Request for Proposal (RFP)

Issued on:                                February 3, 2024

Solicitation Number:               PI-BID/BHFA//FEB-2024/063

For:                                          Civil Engineering Consultant Firm

Quotes Deadline:                    February 14, 2023 (4:30 PM)

Pathfinder Background

Pathfinder is driven by the conviction that all people, regardless of where they live, have the right to decide whether and when to have children, to exist free from fear and stigma, and to lead the lives they choose.

Since 1957, we have partnered with local governments, communities, and health systems to remove barriers to critical sexual and reproductive health services. Together, we expand access to contraception, promote healthy pregnancies, save women’s lives, and stop the spread of new HIV infections, wherever the need is most urgent.

Our work ensures millions of women, men, and young people are able to choose their own paths forward.

Project Background

Building Healthy Families activity (BHFA) is a USAID funded five-year project, implemented by Pathfinder International. The goal of BHFA is the improvement of population health outcomes through stronger primary care systems, encouraging the uptake and continuation of voluntary FP/MNCH services. We employ a hybrid market development and health system strengthening (HSS) approach to identify the root cause of the lack of uptake of these services within the community.

In response to the Department of Health, Government of Sindh request, BHFA aims to enhance 20 Community Midwifery Schools through minor refurbishment and equipment provision. BHFA plans to assess to ascertain the scope and specific areas requiring rehabilitation. BHFA intends to collaborate with a consultant/firm to identify refurbishment needs and develop a comprehensive Bill of Quantity (BoQ) with detailed specifications and estimated costs for each school across the 20 districts in Sindh Province

Scope of Work (SOW)

The consultant firm will execute the following tasks in collaboration with the BHFA team and the Health Department, Sindh.

1.       Hold technical discussions with senior management of RMNCH/Health Department Sindh regarding the minor repair and refurbishment of CMW schools.

2.       Collaborate closely with the BHFA team to develop assessment tools.

3.       Conduct a thorough assessment by visiting each CMW school in 20 different locations.

4.      Generate a detailed Bill of Quantity (BOQ) for each school based on the assessment findings.

5.      Prepare and submit comprehensive report for the assignment, including photos, Bill of quantity (BOQ’s), and assessment forms, in collaboration with the BHFA team.

Inquiries

If you have any questions/inquiries, please e-mail [email protected] no later than close of business February 6, 2024 (3:00 PM) with a subject line Inquiries-PI-BID/BHFA//FEB-2024/063: Hiring of Consultant Firm. The solicitation number indicated above must be included in the subject line. Responses will be posted to all known offerors.

Please email the quote and other information directly to: [email protected] with a subject line PI-BID/BHFA//FEB-2024/063: Hiring of Consultant Firm. The solicitation number indicated above must be included in the subject line.

Modification

If at any time prior to award Pathfinder deems there to be a need for a significant modification to the terms and conditions of this RFP, Pathfinder will issue such a modification as a written RFP amendment to all competing offerors.  No oral statement of any person shall in any manner be deemed to modify or otherwise affect any RFP term or condition, and no offeror shall rely on any such statement. Such amendments are the exclusive method for this purpose.

Resulting Award

Single contract: As a result of this solicitation, Pathfinder anticipates engaging a single consultant firm. Pathfinder reserves the right to split the SOW and make multiple awards.

Any resulting contract will be subject to the terms and conditions contained in Annex B. Part B of this annex will only apply to USG-funded assignments.

The selected company for this assignment will abstain from engaging in the open bidding process for the Bill of Quantities (BOQ), thereby excluding itself from the competition associated with this task.

Joint ventures are ineligible to partake in the procedure.

Payment Terms

Fixed Price: Pathfinder anticipates entering into a fixed-price contract with the selected contractor.

Proposal Guidelines and Instructions

Offerors will be required to submit two proposals, electronically, one a technical proposal and the other a cost proposal. All proposals must be signed and valid for a minimum of sixty (30) days.

Your proposal should provide basic information about your Company/Individual and relevant service offerings. It should have a section addressing each of the following areas:

(a)   Company/Individual Profile

(b)   Past Performance (Proof of at least 3 similar assignments contracts/PO from last 5 years)

(c)    Technical Approach (offeror will be evaluated based on their responsiveness to the Scope of Work)

(d)   References

(e)   Relationship disclosure and mitigation plan

(f)     Key Personnel [(B.Sc Engineers registered with Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC)]

Responses should include the following information:

1. Preliminary examination Requirements

• Firm must be registered as a Sales Tax Registered Firm (PASS/FAIL)

• At least 3 Reference with complete details including, Organization name contact person name, designation, Phone number, email address, office address, nature of work/assignment performed, contract/Po value. (PASS/FAIL)

• Bid submitted on time. (PASS/FAIL)

Firms that meet the Pass/Fail criteria will undergo further evaluation in consideration of their technical proposals.

1. Technical Proposal

a.      Company/Individual Profile and Past Performance – 15 points

• Provide a general description of the offeror in terms of experience of conducting similar nature work.

• Briefly summarize the offeror’s qualifications and experience of the activities described in the scope of work.

• Provide a detailed track record of previous similar work undertaken.

b.      Technical Approach – 40 points

• The firm is required to furnish a comprehensive work plan, inclusive of assignment completion dates for 20 distinct locations. Additionally, a timeline outlining the entire assignment, specifying the engineers' team assigned to each location, must be provided. List of Schools are attached in ANNEX C.

c.       Key Personnel – 15 points

• It is mandatory to submit resumes of the nominated engineers, substantiated by documentation confirming their registration with the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC).

d.      Office Location – 10 points

• The firm is required to possess a physical presence in one of the three cities (Karachi, Hyderabad, and Sukkur). Substantiating evidence must be provided, and subsequently, the team will conduct physical verification to firm that will be meeting minimum scoring criteria of 50 out of 80 points in Technical Proposal.

e.      Financial Proposal – 20 points

1. 1. Financial Proposal

Offerors pricing should be based on the following:

Fixed Price:  For Services performed during the Term, Consultant will be paid a fixed fee after the completion of task with a report accepted and approved by BHFA Team.

The financial proposal is mandated to incorporate a detailed breakdown of costs, encompassing all expenses such as travel costs and lodging, among others. Sales Tax with % is required.

The project will not provide any reimbursement or additional costs beyond those quoted in the financial proposal.

Sales Tax (ST) Compliance: The project is eligible for a sales tax exemption. ST amount will be withheld, an exemption letter will be provided within 90 days upon receipt of the invoice. If the exemption letter is not provided within this timeframe, the withheld ST amount will be paid upon completion of the USAID compliance timeline of 90 days.

Evaluation Criteria

In evaluating the proposals, Pathfinder International will seek the best value for money rather than the lowest priced proposal. Pathfinder will use a two-stage selection procedure:

• the first stage will evaluate the Technical Proposal.

• the second stage will evaluate the Financial Proposal for proposals that pass the Technical Proposal evaluation and will score minimum of 50 points out of maximum of 80 points.

Specifically, the selection committee will evaluate each proposal upon the following criteria:

Criteria	Weight
Consultant Firm Profile   -          Execution of projects similar in nature within the last 3 years. No credit will be assigned for works falling below the specified thresholds. (A minimum of 3 successfully completed contracts from the past 3 years is required)	A total of 15 marks will be awarded if the contractor has successfully executed a minimum of three projects of a similar nature within the past three years (5 marks per project, multiplied by 3).
Technical Approach -          Elaborate location-specific work plan, encompassing timelines for each designated location.	Maximum 40 points
Key Personal B.Sc Engineers registered with Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC)	A score of 15 marks will be assigned if the cumulative number of engineers registered with the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) is three or more (5 marks per engineer, multiplied by 3)
Physical Office Presence -          Consultant firms are required to maintain a physical office in either Hyderabad, Karachi, or Sukkur. Physical verification will be carried out to confirm compliance with this criterion.	A total of 10 marks will be allocated for the presence of an office in any of the specified locations.
Companies scoring the minimum of 50 out 80 points will be evaluated on financial proposals.
Financial Proposal	Maximum 20 Points
Total Weight	100

Pathfinder is not bound to accept the lowest or any proposal and reserves the right to accept any proposal in whole or in part and to reject any or all proposals.

Pathfinder shall not be legally bound by any award notice issued for this RFP until a contract is duly signed and executed with the winning offeror.

The evaluator will tally all the individual scores for each section and calculate the average score. The total average scores, will be added to obtain the total points achieved by the individual supplier. If the total number points meets or exceeds the threshold established in the evaluation methodology, the suppliers cost proposal will be eligible for consideration.

The score for the cost proposal will be calculated in the following manner:

Cost proposal score = 100 x Lowest cost/ cost of the proposal under consideration. The lowest cost proposal will receive the full 100 points.

The total score will be calculated as follows:

Total Score= Technical proposal score of the proposal under consideration multiplied by 80 plus (+) Cost proposal score of the proposal under consideration multiplied by 20.

Relationship disclosure (PASS/FAIL)

-           Describe any current or past relationships your organization may have with Pathfinder, and if it is a potential conflict of interest.  If there is a potential conflict of interest, please explain how this risk will be mitigated.

-           Describe any personal or familial relationships any employee of the Contractor has with any employee of Pathfinder. If there is a relationship, please explain how any conflict-of-interest risk will be mitigated.

Disclosure does not automatically disqualify offeror.

Terms

Pathfinder reserves the right to cancel this solicitation at any point and is under no obligation to issue a subcontract as a result of this solicitation.

Pathfinder will not reimburse any expenses related to the preparation of any proposal related materials or delivery.

Confidentiality

IF APPLICABLE As a part of the RFP process, Pathfinder International may be providing confidential information. Consequently, suppliers must complete a Confidentiality/ Non-Disclosure Agreement. See Annex B

Agreement

Any resulting contract will be subject to the terms and conditions contained in the annex. See Annex A

Thank you,

Procurement Team

Pathfinder International

Building Healthy Families Activity|Pathfinder International