Skopje Wastewater Treatment Project
Invitation for Pre-qualification
This invitation for pre-qualification follows the general procurement notice for this project, which was published on 3 May 2019 on the Official Journal of the European Union (Ref. 2019/S 086-204758).
The Government of Republic of North Macedonia, represented by the Ministry of Finance (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Borrower’) and Public Enterprise ‘Vodovod i kanalizacija Skopje’ (‘ViK’) a municipal company in the City of Skopje, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Promoter’, has applied for a loans from the European Investment Bank — EIB (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Bank’) and loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development — EBRD administered by the Bank, towards the cost of the Skopje Wastewater Treatment Plant project. This invitation for pre-qualification relates to the contract for Design and Construction of Skopje Wastewater Treatment Plant.
This pre-qualification is open to all interested companies and advertised in the OJEU, in order to select the companies to be invited to the international restricted procurement procedure under this project.
This contract will include design and obtaining approvals according to the Republic of North Macedonia legislation, construction, testing, commissioning, development of process procedures, 24 months of trial operation prior the taking over and remedying defects during the defect notification period.
The contract will be implemented under the FIDIC conditions of contract for plant and design-build, First Edition 1999 (Yellow Book) and will entail the design and construction of Phase 1 (2035) of a wastewater treatment plant for the City of Skopje. The WWTP shall be an activated sludge plant comprising primary and secondary treatment for the removal of carbonaceous pollution and sized to cater for the needs of up to 650 000 PE. The design of the plant shall foresee, but not include, future upgrading to include tertiary treatment for nutrient removal, object of Phase 2 (2045). The plant will include facilities for the treatment of generated sludge comprising thickening, digestion, drying and incineration onsite. The treatment process shall further accommodate odour control and energy optimisation. The works shall also include connections to the trunk sewer system, including an inverted syphon beneath the River Vardar, flood protection works to the site, electrical works including substations, connections to the grid and back up generation facilities and training of the employer's staff in the operation and maintenance of the facilities.
The period of implementation of the contract is expected to commence in Q1 2021 with a duration of 72 months, including the following key activities:
— 36 months of design and construction,
— 24 months of the Trial Operation, and
— 12 months of defects notification period.
The pass/fail methodology will be used by the Promoter for the evaluation of applications upon the criteria specified hereunder. On the basis of the applications received, between three and eight candidates, that substantially satisfies the criteria, will be invited to submit detailed tenders for this contract. If more than 8 (eight) eligible candidates meet the selection criteria, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the applications of these candidates will be re-examined to identify the 8 (eight) best candidates in accordance with the methodology set in para 22.7 of instruction to applicants. If the number of eligible candidates meeting the selection criteria is less than the minimum of 3 (three), the Promoter will decide to cancel the pre-qualification process and a new procurement procedure will be initiated.
The criteria to be used in the pre-qualification application evaluation are:
1) General experience
Experience in Waste Water Treatment Design and Construction (or Supply and Installation) contracts in the role of prime contractor, JVCA member, subcontractor or management contractor for at least the last 15 (fifteen) years prior to the application submission deadline.
2) Specific experience
The applicant shall meet the following minimum criteria
(a) Successful experience as a prime contractor, JVCA member, management contractor in the design and construction in at least 2 (two) urban wastewater treatment plants with a capacity of at least 300 000 PE which comprised, at minimum, primary and secondary (biological) level treatment. All the contracts shall have been successfully and substantially(1) completed within the last 15 (fifteen) years.
(b) Successful experience as a prime contractor, JVCA member, management contractor or subcontractor with main responsibility in the design and construction in at least 1 (one) urban wastewater treatment plant with value of the contract of at least EUR 40 000 000. All the contracts shall have been successfully and substantially completed within the last 15 (fifteen) years. For contracts under which the applicant participated as a joint-venture member or consortium member or sub-contractor, only the applicant’s share value shall be considered to meet this requirement.
(c) For the above or other contracts executed during the period above in point 2(a), the applicant shall demonstrate, a successful experience in the following key activities
(i) Design and construction of at least:
— 1 (one) project which includes sludge digestion with a capacity of at least 10 T DS/day.
— 1 (one) project which includes sludge incineration with a minimum capacity of at least 10 T DS/day.
(ii) Successful experience in operation and maintenance of 2 (two) urban waste water treatment plants with a capacity of at least 300 000 PE for a period of minimum 2 (two) years. Such experience may include trial operation ahead of taking over.
(iii) Successful experience in operation and maintenance of the following processes
— 1 (one) projects which include sludge digestion with a capacity of at least 10 T DS/day.
— 1 (one) project which includes sludge incineration with a minimum capacity of at least 10 T DS/day.
Such experience may include trial operation ahead of taking over.
(iv) Successful experience as the prime contractor, leader of a JVCA or management contractor of at least 1 (one) urban wastewater treatment plants, carried out under the FIDIC Yellow Book (1999), Silver Book (1999) or Gold Book (2008) Conditions of Contract. This contract shall have been successfully and substantially completed, to issue of the taking over or commissioning certificate.
Confirmation of experience:
Experience shall be confirmed by providing copies of contract completion certificates (or similar) or comprehensive reference letters from the clients. For each reference provided by the applicant, a certificate issued within the last 15 (fifteen) years.
Comprising the following information must be included in the applicant submission or files:
— name and headquarters of the contracting authority (the counterparty),
— name of contract,
— brief description of completed projects,
— contract value,
— start and end of contract,
— place of performance of the contract,
— the allegation of duly completed contracts (that works properly implemented in accordance with the rules of the profession),
— signature employer/client and seal or headed letter.
3) Average annual turnover
The applicant shall have the minimum average annual construction turnover of EUR 100 000 000 (One hundred million euro) equivalent, calculated as total certified payments received for contracts in progress or completed, within the last 5 (five) years.
The turnover value in currencies other than Euro shall be recalculated into Euro based on the exchange rate as of the 1st of July of each year reported, as set by the central/national bank of the applicant's country.
4) Financial position
The applicant shall demonstrate that it has access to or has available, liquid assets, unencumbered real assets, lines of credit and other financial means sufficient to meet the construction cash flow for the contract for a period of 6 (six) months, estimated as not less than EUR 20 000 000 (Twenty million euros) equivalent, taking into account the applicant's commitments in other contracts.
5) Non-performance history
A consistent history of litigation and/or arbitration awards against the applicant or any partner of a joint venture or their non-performance under the contracts may result in failure of the application.
Moreover, an applicant shall declare any civil work contracts that have been suspended or terminated and/or performance security called by an employer for reasons related to the noncompliance of any environmental, or social or health or safety requirements or safeguard in the past 5 (five) years(2).
6) Current obligations and pending awards
The applicant shall provide information on the ongoing contractual obligations and pending contract awards.
The Promoter may reject the application if the level of the confirmed commitments to be carried out in parallel with the contract exceeds the applicant's annual turnover for the previous year by a factor of 1.2
7) Specific requirements with regard to JVCA
JVCA must satisfy the following minimum qualification requirements:
(a) The JVCA must satisfy collectively all the above-mentioned qualification criteria, for which purpose the relevant figures for each of the partners shall be added to arrive at the joint venture's total capacity.
(b) Each partner shall meet not less than 20 (twenty) percent of all the qualifying criteria for the turnover and the availability of the financial means as per the criteria specified under general experience and financial position above.
The lead partner shall meet not less than 40 (forty) percent of all the qualifying criteria for the turnover and the availability of the financial means as per the criteria specified under general experience and financial position above.
Each partner shall satisfy the requirements with regard to the soundness (turnover and available financial means) of the financial position and non-performance history, specified above.
(c) The lead partner of the JVCA shall have been the sole entity or the lead partner in at least one of the contracts satisfying the criteria specified in art.2 a) ‘Specific Experience’ above.
Pre-qualification and tendering for contracts to be financed with the proceeds of the EIB and EBRD loans and grant is open to firms and joint ventures of firms from any country.
Pre-qualification documents may be obtained from the office at the address below. If requested, the documents will be dispatched electronically in portable or open format; however, no liability can be accepted for their non-delivery or late delivery. In case of discrepancies between the portable and open formats of the document, the portable version shall prevail.
All pre-qualification applications must be duly completed and delivered in close envelopes bearing the mention ‘Pre-qualification application for Design and Construction of Skopje Wastewater Treatment Plant’ not later than the 17 August 2020 at 12.00 (Skopje time) at the address below. The pre-qualification applications will be opened immediately after submission deadline in the presence of applicant’s representatives who choose to attend the opening session.
As part of the application form, candidates must submit a signed declaration, included in the standard application form, to the effect that they are not in any of the exclusion situations stipulated under Article 57 of European Parliament and Council Directive 2014/24/EU.
— Applicants shall be excluded from this invitation for pre-qualification procedure if any of the mandatory exclusion grounds for rejection apply.
— Applicants may be excluded from this Invitation for pre-qualification procedure if any of the discretionary grounds for exclusion apply.
EIB Exclusion Policy is available on the Bank’s website via the following link: https://www.eib.org/attachments/strategies/eib_exclusion_policy_en.pdf
All requests for clarification shall be submitted by the applicants no later than 14 (fourteen) days prior to the deadline for submission of applications. Requests received after that date will not be responded. The Promoter will take all reasonable efforts to provide clarifications within 7 (seven) days next to the date of requests recipience for clarifications and, in any case, no later than 7 (seven) days prior to the deadline for submission of applications. The requests for clarification shall be sent at the Promoter’s address specified in this invitation.
Contract is subject to the EIB Procurement Policies and rules as specified in the most recent version of the ‘Guide to Procurement for projects financed by the EIB’, as published on the website of the Bank:https://www.eib.org/attachments/strategies/guide_to_procurement_en.pdf
Interested firms may obtain further information at the following address:
Kristijan Nikolovski, PIU for Skopje WWTP Project, PUC ‘Vodovod i Kanalizacija’ Skopje, NORTH MACEDONIA St Lazar Lichenovski No.9 Tel: 0038923240335 wwtp-project@vodovod-skopje.com.mk
(1) Substantial completion means the issuance of a taking-over certificate or its equivalent.
(2) The Promoter may use this information to seek further information or clarifications during the pre-qualification or tender stages.