| Overview : Dear Vendor: We kindly request you to submit your Proposal for provision of services to carry out the assessment of the index of stigma towards the people affected by tuberculosis in Kyrgyz Republic Please be guided by the form attached hereto as Annex 2 and Annex 3, in preparing your Proposal The Technical Proposal and the Financial Proposal files with tender reference RFP 2022-24 Provision of services to carry out the assessment of the index of stigma towards the people affected by tuberculosis in Kyrgyz Republic MUST BE COMPLETELY SEPARATE and each of them must be uploaded individually and clearly labelled and submitted through “UNDP ATLAS E-tendering system” (https://etendering.partneragencies.org). The Technical Proposal shall not include any price or financial information. A Technical Proposal containing material financial information may be declared non-responsive The Financial Proposal file must be encrypted with a password so that it cannot be opened nor viewed until the password is provided. The password for opening the Financial Proposal should be provided only upon request of UNDP. UNDP will request password only from bidders whose technical proposal has been found to be technically responsive. Failure to provide the correct password may result in the proposal being rejected. Please check the deadline information through UNDP ATLAS E-tendering system No hard copy or email submissions will be accepted by UNDP The step by step instructions for registration of Bidders and proposal submission through the UNDP ATLAS E-tendering system is available in the “Instructions Manual for the Bidders”, attached with this RFP. Should you require any training on the UNDP ATLAS E-tendering system or face with any difficulties when registering your company or submitting your proposal, please send an email to the UNDP Procurement Team at psm.kg@undp.org The Bidders are advised to use Internet Explorer (version 10 or above) to avoid any compatibility issues with the e-tendering system. Your Proposal must be expressed in English or Russian languages, and valid for a minimum period of 120 days. In the course of preparing your Proposal, it shall remain your responsibility to ensure that it reaches the address above on or before the deadline. Proposals that are received by UNDP after the deadline indicated above, for whatever reason, shall not be considered for evaluation Services proposed shall be reviewed and evaluated based on completeness and compliance of the Proposal and responsiveness with the requirements of the RFP and all other annexes providing details of UNDP requirements The Proposal that complies with all of the requirements, meets all the evaluation criteria and offers the best value for money shall be selected and awarded the contract. Any offer that does not meet the requirements shall be rejected. Any discrepancy between the unit price and the total price shall be re-computed by UNDP, and the unit price shall prevail, and the total price shall be corrected. If the Service Provider does not accept the final price based on UNDP’s re-computation and correction of errors, its Proposal will be rejected./ No price variation due to escalation, inflation, fluctuation in exchange rates, or any other market factors shall be accepted by UNDP after it has received the Proposal. At the time of Award of Contract or Purchase Order, UNDP reserves the right to vary (increase or decrease) the quantity of services and/or goods, by up to a maximum twenty-five per cent (25%) of the total offer, without any change in the unit price or other terms and conditions Any Contract or Purchase Order that will be issued as a result of this RFP shall be subject to the General Terms and Conditions attached hereto. The mere act of submission of a Proposal implies that the Service Provider accepts without question the General Terms and Conditions of UNDP Please be advised that UNDP is not bound to accept any Proposal, nor award a contract or Purchase Order, nor be responsible for any costs associated with a Service Providers preparation and submission of a Proposal, regardless of the outcome or the manner of conducting the selection process UNDP’s vendor protest procedure is intended to afford an opportunity to appeal for persons or firms not awarded a Purchase Order or Contract in a competitive procurement process. In the event that you believe you have not been fairly treated, yo u can find detailed information about vendor protest procedures in the following link: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/operations/procurement/business/protest-and-sanctions.html UNDP encourages every prospective Service Provider to prevent and avoid conflicts of interest, by disclosing to UNDP if you, or any of your affiliates or personnel, were involved in the preparation of the requirements, design, cost estimates, and other information used in this RFP. UNDP implements a zero tolerance on fraud and other proscribed practices, and is committed to preventing, identifying and addressing all such acts and practices against UNDP, as well as third parties involved in UNDP activities. UNDP expects its Service Providers to adhere to the UN Supplier Code of Conduct found in this link https://www.un.org/Depts/ptd/sites/www.un.org.Depts.ptd/files/files/attachment/page/pdf/unscc/conduct_english.pdf In responding to this RFP, UNDP requires all Proposers to conduct themselves in a professional, objective and impartial manner, and they must at all times hold UNDP’s interest’s paramount. Proposers must strictly avoid conflicts with other assignments or their own interests, and act without consideration for future work. All Proposers found to have a conflict of interest shall be disqualified. Without limitation on the generality of the above, Proposers, and any of their affiliates, shall be considered to have a conflict of interest with one or more parties in this solicitation process, if they: - Are or have been associated in the past, with a firm or any of its affiliates which have been engaged UNDP to provide services for the preparation of the design, specifications, Terms of Reference, cost analysis/estimation, and other documents to be used for the procurement of the goods and services in this selection process;
- Were involved in the preparation and/or design of the programme/project related to the services requested under this RFP; or
- Are found to be in conflict for any other reason, as may be established by, or at the discretion of, UNDP.
In the event of any uncertainty in the interpretation of what is potentially a conflict of interest, proposers must disclose the condition to UNDP and seek UNDP’s confirmation on whether or not such conflict exists. Similarly, the Proposers must disclose in their proposal their knowledge of the following: - That they are owners, part-owners, officers, directors, controlling shareholders, or they have key personnel who are family of UNDP staff involved in the procurement functions and/or the Government of the country or any Implementing Partner receiving services under this RFP; and /
- All other circumstances that could potentially lead to actual or perceived conflict of interest, collusion or unfair competition practices
Failure of such disclosure may result in the rejection of the proposal or proposals affected by the non-disclosure Proposals submitted by two (2) or more Proposers shall all be rejected if they are found to have any of the following: - they have at least one controlling partner, director or shareholder in common; or
- any one of them receive or have received any direct or indirect subsidy from the other/s; or
- they have the same legal representative for purposes of this RFP; or
- they have a relationship with each other, directly or through common third parties, that puts them in a position to have access to information about, or influence on the Proposal of, another Proposer regarding this RFP process;
- they are subcontractors to each other’s Proposal, or a subcontractor to one Proposal also submits another Proposal under its name as lead Proposer; or
- an expert proposed to be in the team of one Proposer participates in more than one Proposal received for this RFP process. This condition does not apply to subcontractors being included in more than one Proposal.
If the Proposer is a group of legal entities that will form or have formed a joint venture, consortium or association at the time of the submission of the Proposal, they shall confirm in their Proposal that : (i) they have designated one party to act as a lead entity, duly vested with authority to legally bind the members of the joint venture jointly and severally, and this shall be duly evidenced by a duly notarized Agreement among the legal entities, which shall be submitted along with the Proposal; and (ii) if they are awarded the contract, the contract shall be entered into, by and between UNDP and the designated lead entity, who shall be acting for and on behalf of all the member entities comprising the joint venture. After the Proposal has been submitted to UNDP, the lead entity identified to represent the joint venture shall not be altered without the prior written consent of UNDP. Furthermore, neither the lead entity nor the member entities of the joint venture can: - Submit another proposal, either in its own capacity; nor
- As a lead entity or a member entity for another joint venture submitting another Proposal.
The description of the organization of the joint venture/consortium/association must clearly define the expected role of each of the entity in the joint venture in delivering the requirements of the RFP, both in the Proposal and the Joint Venture Agreement. All entities that comprise the joint venture shall be subject to the eligibility and qualification assessment by UNDP. Where a joint venture is presenting its track record and experience in a similar undertaking as those required in the RFP, it should present such information in the following manner: - Those that were undertaken together by the joint venture; and
- Those that were undertaken by the individual entities of the joint venture expected to be involved in the performance of the services defined in the RFP.
Previous contracts completed by individual experts working privately but who are permanently or were temporarily associated with any of the member firms cannot be claimed as the experience of the joint venture or those of its members, but should only be claimed by the individual experts themselves in their presentation of their individual credentials. If a joint venture’s Proposal is determined by UNDP as the most responsive Proposal that offers the best value for money, UNDP shall award the contract to the joint venture, in the name of its designated lead entity. The lead entity shall sign the contract for and on behalf of all other member entities. | 
