RFQ for Establishment of BPA - General Energy Transition Consultancy Services in Indonesia

New clarification added: Question:Is the scope of services solely focused on Indonesia or are Philippines and Vietnam also in the scope?Answer: This is for Indonesia only. We have the other BPA tender for Philippines ongoing with the same deadline period if you're also interested to bid. The link to said tender is as below: https://www.ungm.org/Public/Notice/167125Question:Will the consultancy fund be responsible for handling/ operating funds?Answer: No, operating funds was not part of the deliverables for this BPAQuestion:Which organizations are part of the Steering Committee and Advisory panel? What is the governance structure between them?Answer: The streering committe consists of ETP funders, while its advisory panel consists of leaders and subject-matter experts in areas such as policy, economics, finance, energy or other cross-cutting themes. However, we are not in a position to disclose specific name of organizations and personnels. For your reference, during the implementation of the contract, the contractor is responsible to ETP/UNOPS, and the contract will be signed with UNOPS.Question:Is the consultancy expected to commit to a signed MOU (as a deliverable) between Indonesia stakeholders by the end of 6 months?Answer: No. That is outside the scope of this engagement The deliverables will be depends on the project and scope of work agreed. We will reach out to the BPA holder prior to each engagement under this contract.Question:The payment terms are monthly based on actual number of days spent by a consultant. What are the mechanisms in place to track these? In case a few months are busier, will it be fine to bring surge capacity from our team?Answer: a) Prior to each engagement, UNOPS and the consultant would agree on the number of days that are required for each assignment. That is how we track the number of days allocated by the consultant per monthb) Yes, it's possible to bring surge capacity. This can be raised during the scope of work discussion for particular engagements before starting the servicesQuestion:The TOR mentions that the BPA will be non-exclusive and UNOPS will not be committed to purchase of minimum quantity. Could you share how many consultancies will be brought onboard for this BPA?Answer: This will be reviewed and decided after the evaluation process based on the quality of the proposals submitted by bidders.Best Regards

New clarification added: 1. Question:We understand that this is an RFQ which is aimed to gather quotation on the provisions of service from participants. In that regards, will this quotation submission be treated as binding i.e. if we dropped from the procurement process after being declared passed RFQ stage, will there be any penalty and/or risk of being blacklisted by UNOPS/UN procurement system?Answer: Please refer to Form A: Quotation Submission Form, section (B). The quotation is considered binding for the period of "bid validity". By signing the form, the bidder is considered to have agreed that their quote is valid for the period stated, and should not "drop" from the procurement process.2. Question:We understand that this RFQ is for the provisions of Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA). Suppose we pass the procurement process and eventually sign the BPA, each engagement to be done under the BPA will be subject to Risk Management ("RM") and conflict checking and therefore we cannot guarantee that each engagement can always be carried out. Please advise if this is acceptable for UNOPS.Answer: Prior to each engagement under this contract, we will reach out to the BPA holder to share the scope of work for the particular engagement, and then ask whether the BPA holder can provide the services for that particular engagement. We understand that in some circumstances if there are Conflict of Interest for a particular assignment, we will not engage the BPA holder that has a CoI.3. Question: Suppose we pass the procurement process all the way to BPA signing, Will we be given the chance to provide input / suggest adjustments to contractual documents e.g. the Blanket Purchase Agreement?Answer: UNOPS will sign the standard BPA agreement as attached in the tender document. By submitting a proposal, bidder is considered to have agreed to the contract template. UNOPS does not negotiate its contract clauses, but in case bidder would like to propose amendments, it is suggested to raise it prior to submitting its proposal.4. Question: Considering that this RFQ is for a BPA, we may not be able to provide a detailed proposed timeline (we note that in Submission Form we are required to create Gantt Chart) as a more detailed timeline will be subject to actual engagement and the scope of work. Please advise if this is acceptable for UNOPS.Answer: Yes. We do not expect a detailed implementation timeline since it is based on each engagement later, but we foresee engaging the selected consultants for specific tasks which include inception meeting, and weekly meeting if deemed necessary. Bidders implementation timeline should reflect its agreement to fulfill the same5. Question: We note that "details of work hours and schedule" stated in the RFQ_Section II document is set at 3 months, whereas BPA validity period is 6 months (with possibility of extension). In that regards, does UNOPS expect every job order must be completed within 3 months? in the event where we deem 3 months is not sufficient (based on our review of Scope of Work), is UNOPS open to adjust project timeline?Answer: No, we do not expect every job order to be completed within 3 months. Each assignment might require different timeframe, and therefore it would be agreed on a case-by-case basis on how long each engagement should be6. Question: Due to limited time available, at this point of procurement stage we will not be engaging a sub contractor. However, can we still propose sub contractor at the later procurement stage?Answer: Yes, provided that the bidder inform UNOPS prior to engaging a sub-contractor7. Question: We understand that the number of expert required is not restricted, as long as level 1 - 3 is fulfilled. Please confirm whether the statement is true?Answer: This is true.Best Regards

New clarification added: 1. Question:The RFQ establishes the qualification criteria and then the technical criteria. Is there any financial evaluation criteria at this stage, and in such case which is the weight versus the technical criteria?Answer: The evaluation method for this tender is Lowest priced most technically acceptable offer, which means only the bidders who passed the preliminary, qualification, and technical criteria stage will be evaluated in the financial stage. The Preliminary, Qualification, and Technical criteria are assessed on pass/fail basis.Regarding the financial stages for this BPA tender, we will choose the bidder whose price is the financially reasonable among all technically compliance. Kindly note that as mentioned in the tender documents, we might consider award for multiple BPAs2. Question: Could you please confirm the Period of Validity of Quotations?Answer: It's stated in the tender files. The quotation validity period which we requested is 60 days after the submission deadline3. Question:Quotation Evaluation. Apart from the already mentioned pass/fail basis, how will UNOPS evaluate the Quotation and select the Consultants?Answer: Please see answer on question 1. If this is still unclear, please rephrase the question and resubmit as a new clarification which we will respond4. Question:Implementation Plan. What is UNOPS's expectation regarding Form C section 2.1? It indicates that we need to describe the implementation timeline (including the Gantt chart and deliverables), but the ToR does not specify the timeline or exact deliverables required.Answer: As specified in the Terms of Reference, the BPA is set out for 6 months. During the 6 months, we foresee engaging the selected consultants for specific tasks which include inception meeting, and weekly meeting if deemed necessary. Form C Section 2.1 is expected to reflect the same5. Question:Work Hours and Timeline. The ToR states that the analysis and report writing takes 36 Person Days over 3 months. We would like to confirm:a. Do the 36 Person Days apply for each Purchase Order or is it a total number of Person Days for the General Consultancy project?b. Do the 36 Person Days apply for each expert that will be proposed or is it a total number of person-days disregarding the number of experts deployed on a Purchase Order?c. Whether 36 Person Days is the upper limit or an estimate?d. The 36 Person Days listed are referenced for "analysis and reports"; does this include the provision of administrative support or other services? Is it possible to add more days for the provision of these additional services?Answer:a&b. 36 person days is only an estimation, the actual total person days would vary depending on the tasks that would be assigned. During the course of the contract (which is set out for 6 months, with possible extension, we might engage the consultant several times for different tasks, and for each, would require different number of person days.Please refer to contract template for the specific explanation on this.c. It is an estimated. General admin costs should be factored into the pricing. As stated above, the exact number of person days would be agreed prior to each engagementBest Regards

New amendment added #1: Clarification & Deadline Time Extension

New clarification added: Question:Purchase orderWe note that this BPA will cover the PO from UNOPS, however we would like to know if The PO from UNOPS will ask for specific expert or will refer only to specialities so the work load distribution will be on Consultant sides?Answer: Prior to each engagement (therefore prior to issuing the PO), UNOPS will share the specific Terms of Reference and ask the supplier to identify the specific experts who will be assigned to the task. This is then to be agreed with UNOPS. Once agreed, UNOPS will issue the Purchase Order. If during the implementation of the task the supplier needs to replace the assigned consultant, this should be done with prior agreement with UNOPSQuestion:Remote workDoes remote working will be encouraged during this provision of service?Answer: The work will mainly be desktop work and therefore remote.Question:Service pricesPlease advise if the prices submited will only consist services only, or also included travel cost etc?Answer: It should only consist of service cost. In case travel would be required, it would be paid at-cost and on a reimbursable basisQuestion:Definition of sub-contractorin RFQ Section III, there is List of subcontractors or suppliers. Please advise the Definition of sub-contractor which consultant should define?Answer: Sub-contractor refers to any company that the bidder would engage with to provide service/perform some of the tasks on behalf of the bidder. However, the resposibility still lies on the contractor that signs the agreement with UNOPS to ensure that the sub-contractor delivers the service as per agreed scope of workQuestion:Pool of consultantsMores Strategics will provide pool of consultants with variation of expertise, which may or may not neeeded by UNOPS-ETS, and regarding Purchase Order, we can expedite the experts needed. However billable mandays will be capped as per PO and TOR.  However pelase advise if the expert expedited on each PO should be the same through the PO, or Consultant can expedited expert as needed but capped by billable amount. Answer: Please refer to response to the 1st question. If this is still unclear, please rephrase the question and resubmit as a new clarification which we will respondBest Regards,