Overview
REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST (FIRMS)
The Government of Belize (GOBZ) has received financing from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in an amount equivalent to USD5 Million towards the cost of Resilient Rural Belize Programme 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 GOBZ 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 GOBZ shall derive any rights from the Financing Agreement or have any claim to the proceeds of the Financing.
The Resilient Rural Belize Programme (RRB), the Executing Agency, now wishes to procure consultancy services for Engineering Design and Supervision of farm access roads. The farm access roads are located in the (i) Orange Walk, (ii) Belize, (iii) Stann Creek, and (iv)Toledo Districts, and comprise a total length of approximately 26.7 km (16.7 miles).
The objectives of the consultancy are to:
- prepare detailed engineering designs and tender documents for the proposed infrastructure under the RRB’s Rural Road Infrastructure sub-component, which involves improvements to farm access roads, inclusive of drainage;
- assist GOBZ, through the RRB, in managing the procurement of the contractor(s) for the associated works, including tender evaluation, and contract preparation and negotiation; and
- supervise construction and prepare payment certificates.
RRB now invites interested eligible consulting firms to submit Expressions of Interest for the provision of these consultancy services.
Eligibility
Firms or Joint Ventures (JV’s) shall be eligible to participate if:
- In the case of a body corporate, it is legally incorporated or otherwise organized in an eligible country, has its principal place of business in an eligible country and is more than fifty percent beneficially owned by citizen(s) and/ or bona fide resident(s) of eligible country(ies) or by a body(ies) corporate meeting these requirements;
- In the case of unincorporated firms, the beneficial owners are citizens or bona fide residents of an eligible country; and
- In all cases, the firm or JV 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.
Eligible countries are member countries of CDB. 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.
Instructions
In the assessment of submissions, consideration will be given to technical competence, qualifications and experience, local and regional experience on similar assignments, financial capability and existing commitments. Key Experts will not be evaluated at the shortlisting stage.
All information must be submitted in English. One electronic copy of the Expressions of Interest must be received at the first address below no later than 10:00 a.m. Belize local time on Friday, July 14, 2023, and a second electronic copy simultaneously to CDB at the second address below. The email subject line should state “Expression of Interest – Consultancy Services for Engineering Design and Supervision of Farm Access Roads and the email body must state the name and address of the applicant. The Expression of Interest will be deemed to have been received at the time that it is received at the first email address below. 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.
The selection method for the award of the consultancy shall be Quality- and Cost-Based Selection. Therefore, following the assessment of submissions, a shortlist of not less than three and not more than six applicants will be provided with full terms of reference and invited to submit technical and financial proposals to undertake the assignment.
GOBZ 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 selecting any applicant and will not defray any costs incurred by any applicant in the preparation and submission of Expressions of Interest.
Further information may be obtained from the first address below between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Belize local time Monday to Friday.
Contact
Address 1
Resilient Rural Belize Programme
National Agriculture Showgrounds
Hummingbird Highway, Belmopan, Cayo District, Belize, C.A.
Address 2
Caribbean Development Bank
BARBADOS