LRPS-2017-9129816 For Pre-delivery Inspection for UNICEF MENARO Region

1. Background

 UNICEF is a global leader in essential supplies for children. The Middle East and North Africa Regional Office (MENARO) is responsible for overseeing UNICEF's regional procurement and logistics operation.

The UNICEF MENA region consists of the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, State of Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Republic of Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, and United Arab Emirates.

The primary objective of the supply function is to provide quality products and equipment that are appropriate to the needs of assisted countries. To fulfil its objective, MENARO engages qualified third party inspection agency to assess products and equipment procured locally and/or regionally to help improve the effectiveness of the supply function. It will also ensure that UNICEF procurement staff at the Country Office (CO) will have a detailed inspection report available to assist them in making an informed decision regarding accepting or rejecting goods or services from a supplier.

The inspections are necessary and provide key inputs to assist in the procurement risk mitigation process.

The most commonly used Quality Assurance and Inspection services required from Inspection Agencies will be pre-delivery inspections (PDI). Other less frequently requested services would include, but not be limited to, works inspections of manufacturing units, loading supervision, laboratory testing and post-delivery inspections. The service requirements are detailed in the Statement of Work.

2. Purpose of the Request for Proposal for Services (RFPS)

This LRFP is issued with the aim of establishing Long Term Arrangements for Services (LTASs) for the provision of Quality Assurance and Inspection Services to support the local, regional and cross-border procurement of goods and services in support of UNICEF operations.

3. Description of the assignment

The Detail Statement of work is attached as Annex 1.

4. Deliverable

- Accurate inspection report for each visit supported by photos.

5. Reporting requirement

- Report should be covered assessment methods, sampling mechanism, findings and recommendation for improvement.

- Report should be produced and delivered to the authorized person as indicated in the contract within 3 working days after completion of the task.

6. Location and duration

 Within UNICEF MENA region which consists: Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, State of Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Republic of Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, and United Arab Emirates.

7. Qualification requirements

·    Must have valid registration and licence to conduct the services

·    More than 5 years of professional and organizational experience in performing inspection and quality control services.

·    Contractor must have an adequate team/staff (both international and local) to carry out the required services at all or some countries stipulated in the scope of work. The staff should possess advanced academic degrees from recognized universities, and appropriate professional qualifications and experience (CVs of a team leader and team members must be attached to the technical proposal);

·    Contractors should have solid technical background, analytical and  expertise of the goods and services specified in the scope of work including knowledge of the local custom

·    Contractor ( inspectors) should demonstrate strong communication skills and culture-sensitivity; ability to freely move around the country;

·    Knowledge of English and Arabic; knowledge about country context is highly preferable.

8. Evaluation process and methods

Evaluation will result in a ranked table of available services in each country and will be based on the following:

Proposal Evaluation

After the opening, each proposal will be assessed first on its technical merits and subsequently on its price. The proposal with the best overall value, composed of technical merit and price, will be recommended for approval. UNICEF will set up an evaluation panel composed of technical UNICEF staff and their conclusions will be forwarded to the Supply Unit where the commercial evaluation will be done of proposals that have reached the minimum technical score required.

The evaluation panel will first evaluate each response for compliance with the requirements of this LRFP. Responses deemed not to meet all of the mandatory requirements will be considered non-compliant and rejected at this stage without further consideration. Failure to comply with any of the terms and conditions contained in this LRFP, including provision of all required information, may result in a response or proposal being disqualified from further consideration.

UNICEF reserves the right to establish LTASs with several Proposers as a result of this LRFP.

The responses to the LRFP should include and will be evaluated against the following:

A) Technical Evaluation:

i. Overall Response:

- Completeness of response:                          2 Points.

- Overall concord between LRFP requirements and proposal:          3 Points.

* Maximum Points: 5 Points.

ii. Company and Key Personnel:

- Range and depth of experience of MENA region inspection staff:   25 Points.

- Client references from countries in the MENA region:               5 Points.

* Maximum Points: 30 Points.

iii. Proposed Methodology and Approach:

- Inspection resource availability in the MENA region:             20 Points.

- Report delivery time:                                   15 Points.

* Maximum Points: 35 Points.

Total Maximum                              70 Points.

Only proposals which receive a minimum of 50 points will be considered further.

B) Financial Proposal and Evaluation:

The total amount of points allocated for the price component is 30 Points. The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened and compared among those invited firms/institutions which obtain the threshold points in the evaluation of the technical component. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price; e.g.:

Score for price proposal X = [(Max. score for price proposal [30] Points) * Price of lowest priced proposal] / Price of proposal X

Total obtainable Technical and Price points: 100

UNICEF will award the contract to the vendor whose response is of high quality, clear and meets the projects goals, including:

The price/cost of each of the technically compliant proposals shall be considered only upon evaluation of the above technical criteria.

The Proposers should ensure that all pricing information is provided in accordance with the following:

The Proposer must submit quotes for local man-day rates for each type of inspection services mentioned in the statement of work in any or all the countries in the MENA region, though the preference will be to award to a single service provider.

Proposers may also quote for additional services that they provide in each of the countries.

In the event that several man-day rates apply within a given country and/or for different categories of services, proposers must quote all the rates applicable per country and by service. Rates for all services in the Statement of Work are to be provided.

The contract will be managed by the MENA Regional Office. Orders will be placed directly by the regional office and the country offices and will deal directly with the Head Offices of the proposers, who will then task their respective local branches.

Proposed costs are to be provided in US Dollars.

All prices/rates quoted must be exclusive of all taxes as UNICEF is a tax-exempt organization.

 

Award Criteria for Proposal

Awards will be made to the technically acceptable Proposer that offer the lowest man day rates as an average for the range of service requested.

Please include rates for all requested types of inspections in all the MENA region countries where your company can provide service.

9. Administrative issues

Travelling to the countries within MENA regions and to the supplier's premises is required.  Branch/sub offices available in the countries within MENA regions is preferable. If affiliate or partnership agreement with the local company, kindly submit legal documents for such arrangement.

The contractor is responsible for all required travel cost, accommodation and visa arrangement (if required). The travel cost should be included in the financial offer and should be describe separately from the professional fees(e.g. location, duration, number of journeys …etc.) . Travel cost shall be calculated based on economy class travel, regardless of the length of travel and ii) costs for accommodation, meals and incidentals shall not exceed applicable daily subsistence allowance (DSA) rates, as promulgated by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC).

·    Unexpected travels shall also be treated as above.

Contractor is responsible to use his/her own equipment and tools required to carry out this assignment.

10. Project management

Supply Manager - MENA RO and the authorised procurement staff indicated in the contract

11. Payment Schedule

Within 30 days after completion of the satisfactory report.

12. Any other information

 

 

Statement of Work - Inspection Services ( Annex-1)

The following inspection services may be required. The most commonly requested service will be Pre-Delivery Inspections.

Pre-Delivery Inspection

Pre-Delivery Inspections (PDI) shall be conducted by a third party agency, at supplier’s premises, or any other location specified by MENARO. MENARO will issue a work order detailing the PDI requirements. Generally, PDI will consist of checking that goods or services are provided in accordance with any Purchase order or requirements detailed in product specifications. The PDI will include such tests and measurements necessary to verify the requirements described in the Purchase Order.

The PDI will include, but may not be limited to, the following activities:

A) Check quality of the consignment, with samples drawn based on the batch size and sampling plan described by ISO 2859-1: latest issue, or as specified and agreed with UNICEF MENARO.

B) Check items listed in the Purchase order requirements against the contract specification, technical drawings and other relevant documents or standards.

C) Check the workmanship and finish of the items listed in the Purchase order requirements.

D) Conduct dimensional checks.

E) Verify manufacturer's test reports for raw materials or, if required, witness the testing of the raw materials.

F) Check the packing, pallet size, shipping marks against instructions specified in the Purchase Order and stamp the supplies as inspected.

G) Collect and forward samples as requested by UNICEF MENARO for further laboratory testing.

H) Report any damage or non-conforming aspects observed.

I) Any other agreed ad hoc inspection requirement.

These activities listed above shall either be performed by the representative nominated by the Inspection Agencies or performed by others and witnessed by the nominated representative. In any case the Inspecting Agency shall be responsible for the inspection using a third party and will be held liable for any lapses, inefficiencies and/or cases of non-performance.

The inspection agency shall issue a Certificate of Inspection along with an Inspection Report and provide UNICEF with relevant photographs for each consignment, within two (2) working days after each inspection. The Certificate of Inspection shall be signed by an authorized representative of the supplier. Exceptionally, a draft report detailing any major issues will be accepted, by agreement, where the reporting will take longer due to any complicated or technically challenging inspections that have been conducted.

In the event of an abortive inspection, the inspection agency will submit details of non-conformities in relation to Purchase Order requirements, with noted deficiencies duly acknowledged (signed and stamped) by the authorized representative of the supplier.

A normal sampling plan will be followed as described by ISO 2859-1: Latest Issue.

AQL will be 1.0 for Major Defects and 2.5 for Minor Defects, unless specified otherwise by UNICEF MENARO. Consignments with Major Defects exceeding the AQL will not be accepted.

In order to make inspections more cost-effective, inspections against different Purchase Orders must be combined, if the supplier, place and date of inspection are the same.

UNICEF MENARO shall take the final decision to release any consignment for shipment taking into account the inspection report contents. At no time is an inspection agency authorized to release goods from a supplier.

Factory Inspection

The purpose of factory inspection is primarily to assess the manufacturing capacity, capability and available infrastructure to meet UNICEF's stringent quality requirements.

Normally these inspections will be conducted by UNICEF staff. UNICEF may engage the services of a third party inspection agency to conduct this inspection.

As a factory or supplier inspection can be varied, the scope for this type of inspection will be agreed on an individual basis as required.

A typical Work's Inspection may include, but not be limited to, the following:

A) The general information about the manufacturing plant and its capacity to consistently meet UNICEF's requirement of the specified product in quantity, quality and time.

B) The details of skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled workers, including qualification of key staff.

C) Verification of industrial licenses, factory lay-out, working environment, safety, ventilation and pollution control system.

D) Manufacturing processes, plant and equipment, machinery and the production infrastructure.

E) Verification of Quality Management System, adherence to ISO or domestic standards specified by UNICEF.

F) Laboratory, inspection tools and testing equipment.

G) Previous successful orders and a short list of customers/buyers.

H) Handling and Storage facilities/warehousing of raw materials and semi-finished products.

I) Packing and Shipping departments.

J) Confidential appraisal of a company's financial standing.

K) Non-employment of Child labor in any area of operation and no connection with production of anti-personnel land mines or components for land mines.

At the completion of the investigation, a comprehensive Works Inspection Report of the Inspector's findings and recommendation, with relevant photographs will be issued and submitted to UNICEF MENARO.

Supervision of Loading

Typical functions are as follows:

A) Report any damage or non-conforming aspects observed.

B) Ensure full compliance to Packaging Instructions as described in the Purchase order/Corporate Contract.

C) Check the general appearance of the packing or palletized supplies.

D) Verify storage conditions.

E) Ensure that the number of packages and shipping marks comply with the contract requirements.

F) Witness handling of all loading and unloading operations.

G) Check the standard of transport, condition of containers.

H) Ensure the stowing, fastening and wedging on all transport is adequate to withstand the conditions likely to be encountered during shipment.

I) If appropriate ensure container stuffing is adequate

J) Check all relevant documents.

K) Stamp and Seal, both consignment and container, as required.

A detailed supervision report, supported with photo evidence of loading and supervision shall be submitted to UNICEF.

Post Delivery Inspection

Typical functions may include, but are not limited to, the following:

A) Confirm that the items received by the consignee are in accordance with the client's Purchase order/Corporate Contract.

B) Report all damages observed at the consignee's site, including the extent, nature and cause of damage for future preventive measure.

C) Conduct visual inspection and dimensional check to contract specifications.

D) Confirm storage of the items is in accordance with the conditions stipulated by the client or manufacturer.

E) Quality Inspection and field observation on the durability of supplies Issuance of Inspection Note.

A detailed inspection report, supported with photo evidence of goods in storage, highlighting damage or defects in particular, duly acknowledged by consignee or authorized representative at site, shall be submitted to UNICEF within 2 working days.

The main product groups to be inspected are:

 Educational Supplies, consisting of:

o Classroom Supplies

o Handicraft Supplies

o Physical Education

o Play Materials

o Student and Teacher Supplies

 Foodstuffs, such as:

o Cereals

o RUTF

o Biscuits

 Water, environment, sanitation and engineering  ( Hygiene kits, water purification products)

 Shelter Products

 

For further product details kindly refer to http://www.supply.unicef.dk/catalogue/