Tenders FAQ-Non Technical Questions

Is it possible to apply for the Internet Tender only or certain items out of lot1 without applying for the other two lots?

What are the telephone numbers for the 35 branches mentioned the Tender Dossier? 

Contact person to refer to, for any further questions.

Can you please be more specific on “substantially departing from” or differ widely from the terms of the tender dossier “ or “distort competition for tenderers whose tenders do comply” ?

In ref. to point 11.9 2) Technical Capacity, Our company was set up only ~1.5 years ago. Can we participate in this tender alone?

In ref to 20.5 Award Criteria, is this irrelevant of Brand offered and be technically evaluated on the same level?

What is exactly needed in item 11.5 in page 8 of 54? Do you need the name of the person who would sign the contract on our behalf or a specimen of his signature?

Can we offer in US$ instead of EURO?

Please clarify what is meant by “A description of the commercial warranty tendered”? (Item 11.6) Page 8/54

1-

Is it possible to apply for the Internet Tender only or certain items out of lot1 without applying for the other two lots?

• The tenderer may submit a tender for one lot only, several lots or all of the lots.

    Be informed by the following:

• Each lot will form a separate contract and the quantities indicated for different lots will be indivisible. The tenderer must offer the whole of the quantity or quantities indicated for each lot. Under no circumstances must tenders for part of the quantities required be taken into consideration. If the tenderer is awarded more than one lot, a single contract may be concluded covering all those lot

• A tenderer may include in his tender the overall discount he would grant in the event of some or all of the lots for which he has submitted a tender being awarded. The discount should be clearly indicated for each lot in such a way that it can be announced during the public tender opening session.

• Contracts will be awarded lot by lot, but the Contracting Authority may select the most favorable overall solution after taking account of any discounts offered.

• See Tender Dossier Part I / Article 7/ page

2-

What are the telephone numbers for the 35 branches mentioned the Tender Dossier?

• See Tender Dossier Part II / page 69

3-

Contact person to refer to, for any further questions.

• Tenderers may submit questions in writing to the following address up to 21 days before the deadline for submission of tenders, specifying the publication reference and the contract title:

• Any clarification of the tender dossier will be communicated simultaneously in writing to all the tenderers at the latest 11 days before the deadline for submission of tenders. No further clarification will be provided after this date.

• Any prospective tenderers seeking to arrange individual meetings with either the Contracting Authority and/or the European Commission during the tender period may be excluded from the tender procedure

• See Tender Dossier Part I / Article 13 / page 9

4-

Do we have to buy the Tender Dossier, so as to register our Company in the Tenderers List?

• Tender Dossier is available. It would be grateful if the tenderer could inform us in writing that he will attend this tender in order to send all clarification and answers.

• No registration required

• SFD look forward to receiving your tender and the accompanying tender guarantee at the address specified in the Instructions to Tenderers before 12: 00 noon (Local time) on 26/7/2004

• Tendereres can get SFD Tender Dossier For Free using the following link: www.sfdegypt.org

  Or http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/tender/index_en.htm

5-

• Eligibility criteria and other essentials
• The rule on nationality and origin

• Nationality:

  Participation in tendering procedures is open on equal terms to all persons coming within the scope of the Community Treaties and, in accordance with the specific provisions in the basic instruments governing the cooperation sector concerned, to all such natural and legal persons who are nationals of the beneficiary third countries or of any other third country as are expressly mentioned in those instruments. See Annex A2 for the list of countries for each aid programme or instrument.

  In duly substantiated exceptional cases, it may be decided, on the basis of the specific conditions laid down in the basic acts governing cooperation, to allow third-country nationals other than those referred to in the previous paragraph to tender for contracts. Where an agreement on widening the market for procurement of goods or services to which the Community is party applies, the contracts for procurement financed by the budget are also open to third-country nationals other than those referred to in the previous two paragraphs, under the conditions laid down in this agreement.

  This nationality rule also applies to the experts proposed by service providers taking part in tender procedures for service contracts financed by the European Community. For the purposes of verifying compliance with the nationality rule, the tender dossier requires tenderers to state the country of which they are nationals by presenting the documents usual under that country's law.

  If the Contracting Authority suspects that a candidate/tenderer has only a registered office in an eligible country or state and that the nationality of the candidate/tenderer is ineligible, the candidate/tenderer is responsible for demonstrating effective and continuous links with that country's economy. This is to avoid awarding contracts to firms whose nationalities are ineligible but which have set up 'letter box' companies in an eligible country to circumvent the rules on nationality

6-

• See Tender Dossier Part I /Article 12 / page 9

• The meaning is Delivery Duty paid pricing

• Tenderers will be deemed to have satisfied themselves, before submitting their tender(s), as to (its)(their) correctness and completeness, to have taken account of all that is required for the full and proper performance of the contract and to have included all costs in their rates and prices.

7-

• The winner contractor will do the customs clearance, but Social Fund for Development will provide all support documents. Taking into account that this contract is exempted from all taxes and duties.

8-

Is it allowed to submit company legal documents in language other than English?

• Original should be provided accompanied by English translation

9-

• See Tender Dossier Part I /Article 2 / page 17

• Yes, it is allowed, the supplies must originate in the European Community or a country that is a beneficiary of the MEDA programme as listed in Annex VI.

• A certificate of origin for the supplies must be provided by the Contractor at the latest when he requests provisional acceptance of the supplies. Failure to comply with this condition may result in the termination of the contract.

• The origin of the goods shall be determined according to the Community Customs Code or the international agreements to which the country concerned is a signatory.

• No, It is not allowed to offer alternative products in addition to the product that meets or exceeds the specified technical specifications listed in the tender dossier

• See Tender Dossier Part II / Page 6,

• Scope of Work :
  Network Infrastructure:

  • All components relevant to the SFD LAN in Head quarter including cabling infrastructure within the building, switches, routers also, all aspects related to (servers, applications, etc...)

  • All components relevant to the SFD LAN in Regional Offices including cabling infrastructure within the buildings, switches, routers also, all aspects related to (servers, applications, etc...)

  Wan Infrastructure:

  •  Interconnect of 34 Regional and branch office’s LAN in various governorates to the Headquarters’ LAN   using a reliable, secure, cost effective and upgradeable WAN connection.

  • The bidder here is responsible for delivering the solutions' components (HW / SW) as well as the communication lines. The bidder is also responsible for configuring all the network components including the communication lines and delivering the whole network up and running to Social fund for Development.

  Security Infrastructure:

  • This includes the Firewall, Intrusion detection Sensors (IDS) and Security management tools.

  Delivery, installation, System Integration, putting into operation, service activation, training in use and warranty services for each LOT

  The bidder should respond to all of the above listed items. Also, commitments like training, warranty, maintenance and technical support should all be part of the bidder's proposal.

  Lot1 & Lot2 should be fully integrated and operational

Reference to [page 21 of 54] Article 13 and [page 22 of 54] Article 19, kindly advice whether the Period of Execution (60 days) includes only delivery of goods OR does it include delivery of goods, installation, implementation, and training.

Period of Execution (60 days) includes delivery of goods, installation, system integration, put into operation and staff trained in use.

Reference to [page 7 of 54] Article 11.1 and [page 24 of 54] Article 32, kindly advice:
1. Requested warranty period for software is it 12 month or 24 month?
2. Should we provide a financial offer for the 3 year maintenance period commencing after standard warranty ?

1.     Requested warranty period for all items will be  24 months and for software only will be 12 months .

2.  Yes, a separate  financial offer for  3 year maintenance period starting from the date of expiration of the Software warranty of one year is requested, However the costs of spare parts, consumables and after sales services will not be included in the calculation of the lowest technically compliant prices. The contract, excluding spare parts, consumables and after sales services will be awarded to the lowest technically compliant price.

• See Corrigendums added to tender dossier on the EC web-site and/or Social Fund for Development web-site.

Reference to [page 8 of 54] article 11.2 b/c and [page 22 of 54] article 15.In one article you have requested a financial offer for the warranty/consumable/after sales services AND in another article you mentioned the cost of spare parts, consumables and after sales services are not included in this contract. Kindly advice.

• For supply contract also involving simple services, the sole award criterion will be the price. The costs of spare parts, consumables and after sales services will not be included in the calculation of the lowest technically compliant prices. The contract, excluding spare parts, consumables and after sales services will be awarded to the lowest technically compliant price.

• See Tender Dossier Part I / Article 15 / Page 22

• See Corrigendums added to tender dossier on the EC web-site and/or Social Fund for Development web-site.

For supplies to be imported into Egypt: should it be imported in the name of "Social Fund for Development" or us?

• It should be imported under the name of "Social Fund for Development" the beneficiary.

Does our price for the imported goods include customs clearance charges and sales tax or not?

• Price must be excluded form all taxes and duties as the contract is exempted from all types of taxes and duties.

• See Tender Dossier Part I / Article 12 / Page 9

• Payments shall be made in Euro ONLY. Tenderer submit their offer in a different currency will be rejected.

Can you please be more specific on “substantially departing from” or differ widely from the terms of the tender dossier “ or “distort competition for tenderers whose tenders do comply” ?

• For full information about procurement procedures please consult the Practical Guide to contract procedures financed by the general budget of the European Communities in the context of external actions, which can be downloaded from the following web page:
      http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/tender/index_en.htm.

In ref. to point 11.9 2) Technical Capacity, Our company was set up only ~1.5 years ago. Can we participate in this tender alone?

• No, as the technical capacity required must fulfill the following:-
  a) A minimum level of Four (4) years experience in manufacturing / authorized agent / authorized distributor in the similar type of goods.
  b) At least three (3) projects where the tenderer has provided similar items during the last five years.
  c) The candidate must provide evidence that he has an authorized agent for warranty and after sales services maintenance facilities in Egypt.

In ref to 20.5 Award Criteria, is this irrelevant of Brand offered and be technically evaluated on the same level?

• Yes, as long as the brand offered meets the technical specifications and rules of participation and origin.
  See Tender Dossier Part I / Page 3 / Items 3&4

What is exactly needed in item 11.5 in page 8 of 54? Do you need the name of the person who would sign the contract on our behalf or a specimen of his signature?

• We need company authorization letter to authorize the person who will sign every page of the proposal.

Can we offer in US$ instead of EURO?

• No, it is not accepted

Please clarify what is meant by “A description of the commercial warranty tendered”? (Item 11.6) Page 8/54

• It means that the tenderer shall submit a proposal of commercial warrant during the warranty period and how will provide all the technical support during the warranty period.

If we bid into more than one Lot, should we have more than one tender L/G (one for each lot) or still one L/G?

• Tenderer must submit L/G for each lot separately.

Is there any corrections added to the Tender Dossier?

• Yes, See Corrigendums added to tender dossier on the EC web-site and/or Social Fund for Development web-site

Copyright © 2001 Social Fund for Development Egypt All rights reserved