RFP No. 28
Issue Date: July 29, 2017
Deadline for Submission of Proposals: August 17, 2017
SECTION 1. LETTER OF INVITATION
RFP no. 28
7/29/2017, Islamabad
Yours sincerely,
The Procurement Department
Karandaaz Pakistan
SECTION 2. INSTRUCTIONS TO FIRMS
Karandaaz Pakistan issues this Request for Proposal (RFP) for the following services:
“PMO Services for the digitization of CDNS”
Throughout this RFP:
Firms shall comply with Karandaaz Pakistan’s policy regarding fraud and corruption given in Section 3 of the RFP.
Karandaaz Pakistan may specify certain minimum qualification criteria in the Terms of Reference e.g. minimum years of relevant experience.
The firm has an obligation to disclose to Karandaaz Pakistan any situation of actual or potential conflict that impacts its capacity to serve Karandaaz Pakistan’s best interests. Failure to disclose such situations may lead to the disqualification of the firm or the termination of its Contract. Karandaaz Pakistan’s policy with regard to conflict of interest is given Section 3 of the RFP.
Firms shall provide such evidence of their continued eligibility satisfactory to Karandaaz Pakistan, upon request.
Each firm shall submit only one proposal, either individually or as a partner in a joint venture. A firm that submits or participates in more than one proposal shall cause all the proposals with the firm’s participation to be disqualified. However, this does not limit the participation of subcontractors and individual experts in more than one proposal.
The firm shall bear all costs associated with the preparation and submission of its proposal. Karandaaz Pakistan shall not be responsible or liable for those costs, regardless of the conduct or outcome of the bidding process.
The RFP includes the documents listed below and any Addendum issued in pursuant to point 8 of this section ‘Amendment of RFP’.
Section 1 – Letter of Invitation
Section 2 – Instructions to firms
Section 3 – Procurement Policy – vendor conduct
Section 4 – Terms of Reference
Annexure A – Proposal Submission Form
All questions and/or clarifications regarding this RFP must be submitted via email to Procurement@karandaaz.com.pk no later than 5:00PM local time on August 8th, 2017. All correspondence and/or inquiries regarding this solicitation must reference the RFP number. No phone calls or in-person inquiries will be entertained; all questions and inquiries must be in writing
Questions and requests for clarification—and the responses thereto—will be circulated to all RFP recipients who have indicated an interest in bidding by 5:00PM on August 10th, 2017.
Only the written answers will be considered official and carry weight in the RFP process and subsequent evaluation. Any verbal information received from a Karandaaz employee or other entity should not be considered as an official response to any questions regarding this RFP.
At any time prior to the deadline for submission of bids, Karandaaz Pakistan may amend the RFP by issuing an Addendum.
Any Addendum issued shall be part of the RFP and will be communicated via the Karandaaz Pakistan website. Firms are advised to monitor the site for updates.
To give prospective firms reasonable time in which to take an Addendum into account in preparing their bids, Karandaaz Pakistan may, at its discretion, extend the deadline for the submission of bids, pursuant to point 17 ‘Deadline for Submission of Proposals’ of this section.
All documents relating to the proposal shall be written in the English language.
The proposal shall consist of the following:
Firms may express the price only in PKR.
Proposal shall remain valid for ninety (90) days after the proposal submission deadline date established by Karandaaz Pakistan. A proposal valid for a shorter period shall be rejected as non-responsive.
In exceptional circumstances, prior to the expiration of the proposal validity period, Karandaaz Pakistan may request all firms who submitted their proposals to extend the period of validity of their proposal for a specified additional period. The request and the responses shall be made in writing. If the firm agrees to extend the validity of its proposal, it shall be done without any change in the original proposal and with the confirmation of the availability of the key experts. The firm has the right to refuse to extend the validity of its proposal in which case such proposal will not be further evaluated.
If any of the Key Experts become unavailable for the extended validity period, the firm shall provide a written adequate justification and evidence satisfactory to the Client together with the substitution request. In such case, a replacement Key Expert shall have equal or better qualifications and experience than those of the originally proposed Key Expert. The technical evaluation score, however, will remain to be based on the evaluation of the CV of the original Key Expert.
If the firm fails to provide a replacement Key Expert with equal or better qualifications, or if the provided reasons for the replacement or justification are unacceptable to the Client, such Proposal will be rejected.
In this procurement, a proposal security is not required.
Alternative proposals shall not be considered.
The firm shall prepare and email a scanned copy of the documents comprising the Proposal as described in point 10 on official company letterhead. Each document shall be signed by a person duly authorized to sign on behalf of the firm. All pages of the proposal shall be initialled by the person or persons signing the proposal.
Both financial and technical proposals must be submitted before 12:00 noon Pakistan Standard Time on August 17th, 2017. Offerors must prepare four hard copies of the technical proposal and one hard copy of the cost proposals, and submit in separate sealed envelopes to the attention of ‘The Procurement Department’ 1-E, Ali Plaza, D Chowk, Mezzanine Floor, Naziumudin Road, Blue Area, Islamabad
The proposal should also be sent to the following email address: procurement@karandaaz.com.pk with the subject line: Responding to RFP for “Website Enhancement, Maintenance and Technical Services; Digital Marketing and Design Development of Web Products”.
The Proposal shall contain no alterations or additions, except those to comply with instructions issued by Karandaaz Pakistan, or as necessary to correct errors made by the firm, in which case such corrections shall be initialled by the person or persons signing the Proposal.
Proposals must be received by Karandaaz Pakistan no later than 12:00 noon Pakistan Standard Time on August 17th, 2017.
Karandaaz Pakistan may extend the deadline for submission of proposals by issuing an amendment in accordance with point 8 ‘Amendment of RFP’, in which case all rights and obligations of Karandaaz Pakistan and the firms previously subject to the original deadline shall then be subject to the new deadline.
Any Proposal received late by Karandaaz Pakistan will be considered only at the discretion of the evaluation team.
Firms may withdraw, substitute or modify their proposals by giving notice in writing before the deadline for submission of proposals prescribed in point 16 ‘Deadline for Submission of Proposal’ of this section.
Each firm’s withdrawal, substitution or modification notice shall be prepared, sealed, marked, and delivered in accordance with point 15 ‘Format, Signing, and Submission of Proposals of Proposal’, with the subject line as: Responding to RFP for “Website Enhancement, Maintenance and Technical Services; Digital Marketing and Design Development of Web Products – “WITHDRAWAL,” SUBSTITUTION” or “MODIFICATION” as appropriate. No Proposal may be substituted or modified after the deadline for submission of proposals.
Karandaaz Pakistan shall open the proposals, including modifications made pursuant to point 18, on the business day following the deadline, as per point 16.
Information relating to the examination, evaluation, comparison, and post-qualification of proposals, and recommendation of contract award, shall not be disclosed to firms or any other persons not officially concerned with such process until publication of the contract award. Any effort by a firm to influence Karandaaz Pakistan in the examination, evaluation, comparison, and post-qualification of the Proposals or contract award decisions may result in the rejection of its Bid. Notwithstanding the above, from the time of proposal opening to the time of contract award, if any firm wishes to contact Karandaaz Pakistan on any matter related to the bidding process, it should do so in writing at the address indicated in point 7 ‘Clarification of RFP’.
To assist in the examination, evaluation, and comparison of proposals, Karandaaz Pakistan may, at its discretion, ask any firm for clarification of the firm’s proposal. The request for clarification and the response shall be in writing, but no change in the price or substance of the proposal shall be sought, offered, or permitted except as required to confirm the correction of arithmetic errors discovered by Karandaaz Pakistan in the evaluation of the proposals in accordance with point 25 ‘Correction of Errors’.
Prior to the detailed evaluation of proposals, Karandaaz Pakistan shall first review each Proposal and check the power of attorney or any other form demonstrating that the representative has been duly authorized to sign the proposal, initialization of all pages, etc.
Then Karandaaz Pakistan shall determine whether the firm meets the eligibility and qualification requirements of the bidding documents. Firms failing to comply with the eligibility criteria indicated in point 3 ‘Eligibility’ shall be disqualified.
Further, Karandaaz Pakistan shall determine whether the proposal is substantially responsive to the requirements of the bidding documents.
Karandaaz Pakistan’s determination of a proposal’s responsiveness is to be based on the contents of the proposal itself. A substantially responsive proposal is one, which conforms to all the terms, conditions, and specifications of the RFP, without material deviation or reservation. A material deviation or reservation is one (a) which affects in any substantial way the scope, quality, or performance of the service; (b) which limits in any substantial way, inconsistent with the RFP, Karandaaz Pakistan’s rights or firm’s obligations under the contract; or (c) whose rectification would affect unfairly the competitive position of other firms presenting substantially responsive Proposals.
Karandaaz Pakistan shall evaluate the technical aspects of the proposals received, applying the evaluation criteria specified in this point. Each proposal that is not rejected for reasons stated in these Instructions will be given a technical score.
The evaluation criteria, relevant sub-criteria, and point system to be used to evaluate the Technical Proposals shall be:
Technical Proposal (80% of total score)
Competencies of Firm (30%)
Firm Experience (30%)
Personnel (20%)
Proposals determined to be substantially responsive shall be checked by Karandaaz Pakistan for any arithmetic errors. Errors shall be corrected by Karandaaz Pakistan as follows:
Where there is a discrepancy between the amounts in figures and in words, the amount in words shall govern.
The amount stated in the proposal shall be adjusted by Karandaaz Pakistan in accordance with the above procedure for the correction of errors and, with the concurrence of the firm, shall be considered as binding upon the firm. If the firm does not accept the corrected amount, the proposal shall be rejected.
For evaluation and comparison purposes, Kaandaaz Pakitan shall convert all proposal prices expressed in US Dollars into an equivalent amount in PKR, using the selling exchange rates established by the State Bank of Pakistan on the date of proposal opening specified in point 19 ‘Proposal Opening’.
Financial Proposal (20% of Total Score)
Cost proposals submitted will be evaluated according to price reasonableness determination under full and open competition and known market conditions.
Evaluation of the cost proposal will consider, but will not be limited to, the following:
20 points will be awarded to the lowest responsive bidder while rest of the bids will be allocated points according to following formula:
Points of a Bidder = (P1/ P2)* 20
Where:
P1= Price of Lowest Responsive Bidder
P2= Price of the Bidder
Subject to 31 below, Karandaaz Pakistan shall award the contract to the firm whose proposal has been determined to be substantially responsive to the RFP and which has the highest combined technical and financial score, provided that such firm has been determined to be eligible in accordance with point 3.
Notwithstanding point 28 above, Karandaaz Pakistan reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal, and to cancel the bidding process and reject all bids, at any time prior to the award of contract, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected firm or firms or any obligation to inform the affected firm or firms of the grounds for Karandaaz Pakistan’s action.
The firm whose Proposal has been accepted shall be notified of the award by Karandaaz Pakistan prior to expiration of the proposal validity period in writing. This letter (hereinafter and in the contract called the “Letter of Acceptance”) shall state the sum that Karandaaz Pakistan shall pay the contractor in consideration of the services as prescribed by the contract.
The Agreement shall incorporate all agreements between Karandaaz Pakistan and the successful firm. It shall be signed by Karandaaz Pakistan and sent to the successful firm, within seven (7) days following the Letter of Acceptance’s date. Within seven (7) days of receipt, the successful firm shall sign the Form of Agreement and deliver it to Karandaaz Pakistan.
Karandaaz Pakistan will also promptly notify in writing each unsuccessful firm. After publication of the award, unsuccessful firms may request in writing to Karandaaz Pakistan seeking explanations of the grounds on which their Proposals were not selected. Also, Karandaaz Pakistan shall entertain a complaint from any firm that claims to have suffered or that may suffer, loss or injury due to a breach of a duty by the company in the conduct of this bidding process. Such requests shall be addressed and delivered in writing to:
Karandaaz Pakistan
Attention: Chief Executive Officer
Re: “PMO services for digitization of CDNS”
1 E, Ali Plaza, Nazimuddin Road, D-Chowk, Islamabad
Any requests via email seeking this explanation will not be answered.
SECTION 3. PROCUREMENT POLICY – VENDOR CONDUCT
Bidders, suppliers, contractors and their agents (whether declared or not), sub-contractors, sub-consultants, firms or suppliers, and any personnel thereof, shall observe the highest standard of ethics during the procurement and execution of contracts.
Karandaaz Pakistan shall not award contract if it is determined that the bidder, or any of its personnel, or its agents, or its sub-consultants, sub-contractors, firms, suppliers and/or their employees, has, directly or indirectly, engaged in corrupt, fraudulent, collusive, coercive, or obstructive practices in competing for the contract in question. As part of bidding/ solicitation documents, Karandaaz Pakistan will seek declaration of ‘Non collusive non corrupt practices’ from each bidder. Format for such declaration is prescribed in section 3 of the standard bidding document. In pursuance of this policy, following terms are defined as follows:
Any firm participating in the procurement process should disclose any actual or perceived conflict of interest situation/condition. Any firm found to have a conflict of interest shall be ineligible for award of a contract.
A firm shall be considered to have a conflict of interest in a procurement process if:
The supplier in performance of services for Karandaaz Pakistan shall exercise duty of care. Duty of care holds the supplier responsible for the safety and well-being of its personnel and any third party affected by its activities.
SECTION 4. TERMS OF REFERENCE
Thematic Area: Digital Financial Services
Project Title: PMO services for the Digitization of CDNS
Expected Start Date: September, 2017
End Date: February, 2019
Task Manager: Innovation Lead, DFS
About Karandaaz Pakistan
KARANDAAZ PAKISTAN, a private company established in August 2014, promotes access to finance for small businesses through a commercially directed investment platform, and financial inclusion for individuals by employing technology enabled digital solutions. The Company has financial and institutional support from leading international development finance institutions; principally the United Kingdom Department for International Development (UKAid) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a member of the World Bank Group, provides technical support to Karandaaz Pakistan.
Karandaaz Pakistan has three core work streams:
Corporate Investment and Credit (CIC) focuses on providing credit and capital to high impact small and medium-size businesses, and business models that have potential to generate sustainable employment and offer attractive risk-adjusted financial returns.
Digital Financial Services (DFS) focuses on expanding the poor’s access to digital financial services in Pakistan by working across the ecosystem of local actors – policy-makers, regulators, government departments, businesses, researchers and academics. The DFS Unit facilitates digitization of government and other payment streams, encourages experimentation with businesses, and provides support to innovative DFS start-ups.
Knowledge Management and Communications focuses developing and communicating credible data to inform the core themes of the Company, including DFS innovation, women’s empowerment and youth employment.
This work will fall under the Knowledge Management and Communications department.
About the Project
Karandaaz Pakistan seek services of a consultancy firm which will primarily be responsible for procuring of technology and an implementation firm to deploy the Alternative Delivery Channels (ADC) at the National Savings Organization (NSO). The firm will also be responsible for the PMO function and the monitoring of activities throughout the project implementation cycle. The firm will coordinate activities with multiple stakeholders (internal & external) to ensure that project delivers the expected scope in the given timeline. Consultants should be able to build strong partnerships with stakeholders, and ensure the appropriate level of communication for multiple audience. The consultants are expected to understand the overall business requirements and suggest all possible ways forward to concerned project team based in Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS, Islamabad).
Timeline
The project will have the following series of milestones:
Deliverable | Timeline (expected date of milestone) |
Inception Report of the Project | 10 days after on-boarding |
Product Document | After 1 Months: Operational Plan for the roll out of new Products |
Project Tracker | A project progress tracker to be shared on Fortnightly basis |
Project End State Report | After 1 Months: End state project draft report |
Financial Plan | After 1 Month: Budgeting Plan laying down Karandaaz Utilization of Funds |
Final Report | Completion report at the end of the project |
RFP for ADCs | Produce RFP(s) and ensure partner on-boarding on time |
Stability Testing Report | Produce stability testing report of the upgraded core banking system |
ADC Integration Testing Report | Produce post implementation report after stability testing |
Steering Committee Presentations | Project progress updates for each Steering Committee Meeting |
Project Terminal Report | Terminal report at the end of the project stating key learnings |
Qualifications
The Consulting firm/team will have the following experience and skills:
Ownership/Control of Work and Product/Publication
The ownership of all copyright and other intellectual property rights in respect of any data compilations, research, spreadsheets, graphs, reports, diagrams, designs, work products, software, or any other documents, developed in connection with this Contract will exclusively vest in and remain with Karandaaz which shall have all proprietary rights therein, notwithstanding that the Contractor or its employees may be the author of the intellectual property. All documents relating to the intellectual property or otherwise connected with this Contract, the services, or duties must be returned or delivered to Karandaaz at the time of the expiration or termination of this Contract. The Contractor agrees not to publish or make use of any of the intellectual property, or documents relating thereto, without the prior written approval of Karandaaz, and where approval is granted, without proper attribution to Karandaaz.
Task Manager/Reporting
Reporting Line: Director DFS
Location: Islamabad
Duration: 1 Year to 18 Months
Project: National Savings Digitization
Payment
Karandaaz will pay the Contractor’s invoice within thirty (30) business days after a) Karandaaz’ approval of the Contractor’s Deliverables, or b) Karandaaz’ receipt of the Contractor’s invoice, whichever is later. Payment will be made in PKR on USD, as agreed, to the account specified in the Contractor’s invoice.
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION FORM
Dear Sir/Madam,
Having examined the Solicitation Documents, the receipt of which is hereby duly acknowledged, “THE FIRM NAME” undersigned, offer to provide consulting for “INSERT REFERENCE NUMBER” to Karandaaz Pakistan in accordance with the Price Schedule attached herewith and made part of this proposal. “THE FIRM NAME” undertake, if our proposal is accepted, to commence and complete delivery of all services specified in the contract within the time frame stipulated.
“THE FIRM NAME” agree to abide by this proposal for a period of 90 days from date fixed for opening of proposal in the invitation for proposal, and it shall remain binding upon us and may be accepted at any time before the expiration of that period.
We understand that you are not bound to accept any proposal you may receive.
Dated: this——day of ——-2015
Name, Designation and Signature of the “firm Representative”