Project Description
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the “EBRD” or the “Bank”) is considering to provide a senior loan to Passazhirskoe avtotransportnoe predpriyatiye Aktobe” LLP (the “Company”), a state owned public transport enterprise in the city of Aktobe (the “City”) wholly owned by the City Akimat, to assist in improving the quality of the public transport services and set up an advanced regulatory framework in the City (the “Project”).
The Project preliminary is expected to comprise the: (i) procurement of up to 100 units of new compressed natural gas (“CNG”) buses for the Company to be leased to the private public transport operators on the terms acceptable to the Bank in order to improve the public transport services in the City; (ii) the modernisation of the Company’s bus depot (the “Depot”) with CNG fuelling station and maintenance equipment; (iii) the development of an integrated bus ticketing system.
Assignment Description
The Bank now intends to engage a suitably qualified consultant (the “Consultant”) to assist the Bank with the preparation of the Project by conducting technical due diligence to determine a technology, scope, sufficient public transportation demand and improvement of service levels, environmental and social soundness of the Project’s structure.
The expected outcome of the Assignment is a preparation of the comprehensive due diligence to be used by the Bank to appraise the Project and take a decision on the prospective financing.
The selected Consultant is expected to implement the following tasks:
Task 1. Technical review of the proposed buses operations to establish the route structure, demand, revenue and operational cost projections;
Task 2: Organisation set up of the proposed Company;
Task 3. Review and advise on technical and functional specifications of the new CNG buses;
Task 4. Advise on the conceptual design of the Depot and specification for the CNG filling station;
Task 5. Advise on the Depot Detailed Design;
Task 6. Supervision for structuring and drafting of the new Public Service Contract for the Project;
Task 7. Financial review of the proposed investment, including confirmation of cost estimates and operational assumptions;
Task 8. Project Environmental and Social Due Diligence.
Status of Selection Process: Interested firms or groups of firms are hereby invited to submit expressions of interest.
Assignment Start Date and Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in Q4 2016 and has an estimated overall duration of 20 weeks.
Cost Estimate for the Assignment: EUR 180,000 (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 EBRD Technical Cooperation Programme. 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. Developing feasibility studies for international financial institutions (“IFIs”) and a good knowledge of IFI procedures and rules on public procurement and disbursement policies;
2. Experience of similar assignments in public transport sector in Central Asia or countries with comparable conditions to Kazakhstan;
3. Deep knowledge of the public transport sector, specifically institutional and legal framework aspects, environmental and social requirements; local financial management standards, professional standards of technical knowledge internationally as well as in the region.
The Consultant’s expert team is expected to include key experts as follows:
a. Key Expert No 1 Urban transport planner with preferably 5 years of practical experience in planning, operations and equipment;
b Key Expert No 2 Financial expert with practical experience in public financing and modelling
c. Key Experts No 3 Economist with practical previous experience in working on similar TDD assignments;
d. Key Expert No 4 CNG bus technology expert with practical experience and deep knowledge of the CNG bus technologies;
e. Key Expert No 5 Architecture and planning with previous practical experience in similar assignments and public transport sector;
f. Key Expert No 6 Legal Public Transport Expert with previous experience in developing a Public Service Contracts for urban public transportation services;
g. Key Expert No 7 Environmental and Social expert with specific expertise in public transport projects. The expert should have a good knowledge and understanding of the EBRD environmental requirements, demonstrated experience of previous work with IFIs and with utilities in Central Asia or other CIS countries.
Pool of Additional Non-Key Experts consisting of local administrative experts with good ability to communicate in Russian.
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:
1. Company/group of firms’ profile, organisation and staffing (max. 2-4 pages).
2. Details of previous project experience or similar assignments particularly 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. CVs of key experts who could carry out 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.
4. 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.
Failure to provide completed and signed Consultant Declaration Form may result in disqualification of the applicant from the selection process.
The above information should not exceed 25 pages excluding CVs and contact sheet.
The complete expression of interest (including CVs, Consultant Declaration and Contact Sheet) should be submitted, in English electronically through e-Selection, to reach the Bank not later than the closing date. The expression of interest shall be one file (pdf). 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.
Bank Contact Person:
Olesya Kerridge
Technical Co-operation
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Tel: + 44 20 7338 6895
e-mail: kerridgo@ebrd.com (submissions should be sent through eSelection and NOT to this email address)
Notes:
1. The selection will normally be made from responses to this notification only. Consultants will not be asked to submit a proposal. The highest-ranked Consultant will be selected from a shortlist and be invited to negotiate the contract, subject to availability of funding.
2. The shortlist criteria are:
(a) Firm’s previous project experience in successful developing of feasibility studies for international financial institutions (“IFIs”) and a good knowledge of IFI procedures and rules on public procurement and disbursement policies – 25%
(b) Firm’s previous experience of similar assignments in public transport sector in Central Asia or countries with comparable conditions to Kazakhstan – 25%
(c) Firm's knowledge of the public transport sector, specifically institutional and legal framework aspects, environmental and social requirements; local financial management standards, professional standards of technical knowledge internationally as well as in the region - 15%
(d) CVs of All Key Experts – 35% ( 5% for each)
