21.Selection criteria
The following selection criteria will be applied to candidates. In the case of applications submitted by a consortium, these selection criteria will be applied to the consortium as a whole:
1) Economic and financial capacity of candidate (based on item 3 of the application form). In case of candidate being a public body, equivalent information should be provided. The reference period which will be taken into account will be the last 3 years for which accounts have been closed.
The average annual turnover of the candidate for the last 3 years (2016, 2017, 2018) shall amount to at least 1 500 000,00 EUR;
2) Professional capacity of candidate (based on items 4 and 5 of the application form). The reference period which will be taken into account will be the last 3 years from submission deadline.
At least 6 staff currently work for the candidate in fields related to this contract.
3) Technical capacity of candidate (based on items 5 and 6 of the application form). The reference period which will be taken into account will be the last 5 years from submission deadline.
The candidate has provided services under at least 2 contracts each with a budget of at least 500 000,00 EUR (proportion of the contract carried out by the legal entity being at least 500 000,00 EUR) in the fields specified below which was implemented at any moment during the reference period: 5 years (starting from 3.6.2014 up to the deadline of the receipt of applications). This means that the project the candidate refers to could have been started or completed at any time during the indicated period but it does not necessarily have been started and completed during that period, nor implemented during the entire period. Candidates are allowed to refer either to projects completed within the reference period (although started earlier) or to projects not yet completed. In the first case the project will be considered in its whole if proper evidence of performance is provided (statement or certificate from the entity which awarded the contract, proof of final payment). In case of projects still on-going only the portion satisfactorily completed during the reference period although started earlier will be taken into consideration. This portion will have to be supported by documentary evidence (similarly to projects completed) also detailing its value. If a candidate has implemented the project in a consortium, the percentage that the candidate has successfully completed must be clear from the documentary evidence, together with a description of the nature of the services provided if the selection criteria relating to the pertinence of the experience have been used.
Documentary evidence is not required at the application stage but will be requested with the invitation to tender.
The following fields of specialisation are:
(a) institutional support in establishing common market organizations;
(b) institutional support in development and implementation of agriculture statistics.
A reference project/contract may cover one or both fields of specialization, but both fields above have to be covered by such projects.
Previous experience which caused breach of contract and termination by a Contracting Authority shall not be used as reference.
An economic operator may, where appropriate and for a particular contract, rely on the capacities of other entities, regardless of the legal nature of the links which it has with them. Some examples of when it may not be considered appropriate by the Contracting Authority are when the tender rely in majority on the capacities of other entities or when they rely on key criteria. If the tenderer relies on other entities it must prove to the Contracting Authority that it will have at its disposal the resources necessary for performance of the contract, for example by producing a commitment on the part of those entities to place those resources at its disposal. Such entities, for instance the parent company of the economic operator, must respect the same rules of eligibility — notably that of nationality – and must comply with the selection criteria for which the economic operator relies on them. Furthermore, the data for this third entity for the relevant selection criterion should be included in the tender in a separate document. Proof of the capacity will also have to be furnished when requested by the Contracting Authority.
With regard to technical and professional criteria, an economic operator may only rely on the capacities of other entities where the latter will perform the works or services for which these capacities are required.
With regard to economic and financial criteria, the entities upon whose capacity the tenderer relies, become jointly and severally liable for the performance of the contract.
If more than 8 eligible candidates meet the above selection criteria, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the applications of these candidates must be reexamined to identify the 8 best candidates. The only additional comparative criteria that will be taken into consideration during this re-examination, in the order that they appear below, are:
— the highest number of projects that meet criteria 21.3
and in case of equality after applying of this criterion, then
— the highest cumulated value of all project that meet criteria 21.3
N.B.: additional comparative criterion 2) will be applied only if the number of eligible candidates remain higher than 8 after applying additional comparative criterion 1).