REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

DIGITALIZATION OF THE ADMINISTRATION AND INNOVATION FOR DEVELOPMENT

PROJECT NO: CRW 106601N

Assignment Title: HIRING A FIRM TO CONDUCT AN ASSESSMENT OF EXISTING NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE FOR GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS, NETWORK HIGH LEVEL DESIGN, TECHNICAL DESIGN PER SITE (PHYSICAL, LOGICAL, ARCHITECTURE).

Reference No: 000003/C/ICB/2022/2023/RISA

The Government of Rwanda (GoR) has received funding from the Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) for the digitization of the administration and innovation for development project. The General Objective of the project is to "Leverage ICT to improve public services and promote innovation for socio-economic development in Rwanda". This is in line with the dual mandate of MINICT to accelerate the use of Information and Communication Technologies for the socio-economic development of the country and to promote innovation and emerging technologies.

The project will be coordinated through the Ministry of ICT and Innovation (MINICT), with Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA) and Rwanda Space Agency (RSA) as the Project implementing institutions. A dedicated Single Project Implementation Unit (SPIU) is thus being set up and operationalized at RISA that will have overall responsibility for supporting project preparation and implementation.

The objective of the assignment is to provide the required materials and quantities needed in the network infrastructure upgrade/ modernization and help RISA to have a clear understanding of the financial and material requirements in order to bridge the underlying connectivity gap among public sector institutions.

The consulting firm shall assess the existing network infrastructure, document the status and provide detailed Bill of Quantities of the materials required for the upgrade/ Modernization of the network infrastructure.

Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA) now invites eligible consulting firms to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services.


Eligibility criteria to AFD financing are specified in sub-clause 1.3 of the "Procurement Guidelines for AFD Financed Contracts in Foreign Countries", available online on AFD’s website: http://www.afd.fr.
The Applicant shall submit only one application, either in its own name or as a member of a Joint Venture (JV). If an Applicant (including any JV member) submits or participates in more than one application, those applications shall be all rejected. However, the same Subconsultant may participate in several applications.
If the Applicant is a JV, the expression of interest shall include:
 a copy of the JV Agreement entered into by all members,
or
 a letter of intent to execute a JV Agreement, signed by all members together with a copy of the Agreement proposal,
In the absence of this document, the other members will be considered as Subconsultants.
Experiences and qualifications of Subconsultants are not taken into account in the evaluation of the applications.
Interested Applicants must provide information evidencing that they are qualified and experienced to perform those Services. For that purpose, documented evidence of recent and similar services shall be submitted and evaluation creterias shall be as follows;
Determination of the similarity of the experiences will be based on:
 The contracts size;
 The nature of the Services
 The firm should have at least 5 years of working experience in network design sector, systems assessment/analysis, structured local area networks.
 The firm must have previously conducted/carried out similar assignments in the aspects of scope, technical, and execution worth of at least 200,000 Euro or equivalent in total. Solid experience in provision of services in nature, scale and complexity corresponding to the provided terms of reference, references from other clients are highly welcomed with certificates of goods completion.
 The technical area and expertise the firm should be experience in conducting network designs pf the same nature
 The location shall be Rwanda
The Client will also take into account for the evaluation of the applications the following items:

 The firm should also provide the technical and managerial capability of the firm (Provide only the structure of the firm, list of positions of the key staff, general qualifications, and experience as per the terms of reference (No individual bio data) the staff biodata shall be evaluated at the second stage(technical evaluation)
For a JV, its leader and any member that has its registered office outside the Client's country shall fulfil each of these criteria.
An application that does not meet any of these requirements will be rejected.
Among the submitted applications, RISA will shortlist a maximum of six (6) Applicants, to whom the Request for Proposals to carry out the Services shall be sent.

A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Quality and Cost-based Selection method set out in clause 2.3.3 of the procurement guidelines for AFD contracts financed in foreign countries. Further information can be obtained through eProcurement System at any time before deadline for submission.

Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form through eProcurement System (www.umucyo.gov.rw) on 10th May 2023 at 10:00am and shall be opened through the eProcurement System on 10th May 2023 at 10:30am Kigali time.

For interested consultants not yet registered, should apply for the digital certificate on www.govca.rw and then register your business on www.umucyo.gov.rw (eProcurement system for Rwanda) through supplier registration to be able to submit your proposal.

- Note:
o EOIs must not contain any financial information.
o Interested consultants who are not registered in the E-Procurement System are advised to register to be able to submit their expressions of interest. The videos below show how to use the Umucyo system prior to submitting the EOI and the registration process may take 2-3 business days:
• Supplier registration
• Registration of certificate
• Submission of bid
Please do ensure to only use a Windows-operated computer for your registration on e-umucyo system.

Sincerely,


Innocent B MUHIZI
Chief Executive Officer
Rwanda Information Society Authority













Appendix to The Request for Expressions of Interest
(To be sumitted with the application, signed and unaltered)
Statement of Integrity, Eligibility and Environmental and Social Responsibility

Reference of the bid or proposal (the "Contract")
To: (the "Contracting Authority")

1. We recognise and accept that Agence Française de Développement ("AFD") only finances projects of the Contracting Authority subject to its own conditions which are set out in the Financing Agreement which benefits directly or indirectly to the Contracting Authority. As a matter of consequence, no legal relationship exists between AFD and our company, our joint venture or our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants. The Contracting Authority retains exclusive responsibility for the preparation and implementation of the procurement process and performance of the contract. The Contracting Authority means the Purchaser, the Employer, the Client, as the case may be, for the procurement of goods, works, plants, consulting services or non-consulting services.
2. We hereby certify that neither we nor any other member of our joint venture or any of our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants are in any of the following situations:
2.1 Being bankrupt, wound up or ceasing our activities, having our activities administered by the courts, having entered into receivership, reorganisation or being in any analogous situation arising from any similar procedure;
2.2 Having been:
a) convicted, within the past five years by a court decision, which has the force of res judicata in the country where the Contract is implemented, of fraud, corruption or of any other offense committed during a procurement process or performance of a contract (in the event of such conviction, you may attach to this Statement of Integrity supporting information showing that this conviction is not relevant in the context of this Contract);
b) subject to an administrative sanction within the past five years by the European Union or by the competent authorities of the country where we are constituted, for fraud, corruption or for any other offense committed during a procurement process or performance of a contract (in the event of such sanction, you may attach to this Statement of Integrity supporting information showing that this sanction is not relevant in the context of this Contract);
c) convicted, within the past five years by a court decision, which has the force of res judicata, of fraud, corruption or of any other offense committed during the procurement process or performance of an AFD-financed contract;
2.3 Being listed for financial sanctions by the United Nations, the European Union and/or France for the purposes of fight-against-terrorist financing or threat to international peace and security;
2.4 Having been subject within the past five years to a contract termination fully settled against us for significant or persistent failure to comply with our contractual obligations during contract performance, unless this termination was challenged and dispute resolution is still pending or has not confirmed a full settlement against us;
2.5 Not having fulfilled our fiscal obligations regarding payments of taxes in accordance with the legal provisions of either the country where we are constituted or the Contracting Authority's country;
2.6 Being subject to an exclusion decision of the World Bank and being listed on the website http://www.worldbank.org/debarr (in the event of such exclusion, you may attach to this Statement of Integrity supporting information showing that this exclusion is not relevant in the context of this Contract);
2.7 Having created false documents or committed misrepresentation in documentation requested by the Contracting Authority as part of the procurement process of this Contract.
3. We hereby certify that neither we, nor any of the members of our joint venture or any of our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants are in any of the following situations of conflict of interest:
3.1 Being an affiliate controlled by the Contracting Authority or a shareholder controlling the Contracting Authority, unless the stemming conflict of interest has been brought to the attention of AFD and resolved to its satisfaction;
3.2 Having a business or family relationship with a Contracting Authority's staff involved in the procurement process or the supervision of the resulting Contract, unless the stemming conflict of interest has been brought to the attention of AFD and resolved to its satisfaction;
3.3 Being controlled by or controlling another bidder or consultant, or being under common control with another bidder or consultant, or receiving from or granting subsidies directly or indirectly to another bidder or consultant, having the same legal representative as another bidder or consultant, maintaining direct or indirect contacts with another bidder or consultant which allows us to have or give access to information contained in the respective applications, bids or proposals, influencing them or influencing decisions of the Contracting Authority;
3.4 Being engaged in a consulting services activity, which, by its nature, may be in conflict with the assignments that we would carry out for the Contracting Authority;
3.5 In the case of procurement of goods, works or plants:
a) Having prepared or having been associated with a consultant who prepared specifications, drawings, calculations and other documentation to be used in the procurement process of this Contract;
b) Having been recruited (or being proposed to be recruited) ourselves or any of our affiliates, to carry out works supervision or inspection for this Contract.
4. If we are a state-owned entity, and to compete in a procurement process, we certify that we have legal and financial autonomy and that we operate under commercial laws and regulations.
5. We undertake to bring to the attention of the Contracting Authority, which will inform AFD, any change in situation with regard to points 2 to 4 here above.
6. In the context of the procurement process and performance of the corresponding contract:
6.1 We have not and we will not engage in any dishonest conduct (act or omission) deliberately indented to deceive others, to intentionally conceal items, to violate or vitiate someone's consent, to make them circumvent legal or regulatory requirements and/or to violate their internal rules in order to obtain illegitimate profit;
6.2 We have not and we will not engage in any dishonest conduct (act or omission) contrary to our legal or regulatory obligations or our internal rules in order to obtain illegitimate profit;
6.3 We have not promised, offered or given and we will not promise, offer or give, directly or indirectly to (i) any Person who holds a legislative, executive, administrative or judicial mandate within the State of the Contracting Authority regardless of whether that Person was nominated or elected, regardless of the permanent or temporary, paid or unpaid nature of the position and regardless of the hierarchical level the Person occupies, (ii) any other Person who performs a public function, including for a State institution or a State owned company, or who provides a public service, or (iii) any other person defined as a Public Officer by the national laws of the Contracting Authority’s country, an undue advantage of any kind, for himself or for another Person or entity, for such Public Officer to act or refrain from acting in his official capacity;
6.4 We have not promised, offered or given and we will not promise, offer or give, directly or indirectly to any Person who occupies an executive position in a private sector entity or works for such an entity, regardless of the nature of his/her capacity, any undue advantage of any kind, for himself or another Person or entity for such Person to perform or refrain from performing any act in breach of its legal, contractual or professional obligations;
6.5 We have not and we will not engage in any practice likely to influence the contract award process to the detriment of the Contracting Authority and, in particular, in any anti competitive practice having for object or for effect to prevent, restrict or distort competition, namely by limiting access to the market or the free exercise of competition by other undertakings;
6.6 Neither we nor any of the members of our joint venture or any of our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants shall acquire or supply any equipment nor operate in any sectors under an embargo of the United Nations, the European Union or France;
6.7 We commit ourselves to comply with and ensure that all of our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants comply with international environmental and labour standards, consistent with laws and regulations applicable in the country of implementation of the Contract, including the fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and international environmental treaties. Moreover, we shall implement environmental and social risks mitigation measures when specified in the environmental and social commitment plan (ESCP) provided by the Contracting Authority.
7. We, as well as members of our joint venture and our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants authorise AFD to inspect accounts, records and other documents relating to the procurement process and performance of the contract and to have them audited by auditors appointed by AFD.

Name: In the capacity of:
Duly empowered to sign in the name and on behalf of :
Signature:
Dated: