UPDATED

Invitation for Bids

The African Union Commission with support from the European Commission has set aside funds for the purchase of Climate and PUMA Stations for the Intra-ACP and Climate Services and Related Applications (ClimSA) programme – Support to the Implementation of the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) in Africa. The Commission now invites sealed bids from eligible bidders for Supply, Delivery and Installation of ClimSA Climate and PUMA-Stations and Delivery of Training whose specifications are detailed in the bid document.

Bidders are required to furnish the following:

• Valid registration documents
• Dealership certificates or Manufacturer’s authorisation form (if not the manufacturer)
• Duly signed bid form in the format attached to the bid document
• Details of after sales service
• Warranty period for the items

The deadline for submission of bids is 26^th May 2023 at 1500hrs Addis Ababa time.  Late bids will not be accepted.  

Sealed bids will be opened on 26^th May 2023 at 15.30 hrs Addis Ababa time via zoom link. The zoom link will be shared (on request) with the bidders or bidders’ representatives who choose to attend.

 

Clarification 2 to Enquiries for The ClimSA Bidding Document - AUC/SEBE/C/010

Question 1

bid data sheet - 11.3 The terms EXW, CIF, CIP, etc., shall be governed by the rules prescribed in the current edition of Incoterms published by the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris. Can we make all quotations "CIP at destination airport"? Taking into consideration all the current local situations, we cannot reliably quote DAP.

Clarification to Question 1

Quotations should be “DAP”(to locations mentioned in bid documents). This is a “turnkey project”. The successful bidder is required to supply Climate-Stations and PUMA-202X-MTG stations to African users. Places of delivery are provided in paragraph 4.6 of the Statement of Work, which is part of the documents. Bidders must note that the successful bidder will provide complete services which cover the supply, delivery, installation, commissioning and initial training on these stations. The contract will also include a Factory Acceptance Test, warranty and software update.

Question 2

In CGC “33.1    The African Union and its subsidiary organs are exempted from all direct taxes and are exempted from customs duties in respect of articles imported or exported for its official use in conformity with the General Convention on Privileges and Immunities. Accordingly the Supplier authorises AUC to deduct from the Supplier’s invoice any amount representing such taxes or duties charged to the African Union by the Supplier. In the event that any taxing authority refuses to accept the African Union’s exemption from such taxes or duties, the Supplier shall immediately consult with the AUC. 33.2 A Supplier shall be responsible for obtaining exemption for the African Union from all local taxes, duties, and license fees incurred until delivery of the contracted Goods to the Purchaser, unless otherwise agreed in writing by the AUC.”

Will the AUC itself provide the exemption certification, which proves it with tax authorities?

Clarification to Question 2

The AUC will provide tax exemption certificates subject to the successful bidder timely providing the AUC with all necessary documentation including, but not limited to, invoices, packaging lists, airway bills, etc. As the AUC will need to engage with national authorities well in advance, timely submission of the documents, to allow this engagement process, will be required from the successful bidder.

Question 3

For Countries like Chad and South Sudan, nowadays many forwarders do not deliver due to crossed embargos (either the Country does not allow the forwarder to deliver, or the forwarder does not accept shipments to the Country). Do you have a list of forwarders who can deliver to (each and every) these currently difficult  Countries, under CIP terms?

Clarification to Question 3

It is the responsibility of bidders to identify forwarders to all locations.

Question 4

Regarding the terms of payment and bank guarantee, we would like to propose an alternate scheme, in which we ask for advanced payment for a limited number of stations (2/3) at a time, soon-to-be installed, guaranteed by a revolving bank guarantee. Once we install the paid stations, the guarantee will not expire but it will be used for guaranteeing another 2/3 installations, and so on and so forth. The guarantee will remain open for the whole delivery period, but it will be limited in its amount just to the value of the stations paid in advance.

Clarification to Question 4

A Bank Guarantee is not a requirement at bidding stage. Issues of Bank Guarantee and Terms of Payment will be discussed with the successful bidder.

 

Clarification 1

Question 1

In the Section III- Bid Data sheet 13.3 (c) you write “that, in the case of a Bidder not doing business within the Country specified for delivery, the Bidder is or will be (if awarded the contract) represented by an Agent in the Country specified for delivery equipped and able to carry out the Supplier’s maintenance, repair, and spare parts-stocking obligations prescribed in the Conditions of Contract and/or Technical Specifications; ”For organizational reasons and proper cost allocation, we do not expect a large amount of maintenances such that continuous on-site service is warranted. We count on efficiently training local people and having a single agent on the inner AU territories, available the moment there are major breakdowns.  Does the condition we are proposing meet what is described in Big data sheet item 13.3 (c)?

Clarification to Question 1

In the previous Monitoring for Environment and Security (MESA) project, the Company relied on a limited number of IT experts (at least two, one for French and one English-speaking countries) for both the initial installation and the subsequent interventions.

Question 2

Is there a list of the present Climate DBMS currently installed in the different locations from which we need to import the data?

Clarification to Question 2

Yes, JRC, as part of its regular exchanges and training with the Regional Climate Centres (RCCs), conducted some analysis on the usage of DBMS systems in the various Regions, and it was observed that Clisys, CLiData and Clide are used, in addition to CLIMSOFT. Nevertheless, this feature for importing observational data from the DBMS into Climate Stations is already part of the application, and does not represent an activity under the current contract (see also answer to question 3).

Question 3

We are not sure if the tools to propose for the Climate station (which you describe as Portfolio (2) can be chosen from us or if it is the jrc that will decide which  tools will have to be used after that the contract is assigned. In other words based on the availability of the developments of the eClimate 3 system we will be given the tools that need to be installed and we are only responsible for the upgrade and maintenance procedures of the stations?

Are the packages already referenced in the RFP to be considered as the expected and required packages and these are Climsoft, eClimate 2, IMPACT toolbox , Jupyter Notebooks?

Will We be  responsible only for the items?
1.     Dashboard
3.   Acquisition from PUMA
11.  System settings
12.  Help.
Or do we need/can propose other softwares?

Clarification to Question 3

The Climate Station is an existing application that will be provided as CFI through the JRC. It is implemented in a number of Docker containers, to ease the installation. All the features (1. to 12.) presented at page 113/114 of the ITB are part of the Climate Station, and under JRC responsibility, in terms of development and evolution (i.e. upgrade).

In this respect, the main tasks under the current contract will be to install the Climate Station in both the 'sub-systems' ('Processing' and 'Analysis' - see page 134) and implement the additional features for having both sub-systems working smoothly together. These features are listed at page 137, and reported here for your convenience (with correction of a typo in numbering):

Climate Station System Functionalities.

In addition to the functionalities described in paragraph 0, which belongs to the C-Station application, there are some requested functionalities to be implemented and validated under the current contract.

These features are briefly resumed here below:

1. Synchronization of C-Station datasets, database and app data between the sub-systems (see 0 for their definition)
2. Connection to an existing LAN and configuration of the internet access
3. Management of the Recovery Mode
4. Updates of the C-Station software
5. Backup/Restore of the C-Station database and app data (see 0)
6. Mirroring of the C-Station datasets to external servers
7. Dashboard that presents the overall status of the system

For additional clarification of the above points:

2. The acquisition from PUMA station will be straightforward (and managed by the Climate Station services) when both systems are part of the same LAN, and a folder of the PUMA station (with incoming images) is visible from C-Station

4. Updates: the JRC will ensure the Climate Station evolution, and will regularly release the updated docker images to be installed on both sub-system. The Contractor is asked to implement a simple mechanism for the User to trigger/control the upgrade on the deployed machines.

7. The Climate Station dashboard is fully integrated in the UI of both sub-systems and provide an overview of the number of active datasets, the completeness of the temporal series, the status of the Climate Station services, the list of products part of the most recent upgrade. The Dashboard requested under the current contract should include an overview of other aspects, more related to the HW (e.g. disk space), connectivity (internet connection). In addition, should present, in each sub-system, the status of both.

Question 4

In the bank guarantee section you state “it should not be completed by the bidders at the time of their bid preparation. Only the successful Bidder will be required to provide performance security and bank guarantee for advance payment in accordance with one of the forms indicated herein or in another form acceptable to the Purchaser and pursuant to GCC Clause 7.3 and SCC 11, respectively”. Do you confirm that we should submit the guarantee only if we win the tender? For organizational issues and preparation of any documents, should we provide a guarantee only for the advance payment or also for the Performance Bond? In case it is required to submit the guarantee at the bidding stage, would a draft guarantee, with the bank assurance to release, be enough to comply with Bid Security requirements?

Clarification to Question 4

A bank guarantee is a financial commitment offered by a financial institution such as a Bank, which agree to cover a financial obligation if the supplier (who request for the bank guarantee) in a transaction fails to deliver as per the terms of the contract. The guarantee is served to mitigate the risk, especially if there is advance payments made by AU.
 
It is not a requirements at bidding stage.

Question 5

In Section III – page 36. in the Bid Price and Currency column we have the value N/A, what does this refer to?

Clarification to Question 5

N/A means “Not Applicable”. There are no additional explanations to the concerned ITB clauses