence of this formula, the best offer is always
awarded 100 points.
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The Financial Evaluation
Fee-based:
The Evaluation Committee proceeds with the financial comparison
of the fees (and lump
sums if applicable) between the different financial offers. The
provision for incidental
expenditure and the provision for expenditure verification will
not be considered in the
comparison of the financial offers.
The tender with the lowest total fees (+ lump sums if
applicable) receives 100 points. The
others are points according to the following formula:
Financial score = (lowest total fees + lump sums (if
applicable)/total fees + lumps sums (if
applicable) of the tender being considered) x 100.
Global price:
The total price will be considered in the comparison of the
financial offers. The offer with the
lowest amount receives 100 points. The other offers receive
points in accordance with the
following formula:
Financial score = (lowest offer amount/amount of the financial
offer in question) x 100.
6.4 Contract
The offer that obtains the highest weighted score (80% for the
technical score and 20% for
the financial score) will be awarded the Specific Contract.
6.5 Time for evaluation
The SC Contracting Authority has 14 calendar days in the case of
a request for services with a
budget under 300 000 EUR or 30 calendar days for those with a
budget of 300 000 EUR or
more, to evaluate and notify the results to Framework
Contractors that submitted an offer.
Those periods correspond to the validity of the offer.
If the Contracting Authority does not notify within that period,
the Framework Contractor is
no longer bound by his offer and may disband the team
proposed.
6.6 Notification of the results.
The Project Manager notifies the successful and unsuccessful
Framework Contractors.
Following this notification, the validity of the offer of the
selected Framework Contractor is
extended automatically by 14 calendar days to allow for the
signature of the Specific
Contract. The notification does not commit the Contracting
Authority to award the Specific
Contract to the Framework Contractor selected by the evaluation
committee. Expenses
incurred prior to the signature by both parties of the Specific
Contract are ineligible.
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By default the Contracting Authority will provide to
unsuccessful contractors:
o Their own global technical scores.
o The name of the winner
Upon request the Contracting Authority will provide to each
contractor:
o their specific scores given for each element of the evaluation
grid: organisation and
methodology, expert(s), rationale, strategy, etc.
The Contracting Authority will not provide:
o Any information about the other contractors’ results,
characteristics and relative
advantages (only the name of the winner)
o The financial score of the other contractors
o The price of the specific contract
6.7. No qualitatively and/or financially satisfactory offer
received
If, after the evaluation, there is no qualitatively and/or
financially satisfactory offer received,
the relevant Authorising Officer may cancel the consultation
and:
Re-launch with different framework contractors under unchanged
terms of reference
Re-launch with the same framework contractors a request for
services after
analysing/redrafting the specific terms of reference.
Initiate a negotiated procedure with one or more framework
contractors of its
choice, from among those that took part in the request for
services with a view to
obtaining improved offers (the terms reference cannot be altered
substantially).
Initiate the relevant procurement procedure outside the
framework contract.
6.8 Various
Regardless of the specific contract type (global price or
fee-based), the evaluators’ checks
should cover inter alia:
The per diems,
The arithmetical calculations,
Incidental costs / other details: these must correspond to the
services set out in the
specific Terms of Reference.
The specific contract is based on the best offer. This offer
cannot be negotiated. The only
corrections allowed before the signature of the specific
contract are:
Arithmetical errors,
Per diems over the limit published on the website
Such corrections require an updated offer from the framework
contractor who is not
permitted to modify any other item/element of his offer.
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If an offer proposes additional expertise not required by the
specific Terms of Reference, the
evaluators may not consider it in the context of the evaluation.
If this expertise is needed, a
new request should be launched.
7. Expert confirmation procedure and the specific Contract
Experts’ confirmation and replacement procedure
The SC Contracting Authority notifies all Framework Contractors
simultaneously:
• The tenderer with the highest score (1st) should confirm the
availability of the expert (s) by the end of the next working
day.
• If any, the next-best tenderers (2nd, 3rd, 4th) are informed
that the SC Contracting Authority reserves the right to notify them
of award in case the contract cannot be
signed with the tenderer with the highest score (1st).
If availability of all experts is confirmed by the tenderer with
the highest score, the Specific
Contract is signed with this tenderer and other tenderers are
informed of the signature.
If the availability of any of the experts is not confirmed by
the tenderer with the highest score:
• The tenderer has a maximum of 3 working days, counting from
the date on which the tenderer has informed the Contracting
Authority of the unavailability of one or more
expert(s), to propose replacement expert(s). The tenderer may
propose up to 3 choices
of experts’ profiles for each expert to be replaced.
• a justification for the change of the expert shall be given
and the Contracting Authority has to accept or reject it.
In case the profile(s) of the expert(s) to be replaced has/have
been subject to a scoring during
the evaluation:
• The replacement expert(s) must meet the minimum requirements
described in the Specific Terms of Reference.
• The Contracting Authority will assess the profile(s) of the
replacement expert(s) and her/his/their total score(s) must be at
least as high as the total score(s) of the
corresponding expert(s) to be replaced.
• The replacement expert(s) may not have been proposed as key
expert(s) by any of the other tenderers.
In case the expert(s) to be replaced has/have only been subject
to a verification of compliance
with minimum requirements set in the specific Terms of
Reference:
• The replacement expert(s) must meet the minimum requirements
described in the Specific Terms of Reference.
• The replacement expert(s) may not have been proposed as key
expert(s) by any of the other tenderers.
In case the expert(s) to be replaced has neither been subject to
a scoring during the evaluation,
nor to a verification of compliance with minimum requirements
set in the specific Terms of
Reference, the Contracting Authority shall only verify that the
replacement expert(s) has/have
not been proposed as key expert(s) by any of the other
tenderers.
If the replacement(s) proposed is/are accepted, the specific
contract is signed and other
tenderers are informed of the signature.
The Specific Contract will enter into force on the day that it
is signed by both parties. The
expenses are eligible from that day.
The Financial Offer, methodology and CVs of the experts proposed
together with the Specific
Terms of Reference, form an integral part of the Specific
Contract and will compose its
Annexes.
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After the signature of the Specific Contract, the unavailability
of an evaluated expert may
qualify as an error which affects the Specific Contract award
procedure and leads to the
termination of the Contract. The wish of a Framework Contractor
to use an expert on
another project or a change of mind on the part of an expert
will not be accepted as a
justification for replacement of any of the experts.
The period between sending the Specific Contract to the
Framework Contractor and the start
of the implementation must be a minimum of 10 calendar days. A
shorter period may be
defined if accepted by the Framework Contractor.
8. Modifications to the Specific contract
In all cases:
Modifications cannot alter the subject matter of the specific
contract and/or alter the
award conditions prevailing at the time when the specific
contract was awarded;
No increase can lead to a total contract value that exceeds 999
999 EUR;
The total period of implementation of a specific contract cannot
exceed 3 years;
No amendment either by means of addendum or through
administrative order shall
lead to decreasing the amount allocated to expenditure
verification.
8.1 Addendum
Any amendment to the contract affecting its object or scope,
(e.g. total contract amount,
change of the period of implementation) shall be formalised by
an addendum. Both parties
may request an addendum according to the following
principles:
An addendum may be requested only during the period of execution
of the specific
contract;
Any request for an addendum shall be submitted in writing to the
other party at least
30 days before the date on which the intended addendum is
required to enter into
force. In case of special circumstances duly substantiated by
the Contractor, the
Contracting Authority may accept a different notice period.
The requested party shall notify the requesting party of its
decision concerning the request
within 30 days from its receipt. There is no automatic amendment
without written
confirmation by the requested party.
a) The Contractor and the Project Manager agree on the nature
and the form of the
proposed modification.
b) The Contractor submits to the Project Manager a draft
amendment (addendum or
administrative order) detailing :
a) The measures required to comply with the requested
modification;
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b) An updated timetable for implementation of the tasks;
c) If necessary a proposed financial adjustment to the budget of
the contract,
using the contractual fee rates when the tasks are similar. When
the tasks
are not similar, the contractual fee rates shall be applied when
reasonable.
c) If the Project Manager decides that the amendment shall be
implemented, it shall notify
the Contractor through an administrative order stating that the
Contractor shall implement
the amendment at the prices and under the conditions given in
the Contractor’s proposal or
as modified by the Project Manager in agreement with the
Contractor.
For fee-based contracts administrative orders that have an
impact on the contractual
budget are limited to transfers within the fees, or transfers
from the fees to the
Incidental Expenditures.
For global price contracts administrative orders cannot have an
impact on the
contractual budget.
8.2. Increase of the value of Specific contracts.
The value of specific contracts may be increased, during their
execution period, by means of
addendum in the following cases:
A. Additional services by the original contractor that have
become necessary, if
the following cumulative conditions are fulfilled:
a. They were not included in the initial procurement (i.e. not
similar to
those provided for in the initial specific contract);
b. Changing contractor is unfeasible for technical reasons
(e.g.
Compatibility with existing services);
c. Changing contractor would cause substantial duplication of
costs for
the Contracting Authority;
d. Any increase in price, including the net cumulative value
of
successive modifications, does not exceed 50% of the initial
specific
contract value.
B. Modification needed because of circumstances which a diligent
Contracting
Authority could not foresee, provided that any increase in price
does not
exceed 50% of the initial specific contract value;
C. Where the value of the modification is below 10% of the
initial specific
contract value (the net cumulative value of several successive
modifications
must not exceed this threshold).
8.3 Administrative order (modification not affecting object or
scope of the contract)
An administrative order may be given by the Project Manager (OIA
in charge of the specific
contract). The Project Manager or the contractor may encode in
OPSYS an administrative
order (that is a sub-type of addendum) which may take the form
of additions, omissions,
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substitutions, changes in quality, quantity, specified sequence,
method or timetable of
implementation of the services.
Examples of amendments not entailing an addendum but a written
administrative order:
Change of expert, if the new expert has at least equivalent
qualifications and
experience as his predecessor;
A modification of quantities in incidental expenditure, such as
an additional
international travel, that does not entail an increase of the
total budget;
Non-substantial changes in the distribution of days worked among
the experts or
planning/sequence of implementation of activities, including
authorisation to work
during the weekends for a fee-based contract.
9. Various topics
LUMP SUMS
A fee-based Specific Contract may include activities paid on the
basis of lump sums. If
activities paid by lump sums are required, these must be
described in the Specific Terms of
Reference by the Contracting Authority and budgeted by the
Contractor.
Services will be paid on the basis of the delivery of the
specified outputs. Payments might be
totally or partially withheld if the contractual results have
not been reached in conformity
with the specific Terms of Reference. Payments are based on the
approval of the
deliverables. Partial payment has to be determined according to
the partial implementation
of the outputs.
Examples of lump sums:
Studies, evaluations, organisation of events such as conferences
and training sessions.
EXPERTS
The following categories of experts: Category I, II, III and
administrative assistants (for the
evaluation of grant proposals) may be required.
The Specific Terms of Reference may not impose years of
experience that exceed those
defined for each category; (Category I: 12 years, Category II: 6
years, Category III: 3 years).
Unless otherwise specified in the Specific Terms of Reference,
knowledge of a language may
be replaced by an interpreter/translator the cost of which will
be added to the total fees.
For Fee-based contracts: The Specific Terms of Reference may
indicate either the
profile/skills per expert or the overall expertise required from
the team; in the latter case,
the Framework Contractor is responsible for proposing a team
covering all the expertise
required. In both cases the Contracting Authority must specify
the input per category in
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terms of expertise and number of working days. If not specified
in the Specific Terms of
Reference, the Framework Contractor will identify the Team
Leader.
If any expert does not fulfil the minimum criteria, the entire
offer will be rejected.
For Global price contracts:
As the purpose of the global price contract is to focus on
outputs, not on inputs:
- The time inputs of the experts under a Global price are
decided by the Framework
Contractor in its specific offer
- the experts are not assessed (marked with points). during the
evaluation of a global
price contract
However:
The specific Contracting Authority may establish some minimum
requirements in terms of
qualifications or minimum number of working days for the experts
in the Terms of Reference.
In this case, compliance (yes/no answer) with the requirements
will be checked, but there
will be no marks given to the expert. In exceptional cases6,
there is the possibility to foresee,
within the evaluation grid, the scoring of one or more experts
even in a global price. In this
case, the evaluation grid template must be adapted accordingly
and the CV(s) will be
assessed and scored.
Management and Support Team
Each Framework Contractor has a Management Team composed of
minimum one
permanent Project Director and one substitute. All costs of the
Management Team, the
backstopping mechanism and the quality control are already
included in the fee rates. No
costs of this nature may be charged in addition.
The Framework Contractor’s Project Director has the overall
responsibility for the running of
the Framework Contract. Contact details are available on our
intranet website.
It is not permitted to propose a Management Team Member as an
expert for an individual
assignment. A Management Team member may be required for the
briefing/debriefing
session of an individual assignment. In that case the related
costs must be budgeted in the
Specific Offer.
Location, per diems and duration
The experts’ inputs are expressed in working days. The
contractual periods in calendar days.
The assignment must be clearly defined in terms of days,
location and number of experts.
The Contracting Authority must clearly define, in the terms of
reference under article 4, the
normal place of posting of the specific assignment. It is
possible to define one main location
6 It is recommended to limit the use of this option to only when
strictly necessary.
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for the complete team of experts or to have different main
locations of assignment.
However, each expert may have maximum one (or in very
exceptional cases two) main
location of assignment.7 The CA should also identify the
additional mission locations where
the expert will be required to work and for each location
indicate the working days needed.
Intra-city transportation costs (taxi, car rental and/or public
transportation) are covered by
the fees.
Per diems will be paid only for missions i) outside the normal
place of posting ii) clearly
indicated in the Terms of Reference iii) of a duration of 12
hours or more. (cumulative
conditions).
For fee-based contracts travel costs of experts related to
inter-city journeys, both
international and inside the country, (on the basis of the most
economically advantageous
transport possibilities) will be a reimbursable expense and this
may include the travel to and
from the main location of assignment from the expert’s place of
residence.
The total duration of the assignment, cannot exceed 3 years,
addenda included.
Incidental Expenditure
The Contracting Authority for both fee-based and global price
contracts must identify and
describe all authorised reimbursable costs in the specific Terms
of Reference.
For fee-based, the Project Manager may choose:
- to indicate a global fixed amount of incidental
expenditure
- to indicate a fixed amount per type of expenditure
- not to indicate any values for the incidental expenditure
In addition, for fee-based specific contracts, the Contracting
Authority may also define a
fixed global amount or indicate a fixed amount for each type of
incidental expenditure.
7 Exceptionally one (or more experts) may have two normal place
of posting. This is possible when the expert must work for a long
duration in different locations, for example, 6 months in Town A
and 6 months in town B.
In the normal place of posting: no per diems are paid to the
experts .
(Under BENEF 2013 per diems were due per night requiring an
overnight stay away of the
expert's place of residence)
(In BENEF 2013 it was 730 calendar days)
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Neither the Offer nor the related Specific Contract may contain
any unidentified expense
such as a “Contingency” or a “Reserve”.
In any case, incidental expenditure is reimbursed based on the
real costs incurred by the
contractor, as proven through the supporting documentation.
No supplies (e.g. equipment and material) may be purchased.
No consultancy services (experts) may be recruited under
incidental expenditure or lump
sums.
If an expenditure verification report is requested, the amount
shall be indicated in the
budget. The cost for specific security measures must be included
under the incidental
expenditure provision.
Budget calculation
The offer needs to have a maximum budget. It is not possible to
have an estimated budget.
The financial offers above the maximum budget are rejected.
The budget is calculated on the average of the maximum fees for
a given category of the
Framework Contractors and for the given lot. These are available
on the intranet FWC SIEA
2018 website.
A budget simulation will be added in ARES, but not sent to the
contractors for the
justification of the total budget of the request (including
incidental expenditure and
expenditure verification report if applicable).
Fees
The Global fee rate covers, among other items:
(-) the remuneration actually paid to the expert per working
day;
(-) the administrative costs of employing the expert, such as
relocation and repatriation
expenses and accommodation;
(-) the expatriation allowances, taxes, leave, medical insurance
and other employment
benefits accorded to the expert;
[NB: the cost of the travel to and from the place of assignment
is not included
in the global fees and shall be budgeted under incidentals]
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(-) the Framework contractor’s costs of the management and
support team providing
backstopping facilities for the expert;
(-) the margin, covering the Framework Contractor’s overheads
and profit;
(-) the report reproduction costs (in 10 hard copies and in
electronic format);
(-) the office facilities, secretariat, communication costs etc.
in the home office and at the
location(s) of the assignment;
(-) the equipment for the expert (individual laptop computers,
calculators etc.);
Financial Guarantee
When the pre-financing requested for a specific contract is
above EUR 300 000, a pre-
financing guarantee is required. The contractor is always
entitled to request a pre-financing
below 300 000 EUR, even if he is entitled to a higher
amount.