Project Description:
The Bank of Albania has requested the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the EBRD or the Bank) to provide technical assistance for strengthening its regulatory framework and supervisory functions and align them with the legislation and practices in place in the EU (the Project).
Assignment Description:
The Bank now intends to engage a firm or association of firms (the Consultant) with demonstrable detailed knowledge of the EU framework regulating corporate governance of banks, EU supervisory practices (and ideally the ECB SSM Supervisory Manual) and with local legal expertise having demonstrable knowledge of the Albanian banking framework and supervisory practices in order to implement the Project (the Assignment).
The expected outcome of the Assignment is to improve the capacity of the Bank of Albania to assess the corporate governance of banks.
The selected Consultant is expected to provide the following services:
a. Review the Albanian legislation on corporate governance of banks.
b. Review the Bank of Albania’s supervisory framework, methodology and on-site and off-site supervisory practices inspection objectives, expected controls and inspection techniques on Credit Risk and Counterparty Risk; Internal Governance and Risk Management; Internal Governance and Remuneration; Risk Control Function; Compliance Function and Internal Audit Function.
c. Illustrate and advise the Bank of Albania on the practices in place by selected EU banking supervisors
d. Assist the Bank of Albania in developing and in drafting a new supervisory methodology (the Methodology) on the issues mentioned above. In addition, and during the first 6 months following implementation of the Methodology, the Consultant shall assist the Bank of Albania with ad-hoc advice (up to a maximum of 2 man/days) related to the adoption and implementation of the Methodology.
e. Design and provide training to the Bank of Albania.
Consultants should refer to the Terms of Reference ('ToR') for a more detailed description of service requirements.
Status of Selection Process:
Interested firms or group of firms are hereby invited to send submissions.
Assignment Start Date and Duration:
The Assignment is expected to start in late February 2016 and has an estimated overall duration of 18 months.
Cost Estimate for the Assignment:
EUR 242,000 (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 special status of the Bank 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:
It is expected that the Assignment will be funded by the Government of Luxembourg through the Luxembourg - ODA Technical Co-operation Fund. Please note selection and contracting will be subject to the availability of funding.
Eligibility:
There are no eligibility restrictions.
Consultant Profile:
Corporate services are required. The Consultant will be a firm or a group of firms preferably with previous project experience related to:
1. corporate governance of banks in EU, in particular, but not limited to credit risk and counterparty risk, risk control function, compliance function, internal audit function, internal governance and risk management and remuneration;
2. EU legislation on corporate governance of banks; and
3. EU bank supervisory practices.
The Consultant’s team should include the following Key Experts:
a. Key Expert No 1 (Team Leader) with preferably 15 years or more of previous professional experience in corporate governance of banks in the EU and banking supervisory practices including the ECB SSM Supervisory Manual;
b. Key Expert No 2 (Senior International Consultant) with preferably 12 years or more of previous professional experience in corporate governance of banks in the EU and risk management in banks including the ECB SSM Supervisory Manual; and
c. Key Expert No 3 (Local Legal Advisor) with preferably 10 years or more of previous professional experience in Albania as a legal or corporate governance consultant, with extensive experience in Albanian banking legislation, corporate governance of banks and supervisory practices by the Bank, as well as being fluent in English and Albanian.
Submission Requirements:
In order to determine the capability and experience of Consultants seeking to be selected for this Assignment the information submitted should include the following:
A Technical Proposal
A1. Completed Consultant Declaration Form and Contact Sheet, the template for which is available from the following web-link:
http://www.ebrd.com/pages/workingwithus/procurement/notices/csu/contact_sheet.doc.
A2. Company/group of firms’ profile, organisation and staffing (max. 2-4 pages).
A3. Details of previous project experience in 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 (max. 10 pages).
A4. CVs of Key Experts proposed for the Assignment detailing qualifications, experience in similar assignments, particularly assignments undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided, assignment budget, main activities, objectives.
A5. Technical Approach and Methodology explaining the understanding of the objectives of the assignment as outlined in the ToR, the technical approach, the methodology for implementing the tasks to deliver the expected output(s), the degree of detail of such output, a work plan for the implementation of the main activities/tasks and milestones, and a Team Input (in the format included in Annex 1 to the ToR) indicating the number of working days allocated to the Assignment by each Key Expert (max. 20 pages).
The above information should not exceed 30 pages excluding CVs and contact sheet.
B. Financial Proposal (in the format included in Annex 2 to the ToR) not exceeding the cost estimate provided in this procurement notice.
Submission format:
The Technical Proposal shall be submitted, in English, electronically through e-Selection, to reach the Bank not later than the closing date. The complete Technical Proposal (including cover letter, CV, declaration and contact sheet etc.) shall be one file (pdf) to be uploaded to eSelection. The EBRD reserves the right to reject applications of firms submitting more than one file. Only if the permissible file size is exceeded (4MB), the Consultant may split the expression of interest into further files. Only if the permissible file size is exceeded (4MB), the Consultant may split the expression of interest into further files.
Consultants are reminded that the Technical Proposal MUST NOT contain the financial proposal (the instructions for which are listed below).
The Financial Proposal shall be submitted in English separately by email only to the Bank Contact Person (haughm@ebrd.com) as it will not be opened with the Technical Proposal. The Financial Proposal shall be emailed as one file (pdf), to reach the Bank Contact Person not later than the closing date.
In summary, Technical Proposals should be submitted through eSelection while Financial Proposals should be sent to the Bank Contact Person email address only.
Bank Contact Person:
Maria Haugh
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
One Exchange Square
London EC2A 2JN
Tel: + 44 20 7338 7185
e-mail: haughm@ebrd.com
Notes:
1. This is a Selection from Shortlist procedure as envisaged in the EBRD’s Procurement Policies and Rules. The selection will normally be made from responses to this notification only. The highest-ranked Consultant will be invited to negotiate the contract, subject to availability of funding.
2. The required proposal validity period is 90 days from the deadline date for receipt of submissions. During this period, the Consultant shall maintain its original Proposal without any change, including the availability of the Experts, the proposed rates and the total price.
3. The award criteria and weightings will be as follows:
a) Firm’s previous project experience in similar assignments, including corporate governance of banks in EU, EU legislation on corporate governance of banks and EU bank supervisory practices (inc. ECB SSM Supervisory Manual) – 10%;
b) CVs of the Key Experts proposed - 50%;
c) Technical Approach and Methodology - 25%; and
d) Interviews – 15%.
4. Interviews: All firms with a combined score of 70% or more of the total marks available for criteria 3a - 3c inclusive will be invited to interview. The interviews must be attended by Key expert 1, Key expert 2 and Key expert 3 and may be conducted via video-link, etc. Please note that costs associated with attendance to interviews are not reimbursable.
5. Combined Technical and Financial Proposals:
After completion of the technical evaluation (criteria 3a – 3d inclusive), only those submissions which score 70% or more overall will be eligible to have their financial proposals evaluated.
The evaluated Financial Proposal will be converted to a final score (points) in the following manner:
FSa = LP¸ EPa x 100
where: a = the proposal being evaluated
FSa = evaluated financial score for proposal a
LP = the lowest evaluated financial proposal
EPa = the evaluated financial proposal for proposal a.
In combining the Financial Score with the Technical Score, the Financial Score shall be given a weight of 10%.
The Technical score and the Financial score shall be combined in the following manner:
CSa = TSa [(100-W) ¸ 100] + FSa (W ¸ 100)
where: a = the proposal being evaluated
CSa = combined evaluated score of proposal a
TSa = technical score for proposal a (where TS max = 100)
FSa = financial score for proposal a (where FS max = 100)
W = the weight given the financial score
