Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2018-02-13
Buyer: Batumi Autotransport Ltd
Country: GE
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 72224000: Project management consultancy services
Submission deadline: 2018-03-01
Award criteria: Other

Technical requirements: The City of Batumi (“Batumi” or the “City”) and the European bank of reconstruction and development (the “EBRD” or the “Bank”) are cooperating to improve City’s urban transport services by expanding the existing fleet of buses (the “Project”). The beneficiaries of the project are the city and the Batumi autotransport LLC (the “company” or the “client”), a municipal bus company, which is wholly owned by the City.
The project consists of the EBRD loan to Georgia in the amount of 5 500 000 EUR, to be provided in two tranches, and an investment grant of 1 500 000 EUR from the Eastern Europe energy efficiency and environment Partnership (“E5P”). The project aims to improve and modernise bus operations in Batumi through the purchase of a new bus fleet of electric and diesel buses.
The bank will provide institution building assistance to the company in the form of a corporate development programme and a stakeholder participation programme as outlined below. For this purpose the client now intends to retain a consulting company (the Consultant) to provide the following services (the “Assignment”):
The consultant will assist the company to improve its commercial standing, service and environmental/social performance by supporting the development and implementation of relevant policies for corporate, financial, operational and environmental/social management required to meet the related covenants included in the EBRD financing documents. The consultant will also assist the company to develop a medium-term focused corporate development programme and to improve the corporate planning capacity to assist its transition towards becoming a self-sustaining entity with commercially sustainable operations, as well as implementation of the Environmental and social action plan (“ESAP”) developed for the company.
The second objective is to develop and implement a Stakeholders participation programme (“SPP”), aimed at enhancing public ownership by encouraging the use of public transport, increasing public participation in the provision of public transport services (service quality and rehabilitation activities) and raising public awareness on issues related to project implementation. The SPP should be designed in a way that it ensures meaningful participation of all concerned stakeholders, men and women alike, in the consultation.
1. Prepare a financial and operational performance improvement programme (“FOPIP”) for the company, which will focus on ensuring that they meet the covenants set forth in the financing documentation with EBRD. These include:
— Maintaining satisfactory accounting, cost control and management information systems and books of account in accordance with international accounting standards starting from a date to be agreed with the bank in the loan agreement (this requires support in converting existing financial reports in an IAS type format),
— Developing internal documentation for the management processes, standard operating procedures, job descriptions for the company staff,
— Maintaining financial covenants in the project agreements and sub-loan agreement negotiated with the government,
— Implementation of the ESAP and providing the Bank with financial and environmental/social reports as required under the project agreements,
To this end, it is expected that the FOPIP will include both corporate development actions as well as financial and operational improvements.
2. Following approval by the company, the City and the EBRD, the consultant will actively assist the company to implement the various aspects of the FOPIP, as follows:
—— Work closely with the company in their discussions with the City to finalise the public service contract,
—— Work closely with the company to provide support in implementing the measures identified to improve financial performance. Assist the company to ensure the recommendations identified and agreed to improve accounting, budgeting and cash management are being implemented. As part of this, the consultant may need to provide ongoing support to assist the company in preparing financial statements in accordance with IAS and in implementing any new budget procedures,
—— Assist the company in adopting internal documentation for the management processes, standard operating procedures, job descriptions for the company staff,