CARIBBEAN DEVELOPMENT BANK GENERAL REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST CONSULTING SERVICES BASIC NEEDS TRUST FUND SEVENTH PROJECT

The Basic Needs Trust Fund Seventh Project (BNTF 7) was approved on October 23, 2012, by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and provides grant funding to ten participating Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) viz. Belize, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.  Governments of the ten participating BMCs provide counterpart funding.  The Terminal Disbursement Date for BNTF 7 is December 31, 2016.

2. The infrastructure component of BNTF 7 provides, inter alia, for the implementation of an unspecified number of sub-projects consisting primarily of minor civil works including buildings for education, water supply and sanitation, footpaths, bridges, drains and minor road developments.  The maximum cost of each sub-project will not exceed the equivalent of US$600,000 and construction works will be done either by private contract, force account, self help or a combination of the afore mentioned modes of execution.

3. Additional information on BNTF 7 can be obtained at CDB’s corporate web site, viz. http://www.caribank.org/programmes/basic-needs-trust-fund

4. The overall objective of BNTF 7 is to reduce poverty and vulnerability in targeted communities through enhanced access to basic social and economic infrastructure and human resource development services.

CDB now invites submission of expressions of interest from consultants who are interested in providing architectural and/or engineering services for individual sub-projects or groups of sub-projects.  Services contracts will be awarded either for a single sub-project or groups of sub-projects, as funding for these are approved by CDB for each BMC.  Each contract price will be fully paid for, directly by CDB. Under previous BNTF programmes, consultants in the participating BMC where sub-projects are located were engaged by CDB, and provided the majority of similar services.

The brief description of services required under the proposed services assignments include:

a)      consultation with and advice to the BNTF Project Manager (PM) of the respective BMC, at all stages of the execution of the services;

b)      preparation, or review and completion, of designs and tender documents, including consultation with beneficiary communities;

c)      assistance to the PM with the pre-qualification of contractors, and preparation of bid documents;

d)     assistance to the PM with the evaluation of bids and the negotiation of the construction contracts as necessary;

e)      provision of technical inspection of construction works for the government, under the terms of the construction contract including issuing of payment certificates, preparation of monthly reports, final handover and training of key beneficiaries in minor preventative maintenance practices for the completed works.

In relation to consulting services, a consultant, each  member of a joint venture or consortium and any sub-contractor shall be eligible for procurement if:

a)      in the case of the 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 50% beneficially owned by a citizen or citizens and/or bona fide resident or residents of an eligible country or countries or by a body corporate or bodies corporate meeting these requirements;

b)      in the case of natural persons and unincorporated firms, the person or persons is or are a citizen or citizens or bona fide resident or residents of an eligible country; and

c)      in all cases, the tenderer has no arrangement and undertakes not to make any arrangement 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.

Consultants, whether acting singly or in joint ventures, are required to submit full details of his/her individual practice or firm, inclusive of general experience in the field of the assignment, including specialist knowledge and qualification of each of the proposed personnel who will undertake assignments.  In the case of firms, the documents must include articles of incorporation and audited financial statements for the last three years.  Submissions are to be sent to the Portfolio Manager (BNTF), at the address below by April 4, 2014 at 4:00pm. The names and address of the applicant shall be clearly marked on the envelope containing each submission.  All information must be submitted in the English Language.

Portfolio Manager, BNTF                         Tel:    1-(246)-431-1600

Social Sector Division                               Fax:   1-(246)-431-7269

Caribbean Development Bank                  E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

P. O. Box 408, Wildey, St. Michael

Barbados, W. I.

9. Consultants should indicate the type of work in which they are interested and the total value of work they have the capacity to perform concurrently.  CDB will request an update of this information as and when needed.

10.  After evaluation of the information submitted, a shortlist of consultants and/or joint ventures of consultants drawn from the response to this notice, as well as from similar notices circulated regionally and locally, will be created and those consultants will be requested to submit proposals for the provision of services.  The Terms of Reference for specific services will be made available to short-listed consultants.

11.  CDB reserves the right to accept or reject late applications or to cancel the present notice partially or in its entirety.  CDB will not be bound to assign any reason for not short-listing any applicant and will not defray any costs incurred by any applicant in preparing applications.

12.  Applicants will be advised in due course, of the results of their applications.

13.  Additional general notices for expressions of interest will be issued at least once annually, during the life of BNTF 7.  CDB expects to issue Request for Proposals to short-listed individuals, firms and/or joint ventures for an individual sub-project or group of sub-projects, approved at various times, during the implementation period of the current programme.