Procurement of vehicle for the tax and development programme in Ghana.

Danish development cooperation with Ghana started after its independence in 1957 and is underpinned by political dialogue and a shared vision on development goals currently enshrined in the Denmark-Ghana Partnership Policy 2014 — 2018. One main element of the partnership policy is to consolidate the results of the Danida supported development programmes and the transition from an aid based partnership to supporting Ghana's ambition to move beyond traditional aid and to a higher degree pursue, inter alia trade and commercial investments; and to facilitate global and regional trade. Ghana's status as a middle-income country and growing participation in globalization and increased trade flows requires a modern, well-functioning and accountable customs administration. See II.2.4).

Ghana.

Since 2015 Denmark has supported the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in its modernisation efforts laid out in the GRA's Second Strategic Plan 2015-2017 (SPII) through the Tax and Development Programme (T&DP) that, together with other development partners, supports the implementation of the Strategic Plan. The original Danish contribution to the GRA during 2015-2018 was 200 000 000 DKK. The T&DP also supports 2 other engagements, i.e. IMANI — Centre for Policy and Education, and the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII). The original budget for IMANI and GII was 5 500 000 DKK and 6 000 000 DKK, respectively.

However, a Mid-Term Review (MTR) of the T&DP in September 2016 recommended that the support to the GRA be re-designed given the slow pace of implementation and to use a Management Consultancy Company (MCC) to manage the support to GRA. It was also recommended that the support from Danida be focused on Customs, given its strategic importance to both Denmark and Ghana and also based on the outputs of the Engagement. It has also been decided to the number of projects supported within the GRA from 49 to 25 (most of which are on-going), and to streamline the project portfolio to include mainly customs projects. Based on the MTR recommendations the T&DP is being extended by one year to the end of 2019. All the Danida supported projects within the GRA are to be completed by the end of 2019.

Workplans for the 25 projects have been drawn up. In most cases, inputs required include vehicles to enable the Customs Division achieve the agreed outputs. The sum of procurement under the T&DP, estimated at 4 800 000 DKK, requires the launching of an EU Tender for the procurement of these vehicles.

The objectives of the assignment are as follows:

1. To procure 21 specified vehicles for implementation of the Tax and Development programme.

All duties, taxes, VAT, and other levies applicable for the contract in question payable by the Supplier in relation to the performance of the Contract, or for any other cause, shall be included in Contract Price submitted by the Tenderer, and the evaluation and comparison of Tenders by the Customer shall be made accordingly. Delivery costs shall also be included in that total Contract Price.

Not applicable.

The tenderer must submit the European Single Procurement Document (‘ESPD’) with the following information:

The tenderer's total annual turnover in the last 3 financial years available.

The ESPD serves as provisional documentation that the tenderer fulfils the minimum suitability requirements in respect of economic and financial capacity.

Before the decision to award the contract is made, the tenderer to whom the contracting authority intends to award the contract must submit documentation that the information stated in the ESPD is accurate.

When required by the contracting authority, the tenderer must submit the following documentation of economic and financial capacity:

A statement regarding the operator's overall turnover in the last 3 financial years available, depending on the date when the operator was set up or started trading, as far as the information on these turnovers is available. For groups of operators (e.g. a consortium), the information must be submitted for each participating operator in the group. Where an operator relies on the economic and financial capacity of other entities (e.g. a parent company, sister company or a sub-contractor), the information must be submitted for these entities also.

Where an operator relies on the capacity of other entities (e.g. a parent company, sister company or a sub-contractor), regardless of the legal nature of the links between the operator and such other entities, the operator must include documentation in its tender that it will have at its disposal the resources necessary for the performance of the contract by producing an undertaking of support or other documentation that the tenderer has in fact at its disposal the required economic and financial capacity. It must be documented that the entity in question is legally obliged to the tenderer. Failing this, the contracting authority will not take into account the capacity of other entities. The contracting authority has drawn up a template for the undertaking of support for the tenderer to use.

As a minimum requirement, a total annual turnover of at least 9 000 000 DKK is required in each of the three last financial years available. If the tenderer relies on the capacity of other entities, the turnover is to be calculated as the total turnover of the tenderer and such other entities in each of the 3 last financial years available. For groups of operators (e.g. a consortium), the turnover is calculated as the total turnover of the operators in each of the three last financial years available. The information is to be stated in section IV.B of the ESPD. Reference is made to the contracting authority's guide to the ESPD.

A list of the most significant comparable supplies, see sections II.1.4) and II.2.4) that the tenderer has carried out in the last 3 years before the expiry of the tender deadline depending on when the tenderer was set up or started trading.

Each reference is requested to include a brief description of the delivery performed. The delivery description should include a clear description of the supplies set out in sections II.1.4) and II.2.4) to which the delivery related and the tenderer's role(s) in the performance of the delivery. The delivery description should moreover include the financial value of the delivery (amount), the date of the delivery, and the name of the customer (recipient).

When indicating the date of the delivery, the tenderer is requested to indicate the date when the delivery was commenced and finalised. If that is not possible, e.g. if the tasks were performed on an ongoing basis under a framework agreement, the tenderer is asked to indicate in the description of the delivery how the date is specified.

No more than 5 references may be stated irrespective of whether the tenderer is a single operator, whether the tenderer relies on the technical capacity of other entities, or whether the tenderer is a group of operators (e.g. a consortium).

If more than 5 references are stated, only the first 5 references will be taken into account. Any additional references will be disregarded.

The ESPD serves as provisional documentation that the tenderer fulfils the minimum suitability requirements in respect of technical and professional capacity, see section III.1.3).

Before the decision to award the contract is made, the tenderer to whom the contracting authority intends to award the contract must submit documentation that the information stated in the ESPD is accurate.

No additional documentation of technical and professional capacity will be required from the tenderer. However, the contracting authority reserves the right to contact the tender or the customer indicated in the reference for confirmation of the information stated in the reference, including the dates of the reference indicated.

Where an operator relies on the capacity of other entities (e.g. a parent company, sister company or a sub-contractor) regardless of the legal nature of the links between the operator and such other entities, the operator must include documentation in its tender that it will have at its disposal the resources necessary for the performance of the contract by producing an undertaking of support or other documentation that the tenderer has in fact at its disposal the required technical and professional capacity. It must be documented that the entity in question is legally bound towards the tenderer. Failing this, the contracting authority will not take into account the capacity of other entities. The contracting authority has drawn up a template for the undertaking of support that the tenderer may use.

As a minimum requirement, minimum 2 comparable supplies with a value each of minimum 1 000 000 DKK performed is required during the 3 last years.

The winner of the contract will be required to perform the services in compliance with the Danida Anti-corruption Code of Conduct and the principles of the UN Global Compact.

A group of economic operators will be required to enter a joint venture agreement. Where a joint venture is proposed, the The Danish Embassy in Ghana will require that all members of the joint venture are jointly and severally liable. Furthermore the members shall establish common Quality Assurance and Business Integrity Management systems for the implementation of the contract.

The contracting authority is entitled to hold an electronic auction based on the initial total price in the tender (this means that the contracting authority is not required to hold an electronic auction but may choose to enter into the contract on the basis of the initial prices that are legal binding for the tenderers).

The meaning of ‘local time’ is 14:00 Central European Summer Time (CEST).

Any legal entity may only submit 1 Tender. The tender and the ESPD shall be submitted electronically using the web-based tendering system provided by Kammeradvokaten (The Legal Advisor to the Danish State) following the instructions in the Tender Document. Tenders cannot be submitted using any other means. The tendering system can be accessed using the link set out in section I.3. If not already registered in the system access to the tender documents can be obtained by registering using the link ‘Online registration’. The ESPD is completed via: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/espd/filter?lang=da. where the Tenderer is to upload the XML file, complete it and then save it locally. It is the responsibility of the Tenderer to keep informed of questions and answers and any addenda and/or clarification published in the system in respect of this tender. In case of technical problems with the system the Tenderer can contact technical support either per e-mail: [email protected] or per telephone on (+45) 70 20 80 14.

The Embassy shall exclude a Tenderer from participation in the procurement procedure where it has established that the Tenderer is covered by the exclusion grounds listed in the Danish Public Procurement Act, (Udbudsloven) §135 and §136 (EU Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, article 57(1)-(3), and article 57 (4)(e),(f) and (h).) (i.e. Grounds relating to criminal convictions, grounds relating to the payment of taxes or social security contributions, Grounds relating to conflicts of interests or distortion of competition from the prior involvement of the economic operators in the preparation of the procurement procedure, if this cannot be remedied by other, less intrusive measures, guilty of serious misrepresentation of information).

Pursuant to the Danish Act on the Complaints Board for Public Procurement, etc. (lov om Klagenævnet for Udbud m.v.) (the Act is available (in Danish) at www.retsinformation.dk), the following deadlines apply to the lodging of complaints:

Complaints for not having been selected must be submitted to the Danish Complaints Board for Public Procurement before the expiry of 20 calendar days, see section 7(1) of the Act, from the day after submission of notification to the candidates concerned of the identity of the successful tenderer where the notification is accompanied by an explanation of the grounds for the decision in accordance with section 2(1)(i) of the Act and section 171(2) of the Danish Public Procurement Act.

In other situations, complaints of award procedures, see section 7(2) of the Act, must be lodged with the Danish Complaints Board for Public Procurement before the expiry of:

1) 45 calendar days after the contracting authority has published a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union that the contracting authority has entered into a contract. The deadline is calculated from the day after the day when the notice was published.

2) 30 calendar days calculated from the day after the day when the contracting authority has notified the candidates concerned that a contract based on a framework agreement with reopening of competition or a dynamic purchasing system has been entered into where the notification has included an explanation of the relevant grounds for the decision.

3) 6 months after the contracting authority entered into a framework agreement calculated from the day after the day when the contracting authority notified the candidates and tenderers concerned, see section 2(2) of the Act and section 171(4) of the Danish Public Procurement Act.

4) 20 calendar days calculated from the day after the contracting authority has submitted notification of its decision; see section 185(2) of the Danish Public Procurement Act.

Not later than at the time of lodging a complaint with the Danish Complaints Board for Public Procurement, the complainant must notify the contracting authority in writing that a complaint has been lodged with the Danish Complaints Board for Public Procurement and whether the appeal was lodged during the standstill period, see section 6(4) of the Act. In cases where the complaint was not lodged during the standstill period, the complainant must furthermore indicate whether a suspensory effect of the complaint has been requested, see clause 12(1) of the Act.

The e-mail address of the Complaints Board for Public Procurement is set out in section VI.4.1).

The Complaints Board's own complaints procedure is available at https://erhvervsstyrelsen.dk/klagevejledning-0