Overview
REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST (INDIVIDUALS)
The Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (GOSVG) has received financing from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), in an amount equivalent to EUR122,250 towards the cost of the Food Safety Certification System for Livestock Production and Trade in St. Vincent and the Grenadines Project and intends to apply a portion of the proceeds of this financing to eligible payments under a contract for which this invitation is issued. Payments by CDB will be made only at the request of GOSVG and upon approval by CDB and will be subject in all respects to the terms and conditions of the Financing Agreement. The Financing Agreement prohibits withdrawal from the financing account for the purpose of any payment to persons or entities, or for any import of goods, if such payment or import, to the knowledge of CDB, is prohibited by a decision of the United Nations Security Council taken under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. No party other than GOSVG shall derive any rights from the Financing Agreement or have any claim to the proceeds of the Financing.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour (Ministry of Agriculture), the Implementing Agency, now wishes to procure consultancy services for the development of an Information Management and Traceability System.
The objective of the consultancy is to build the capacity of national authorities to improve food safety controls through the development of a web ready application to be used by poultry farmers to input farm and production information utilising a mobile application. The duration of the assignment is expected to be for a period of 40 person-days over 6 calendar months.
The Ministry of Agriculture now invites interested eligible individual consultants to submit Expressions of Interest indicating their qualifications and experience required to provide these consultancy service.
Eligibility
Individual Consultants shall be eligible to participate if:
- the person is a citizen or bona fide resident of an eligible country; and
- in all cases, the consultant has no arrangement and undertakes not to make any arrangements, whereby any substantial part of the net profits or other tangible benefits of the contract will accrue or be paid to a person not a citizen or bona fide resident of an eligible country.
For Consulting Services procured with funds from the CARIFORUM-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement and Caribbean Single Market and Economy Standby Facility for Capacity Building, eligibility for procurement shall be extended to countries eligible for procurement under EU-funded projects, which are not CDB Member Countries[1]/. A full list of eligible countries is provided in Appendix 1 to this REOI.
Consultants are advised to review the detailed eligibility criteria detailed in Section 4 and conflict of interest provisions in Section 5 of the Procurement Procedures for Projects Financed by CDB (January, 2021), as published on CDB’s website.
[1]/ See eligible countries listed in Annex A2a (“Eligibility programmes 2014-2020”) of the PRAG 2021 (“Contract Procedures for European Union External Action – A Practical Guide”), PART II: Rules on nationality and origin for public procurement, grants and other award procedures financed under the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement, laid down in Annex IV to the latter Agreement as revised by Decision No 1/2014 of the ACP-EU Council of Ministers of 20 June 2014 (2014/428/EU).
Instructions
In the assessment of submissions, consideration will be given to qualifications and experience on similar assignments. The Consultant is required to possess the following minimum qualification, experience and competencies:
- Master’s degree in relevant fields such as Database Administration, Information Technology, Computer Science, software applications development.
- Proficiency in MYSQL, JAVA, JavaScript, Python, C Sharp, C++ or similar web development technologies.
- Minimum of five years as a system developer and/or developer of software applications.
- Minimum of five years’ experience in applying innovative techniques in software applications development, taking gender considerations into account.
- Minimum of five years in capacity building, involving software applications development and deployment.
- Minimum of five years working in developing countries.
- Minimum of five years conducting training workshops and working in close partnership with all stakeholders involved.
The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment can be downloaded from the CDB website.
All information must be submitted in English. Further information may be obtained from the third address below between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. St. Vincent & the Grenadines Time Monday to Friday.
An electronic copy of the Expressions of Interest must be sent in PDF format to the email in the first address below no later than 3:00 p.m. St. Vincent & the Grenadines Time by Friday, November 17, 2023 and one electronic copy must be sent simultaneously to CDB at the second email address below. The Expression of Interest will be deemed to have been received at the time that it is received by Ministry of Agriculture at the first email address below. The email subject line should state “Expression of Interest – Consultancy Services for the development of an Information Management and Traceability System” and the email body must state the name and address of the applicant. The burden of proving receipt of the e-mail will be on the applicant and will not be met solely by a read receipt or sent items report generated by the applicant’s computer.
Following the assessment of submissions, the most technically capable and appropriately experienced applicant will be invited to negotiate a contract to provide the consultancy services. GOSVG reserves the right to accept or reject late applications or to cancel the present invitation partially or in its entirety. It will not be bound to assign any reason for not engaging the services of any applicant and will not defray any costs incurred by any applicant in the preparation and submission of Expressions of Interest.
Contact
Address 1
Dr. Monica M.Davis
Richmond Hill, Kingstown, St.Vincent and the Grenadines VC0100
Address 2
Procurement Policy Unit
Wildey St.Michael Barbados, W.I. BB11000
For further information contact:
Chief Veterinary Officer
Richmond Hill, Kingstown, St.Vincent and the Grenadines, VC0100