Tribunal Capacity Building for Public Procurement Review Body in Moldova

Assignment Description: In July 2015, the Parliament of Moldova adopted a new Law on Public Procurement (the "Public Procurement Law"), which has been one of the prerequisites for the accession of the country to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). The adoption of the law triggers the need to enhance institutional framework for public procurement, which involves, inter alia, the establishment of a dedicated public procurement review body.

Establishing a designated public procurement review body of a quasi-judicial nature has proved to facilitate effective, transparent and independent resolution of procurement disputes. The benefits offered by such bodies include specialised knowledge of procurement practices and understanding of existing market challenges, combined with reportedly high public trust in such bodies, particularly in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development ("EBRD" or the "Bank") countries. Notably, several EBRD countries have benefitted from introducing public procurement review bodies, including all EU Member States in the EBRD region as well as Albania (which established the Review Commission on Public Procurement (the RCPP) in 2010) and Tunisia (where the Committee on Public Contracts was established in 2012).

Effective operation of procurement review bodies requires that their members undergo specialised tribunal training. The focus on of such training on tribunal skills is determined by the fact that, while the relevant bodies already possess the necessary level of public procurement knowledge and skills, their tribunal expertise and skills are usually suboptimal and should be enhanced.

The EBRD Legal Transition Programme has a successful record of carrying out public procurement review bodies capacity building activities and developed a manual for members of public procurement review tribunals (the EBRD Handbook for Members of Public Procurement Review Bodies). Based on the successful cooperation between EBRD and the Government of Moldova in the context of accession to the WTO GPA, the EBRD will work with the Government of Moldova on the establishment of the public procurement review body and training its members.

The Bank now intends to engage a consulting company (the "Consultant") to assist the Government of Moldova with facilitating the establishment of the public procurement review body and to provide tribunal training to the public procurement review body members.

The Consultant’s services will be based on modern public procurement trends and international practices and expert knowledge of the local environment, including the legal environment in Moldova.

The selected Consultant is expected to provide the following services:

(a) prepare a proposal for an optimal framework and structure of the public procurement review body in Moldova, based on recognised international best practices and taking into account local circumstances, and carry out a preliminary assessment of training needs for the public procurement review body;

(b) assist with the establishment of the public procurement review body, which would include discussions with the Government of Moldova regarding the establishment of the public procurement review body, drafting the legal instruments underpinning the public procurement review body, continuous cooperation with the government of Moldova in the process of establishment of the public procurement review body, ad hoc advice in the process of the public procurement review body formation;

(c) develop and deliver the training programme for the public procurement review body, as agreed with the Government of Moldova;

(d) conduct an evaluation and feedback session with the public procurement review body to discuss actual capacity improvements and provide recommendations for institutional improvements.

Assignment Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in December 2015 with an estimated overall duration of 24 months.

Cost Estimate for the Assignment: EUR 200,000; exclusive of VAT. The consultant must determine whether any VAT would be chargeable on the services and the basis for that determination, without taking into consideration the Bank's special status as an IFI and state this to the Bank in their response to the Invitation for Expressions of Interest. To the extent that a consultant incurs input VAT on goods and services purchased in connection with the provision of services (e.g. VAT on airline ticket) which is not otherwise recoverable by the consultant from the local tax authority, the gross cost to the consultant of such expenses shall be treated as a reimbursable expense.

Funding Source: Slovak Republic - EBRD TC Fund

Consultant Profile: Corporate services are required. Subject to the eligibility criteria as described above, the Consultant shall be a firm or a group of firms with experience in public procurement remedies procedures, tribunal capacity building and relevant experience in cooperating with governments as well as IFIs with knowledge of working in Romanian/Russian languages. (The Consultant’s expert team is expected to include the following key experts supported by local knowledge):
- International expert with preferably 7 years of previous project experience in public procurement remedies procedures. - International tribunal capacity building experts, (two), with preferably 7 years experience serving as review body members in the EU Member States
- Local legal expert familiar with local laws and context for liaising with the counterparts
- Training consultant with experience in developing and delivering training programmes for judges and tribunal members in public procurement to organise all logistics for training sessions, according to training plan agreed with the Government of Moldova.

The Consultant shall be working in English; however all outputs of the assignment are required to be made available in both English and Romanian.

Submission Requirements: Interested consultants are hereby invited to submit expressions of interest. In order to determine the qualifications and competence of consulting firms seeking to be shortlisted, the information submitted should include the following:
1. Company/group of firms’ profile, organisation and staffing (max 2-4 pages)
2. Details of previous public procurement experience or similar assignments undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contract value, contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided (if different from duration), main activities, objectives;
3. CV of key experts who could carry out work on the Assignment
4. Completed Consultant Declaration Form and Contact Sheet, the template for which is available from the following web-link:

The above information should not exceed 25 pages excluding CVs and contact sheet.

Notes: Following this invitation for Expression of Interest, a shortlist of qualified consultants will be formally invited to submit proposals. Consultant selection and contracting will be subject to the availability of funding.