- INTRODUCTION
- General
- IGAD Center for Pastoral Areas & Livestock Development (ICPALD) wishes to enter into a Framework Agreement(FA) with qualified suppliers for Travel Services in support of programmes in Nairobi, Kenya.
- This being a competitive Bid process, ICPALD plans to sign a Long‐Term Agreement (FA) with a single supplier for a maximum of 5 years to be renewed annually, subject to satisfactory performance and competitive pricing.
- SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS
- Bidders are expected to examine all instructions, forms, terms of reference, terms and conditions contained within this Bid document. Failure to comply with the requirements in these documents shall be at the Bidder’s risk and may affect the evaluation of the Bid or result in the rejection of the Bid.
- CLARIFICATIONS ON BIDDING DOCUMENT
- Bidders requiring clarification to the Bid process and/or to the Bid documents may be addressed in writing to:
beverlyne.nyanchera@igad.int and cc to elvis.mutii@igad.int
- AMENDMENTS TO BIDDING DOCUMENTS
- At any time prior to the Bid submission deadline, ICPALD may for any reason, whether at its own initiative or in response to a clarification requested by a prospective Bidder, modify the Bidding documents by issuing an amendment.
- PREPARATION OF BIDS
- BID CURRENCY & PRICES
- All prices shall be in United States Dollar (USD)
- The Bidder shall indicate on the Price Schedule Form the unit price of the services it proposes to supply under the FA.
- VALIDITY OF BIDS
6.1. Bids must remain valid for 90 calendar days after the Bid submission deadline. ICPALD will consider Bids with shorter validity as not substantially responsive and reject them. Under special circumstances, ICPALD may request Bidders to extend the validity of their Bids.
- SUBMISSION OF BIDS
7.1. Bidders must submit technical bid in accordance with the instructions and Terms of Reference contained in this bid document.
7.2. Bidders must complete the Price Schedule Form in accordance to SECTION V
The separate Financial Bid must contain a quotation in a single currency (USD), itemizing all services to be provided.
- PARTIAL BIDS
8.1. Partial Bids are not allowed under this request for proposal (RFP). ICPALD reserves the right to select and accept a part or parts of any Bid.
- SUBMISSION, SEALING, AND MARKING OF BIDS
9.1. The Bid process shall be conducted through a TWO‐envelope system. Interested Bidders are requested to submit their Technical Bid separately from their Financial Bid containing price information.
- SUBMISSION OF HARD COPY BIDS
- Bidders must prepare one original and one copy of all Bid documents
- Marking of hard copy Bids shall be as follows:
The outer envelope must be clearly marked with:
Procurement of Travel Agent Services
IGAD Center for Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development (ICPALD)
Kabete Vetlabs, Kapenguria Road, Off Waiyaki Way
Nairobi- Kenya
Tel:+254 737 777 742
Company Name
Attention: Beverlyne Nyanchera
DO NOT OPEN BEFORE 10:00 am Nairobi time, on 6th September 2021
10.3 . The envelope must indicate the name, email and address of the Bidder. If the outer envelope is not sealed and marked as required, ICPALD will assume no responsibility in the event of Bid misplacement or premature opening.
10.5. The inner envelopes must be clearly marked with: TECHNICAL BID/ FINANCIAL BID
- DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF BIDS AND LATE BIDS
11.1. Bids must be delivered to the ICPALD Office at the address above before 22nd September 2021, 03.00 pm.
11.2. Bids received after the submission deadline shall be rejected.
- MODIFICATION AND WITHDRAWAL OF BIDS
- Bidders may modify, substitute or withdraw their Bid after submission, provided that written notice is received by ICPALD prior to the submission deadline.
- Any proposed modification, substitution or withdrawal must be submitted in accordance to clause 9 ‐ Submission, sealing and marking of Bids. The respective envelope shall be clearly marked “MODIFICATION”, “SUBSTITUTION” or“WITHDRAWAL”. Any revision to the Bid must be received by the deadline.
- No Bid may be modified, substituted or withdrawn in the interval between the submission deadline and the expiration of the duration of the Bid validity. No Bid may be modified, substituted or withdrawn after the submission deadline.
BID OPENING AND EVALUATION
- Bid opening
- ICPALD will conduct Bid opening on 22nd September 2021, at 03:00 p.m. at the office of ICPALD
- Once the technical evaluation has been completed, the Financial Bids will be opened.
- Clarification of Bids
- To assist in the examination, evaluation and comparison of Bids, ICPALD may ask Bidders for clarification of their Bids. The request for clarification and the response shall be in writing by ICPALD, and no change in price or substance of the Bid shall be sought, offered or permitted. Clarification of Bids may be provided only in response to ICPALD request for clarification or request for additional information.
- Preliminary Examination of Bids
- Prior to the detailed evaluation, ICPALD shall examine the Bids to determine whether they are complete with respect to minimum documentation requirements, whether the documents are properly signed, whether any computation errors have been made and whether the Bids are generally in order.
- The procurement official will determine the substantial responsiveness of each Bid to the RFP during the preliminary examination.
- A substantially responsive Bid conforms to all the terms, conditions, and specifications of the Bidding documents without material deviation, reservation, or omission. A material deviation, reservation, or omission is one that:
- Affects in any substantial way the scope, quality, or services specified; or
- Limits in any substantial way, inconsistent with the Bidding documents, ICPALD’s rights or the Bidder’s obligations under the FA; or
- If rectified would unfairly affect the competitive position of other Bidders presenting substantially responsive Bids.
- Evaluation of Bids
- The evaluation of the Bids will be carried out in a two‐step process by an evaluation panel
- The Financial Bid will be opened only for those Bidders, where Technical Bids reach a minimum score of 70% and who have fulfilled the supplier qualifications. The total number of points a Bidder may obtain for Technical and Financial Bids is 100 points.
- The weights given to the Technical (T) and Financial (F) Proposals are: T = 80 % and F = 20%
- Technical Evaluation
- The Technical Bid is evaluated on the basis of its responsiveness to the Terms of Reference shown in Section II, and according to the evaluation criteria published below.
Technical Evaluation Criteria | Points
|
(1) Expertise, Organizational and Technical Capacity of bidder submitting proposal (Maximum 30%) | 30% |
1.1 Bidder corporate profile and global network | 6 |
1.2 General organizational capability to offer quality services | 4 |
1.3 Good track record in serving international organizations | 10 |
1.4 Ability to maintain productive relations with suppliers (airlines) | 10 |
(2) Soundness and feasibility of proposal and approach to Terms of Reference ( Maximum 50%)
|
50% |
2.1 To what degree the bidder understands the TOR | 10 |
2.2 Have the important aspects of the TOR addressed in sufficient detail? | 20 |
2.3 Does the proposal correspond to scope of work required by TOR? | 10 |
2.4 Reasonable and justified system for securing lowest fares and rates and Value added of other services(airport transfers) | 10 |
(3) Capability of Personnel dedicated to servicing ICPALD (Maximum 20%)
|
20% |
3.1. General qualifications of personnel dedicated to servicing ICPALD | 10 |
3.2. Suitability of personnel to the TOR | 5 |
3.3. Professional training in travel | 5 |
Total | 100% |
- AWARD OF FRAMEWORK AGREEMENTAND FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
- Award of Framework Agreement(FA)
- ICPALD intends to award a single FA to the Bidder that obtains the highest combined score of the Technical and Financial evaluation.
- ICPALD reserves the right to make multiple arrangements for any item(s) where, in the opinion of ICPALD, the Bid winner cannot fully meet the delivery requirements or it is deemed to be in ICPALD’s best interest to do so. Any arrangement under this condition shall be made on the basis of the highest combined scoring Bid, the second‐highest, etc.
- Rejection of Bids and annulments
- ICPALD reserves the right to reject any Bid if the Bidder has previously failed to perform properly or on time in accordance with previous contracts or if the Bidder from ICPALD’s perspective is not in a position to deliver the services that will be issued pursuant to the FA(s).
- ICPALD reserves the right to annul the RFP and reject all Bids at any time prior to award of the FA without thereby incurring any liability to the affected Bidder(s) or any obligation to provide information.
- Signing of the Framework Agreement(FA)
- ICPALD will send the successful Bidder(s) the FA valid for one year, which constitutes notification of award. Successful Bidder(s) shall sign and date the FA, and return it to ICPALD within 5 calendar days of receipt of the FA.
- ICPALD reserves the right to discontinue the agreements if the supplier’s performance is not satisfactory to ICPALD.
- The FA holders shall hold the prices fixed and not subject to change throughout the validity of the Agreements.
SECTION II: TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR)
- BACKGROUND
ICPALD wishes to solicit Proposals from Travel Agencies/Travel Management Companies capable of providing Travel Management Services to ICPALD.
- SCOPE OF WORK AND MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS
The successful travel agent shall render a full spectrum of high quality services, in a prompt, pleasant and hassle‐free manner to all the officers/staff of ICPALD, including their dependents and other travelers authorized by the ICPALD, and in accordance with the ICPALD policies, procedures and guidelines. The broad range of international and domestic travel products and services required by the ICPALD shall basically include, but not be limited to, the following:
- Reservation and Ticketing Service
- Requests for booking/reservation of official travel will be made by authorized staff members only. Upon request for booking/reservation, the travel agency shall immediately:
- make bookings based on the lowest available most economical fare, the most direct and convenient routing; and, preferably with confirmed status;
- prepare the appropriate itineraries presenting three (3) alternative routings/quotations for consideration the same day of request through e‐mail;
- formalize the quotation including itinerary and proposed alternate options, cost, status, deadline, restrictions/limitations, if any, etc.;
- transmit the quotation to the passenger/person requesting the travel.
- Obtain passport details and ensure the validity of the passport and/or visa;
- In the event that required travel arrangements cannot be confirmed, notify the requesting party of the problem and present alternative routings/quotations for the traveler’s consideration;
- For wait‐listed bookings, travel agent shall provide daily feedback on status of flight and continuously endeavor to secure confirmation until it is obtained, or offer an alternative route if confirmation of the initially preferred route is infeasible;
- Accurately and in a timely manner advise the ICPALD of ticketing deadlines and other relevant information every time reservations are made, in order to avoid cancellations of bookings;
- Provide the same level of service for rebooking, reissuance and refund requirements;
- Create and manage the comprehensive database that will include, but need not be limited to, all relevant and important passenger information such as passport, frequent flyer data, seat and meal requests/preferences, and other service information;
- Monitor outbound and inbound flights to advise passengers of schedule changes and ensure protection for cancelled, delayed, diverted and misconnected flights;
- The Travel agency shall promptly issue and deliver accurately printed tickets and detailed itineraries, (in printed and/or electronic format) showing the accurate status of the airline with confirmation number on all segments of the journey;
- The Travel Agency shall issue a ticket to a traveler on official travel based only on Requests from authorized ICPALD personnel, and ticket must be given to the traveler at least 24 hours prior to the date of departure.
- For wait list bookings, the travel agent shall provide daily feedback on status of flight and continuously endeavor to secure confirmation until it is obtained in order to avoid cancellation of bookings as well as reflect into financial situation.
- Travel Documentation
Travel agency shall:
- ensure that all traveling staff has valid travel documents required for their journeys, sufficiently before departure;
- provide accurate advisory on countries that require visas for travelers, validity date requirements, etc.;
- facilitate availability of full information on documentation requirements for expatriate staff e.g., immigration clearances, exit and re‐entry permits, etc.
- immediately replace tickets and other travel documents in the event of their loss.
- Airfares and Airline Routings/Itineraries
Travel agency shall:
- propose fares/airline routings and guarantee that it shall obtain the lowest available airfare for the journey concerned –by using comparable or lower rates, without sacrificing flexibility of itinerary. Such journeys shall always be the most direct and economical routing;
- ensure that tickets issued are in accordance with entitlements as per ICPALD standard travel Policies and as may be prescribed in the Travel Authorization;
- advise the ICPALD on market practices and trends that could result in further savings for the ICPALD, including the use of corporate travel booking tools;
- Flight Cancellations/Rebooking and Refunds
Travel agency shall:
- Monitor outbound and inbound flights to advise passengers of schedule changes and ensure protection for cancelled, delayed, re‐routed flights and misconnection;
- In case of misconnection, provide assistance and follow up with the concerned airline(s);
- Process duly authorized flight changes/cancellations when and as required and taking care that in such cases, cancellation fees and charges imposed by the airlines are avoided;
- Immediately process airline refunds for unused or lost tickets, canceled travel requirements/unutilized pre‐paid tickets/downgrades and credit these to the ICPALD as expeditiously as possible;
- Refund tickets within a maximum of 30 days;
- And limit refund charges at airline rates only, i.e., no additional charges will accrue to the travel agency.
- Travel Information/Advisories/Training
Travel agent shall:
- Inform travelers, upon booking confirmation, of flight/ticket restrictions, involuntary stopovers, hidden stops, and other possible inconveniences of the itinerary;
- provide travelers with online and offline relevant information on official destinations (e.g,airport transfers/land transportation facilities, local points of interest, currency restrictions/regulations, health advisories(including vaccination requirement), travel insurance as applicable, security advisories, weather conditions, etc.);
- endeavor to notify travelers of airport closures, delayed or canceled flights, trains, buses voyages, strike/emergency situations, safety conditions and security procedures, health precautions, as well as other changes that will affect or will require preparations from the travelers, sufficiently before departure time;
- advise travelers of any carrier‐provided amenities, including, but not limited to limousine transfers or complimentary stop‐overs paid by carrier hotels;
- advise travelers of excess baggage rules and fees, which may vary with the country of origin;
- assist in obtaining mileage membership with carrier concerned, in particular, with airlines commonly used by ICPALD;
- provide training to ICPALD personnel on international fare calculation and other travel/ticketing related processes.
- Management Reporting System
Travel Agency shall submit to the ICPALD the following reports/documents on the following regular timeframe basis, immediately or upon request by ICPALD:
Quarterly
- List of all tickets issued including the passenger’s name, itinerary and fare paid;
- Production statistics broken down per ICPALD projects and indicating travel volume and value, raking of destinations, ranking of airline utilization, and with comparative figures if applicable;
- Production statistics broken down per service type (i.e., international tickets, domestic tickets, related services, service fees);
- Carrier‐Route‐Fare Analysis and Production/Volume of business;
- Changes and updates on Airline Rates, promotions, policy changes, etc., immediately upon the Travel Agency’s receipt of the advice;
- Destination wise travel volume;
- Airline wise travel volume; and
- Complaints/incidents summary. Analysis of individual cases, and concrete actions undertaken to resolve the matter.
- Billing and Settlement of ticket reimbursement
- Fortnightly, the Travel Agency shall submit an invoice to ICPALD.
- Every invoice should clearly indicate the airfare cost provided under each ticket issued, and the name of the specific project for each ticket as the sources of fund are different.
- No pre‐payment shall be required by Travel Agency from the ICPALD;
- ICPALD Organizations shall make payments to the Travel Agency within thirty (30) days and within the IATA recommended timelines after the receipt and certification of the Travel Agency’s invoice;
- Travel Agency shall ensure clarity of invoicing details in a manner that will facilitate ICPALD’s reconciliation of charges;
- All charges associated with personal travel or personal travel portions of official trips, including all transportation and fees for passport and visa services, shall be billed directly to travelers and excluded from invoices presented to the ICPALD. The ICPALD shall not be liable for expenses related to personal travel portions and reserves the right to audit all travel records to verify the accuracy of allocated costs between official and personal charges;
- Travel Agency shall accept all major credit cards and personal checks for such personal expenses.
- Availability of other/additional products and services as may be requested
- Airport transfers/transportation
The Travel Agency will be requested to provide as and when required, transportation services for airport pickup at established and proven rates. The Travel Agency will assign a driver with vehicle and shall inform ICPALD of the name and mobile phone number of the driver together with the vehicle license plate once an airport transfer is requested from the ICPALD. It will ensure that all vehicles servicing ICPALD are clean, safe vehicles that are manned by professional drivers
- QUALITY CONTROL AND PERFORMANCE REVIEWS
- The Travel Agency shall monitor on a regular and continual basis the quality of travel services provided to the ICPALD.
- The ICPALD shall be notified of any deficiencies found and corrective actions taken; such actions shall be included in the Travel Agency’s narrative report required under the contract.
- Additionally, the Travel Agency shall offer quarterly or more frequent performance reviews to evaluate and discuss:
- Service Levels and Standards including Customer Satisfaction;
- Contract management, including service and savings objectives, industry trends, specific service issues, travel policy and performance benchmarks, etc. with the ICPALD.
- After each meeting, the Travel Agency shall submit minutes specifically identifying all actions to be undertaken by the Travel Agency or the ICPALD, together with specific timelines.
- The ICPALD reserves the right to conduct its own quality control surveys among frequent travelers, and shall reserve the right to use the result of such surveys as conditions or basis to contract extensions or termination.
- The Travel Agency will respond to all complaints by investigating and explaining, in writing, their underlying cause. The Travel Agency will make a good faith effort to resolve disputes and misunderstandings in favor of the ICPALD travel management and ICPALD travelers.
- QUALIFICATIONS OF TRAVEL AGENCY AND COMPOSITION OF TRAVEL AGENCY PERSONNEL
The successful Travel Agency shall have the following minimum qualifications:
- Accredited IATA Travel Agent (three year IATA membership is a minimum requirement)
- Minimum of three year experience in the travel industry performing reservations, ticketing and documentation requirements;
- Financially strong and capable of rendering services to ICPALD;
- Well experienced, and maintains a good track record, in serving international organizations, embassies and medium to large multinational corporations with reasonably high travel volumes as substantiated by a list of current corporate accounts being serviced by the Travel Agency;
- Employs highly qualified, service oriented, competent and experienced travel consultants, possessing minimum of two (2) year experience in ticketing and reservations, with adequate knowledge of English language, skilled specially in ticketing and fare computations, as evidenced by their track record shown on Curriculum Vitae;
- Willing and able to guarantee the delivery of products and services in accordance with the performance standards required under this TOR.
- Availability of the global network/affiliates in major ICPALD destinations is an advantage.
Composition of the Team
The travel agency shall consist of a team of well experienced, possessing minimum of three (3) year experience in ticketing and reservations, with adequate knowledge of English language, skilled, especially in ticketing and fare computations, client oriented and professionally trained travel experts and staff to handle requirements and serve the travel needs of the ICPALD
The successful travel agent is required to devote at least four (4) personnel providing dedicated services to the travel needs of the ICPALD, consisting of travel Consultants – serving the domestic and international travel needs; providing comprehensive services from reservations, ticketing and visa and passport documentation and report processing.
Two staff shall be assigned to service the ICPALD requirements on a full‐time basis and other 2 staff shall be available for backstopping.
Other expertise needed and facilities required shall be sourced from the existing operational capacity of the Travel Agency.
All such personnel shall be required to be well‐versed on the travel policies of the ICPALD, and adopt the same knowledge on the conduct of daily business and delivery of services to the ICPALD.
- CONTRACT ARRANGEMENTS WITH THE SUCCESSFUL TRAVEL AGENCY
- The successful Travel Agency bidder shall be contracted for this purpose for an initial period of one (1) year, and may be extended annually for maximum of four years, upon:
- satisfactory evaluation of performance conducted annually, based on a survey of ICPALD travelers and travel focal persons;
- retention of the negotiated rates as agreed with the ICPALD during the contractual duration, except when the rates will be reduced without a reduction in the scope and quality of services; and
- other extenuating circumstances as may be founICPALD or deemed appropriate by the ICPALD based on its standard principles.
- All refunds on tickets for travel shall be credited to ICPALD. No offsetting of payment and refund shall be made by the Travel Agent without the permission of the ICPALD. This is because the sources of funds vary from one ticket to another.
- ICPALD reserves right to withhold payment should it be proven that the Travel Agency deliberately caused ICPALD to incur a loss, or that such expenditures were incurred without the written approval of the ICPALD.
- The ICPALD shall, from time to time, evaluate and verify with other travel agencies and other industry indicators the comparability and competitiveness of the rates being given to the ICPALD. Frequency of deviation from the competitive rates in the market shall be factored into the annual performance review.
- COMPENSATION SCHEME
- The ICPALD shall reimburse the Travel Agency for all actual cost of authorized airline tickets and associated expenses as may be expressly provided in the Travel Authorization, together with any charges incurred and for which ICPALD is responsible.
- The Travel Agency shall, however, use its best efforts to minimize the imposition of charges and penalties.
- All funds and refunds on travel not undertaken by ICPALD travelers shall be credited to ICPALD.
- ICPALD reserves the right to withhold the refund of expenses should it be proven that the Travel Agency deliberately caused ICPALD to incur a loss.
- The ICPALD shall, from time to time, evaluate and verify the comparability and competitiveness of the rates being given to the ICPALD. Frequency of deviation from the competitive rates in the market shall be factored into the annual performance review.
- The Travel Agency shall provide the costing on the basis of Transaction fee basis where the Travel Agency shall generate its income from ICPALD through a fixed fee per ticket (net fare plus tax) issued and per transaction for non‐ticketing type of services)
SECTION III – INSTRUCTIONS FOR PREPARING TECHNICAL BID
The Technical Bid should be concisely presented and structured in the following order to include, but not necessarily be limited to, the following information:
- Brief description of the firm and the firm’s qualifications: providing information that will facilitate our evaluation of your firm/institution’s substantive reliability, such as corporate profile, catalogues of the firm.
- Financial capacity to provide the services.
- Managerial capacity to provide the services. Proposed Team Structure: The composition of the team that you would propose to provide to the assignment, and the work tasks (including supervisory) which would be assigned to each. An organogram/organization chart illustrating the reporting lines, together with a description of such organization of the team structure should support your Bid. Proposed Project Team Members: attach the curriculum vitae of the senior professional member of the team and members of the proposed team.
- Your firms’ understanding of the requirements for services and the objective of this project, including assumptions: Include any assumptions as well as comments on the data, support services and facilities to be provided as indicated in the TOR or as you may otherwise believe to be necessary.
- Detailed description of your proposed deliverables and description of the technical specifications of your Bid.
- Proposed Approach, Methodology, and any comments or suggestions on the TOR, as well as your detailed description of the manner in which your firm/institution would respond to the TOR.
- Resource plan indicating the type of ownership and technical capability/facility supported by inventory of assets that will facilitate the efficiency of the Services and a list of technology and reporting products with brief description of each (e.g. GDS, Amadeus, Galileo, etc.)
- Why you would be qualified for this project (Similar reference deliverables, ideally with live examples or track records).
- Your proposal to manage the airport transfers (information about the fleet (owned, leased, sub-contracted, etc)
PAYMENT TERMS
ICPALD’s policy is to pay for the performance of contractual services rendered and/or to effect payment upon the achievement of specific milestones described in the contract.
SECTION IV: SUPPLIER QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
- Evidence that the Bidder has successfully completed at least three similar contracts/FA within the last five years for supply of goods or services as offered.
- Provide contact details of commercial banks and names of contact persons from whom ICPALD could seek feedback regarding financial stability.
- Experience and Technical Capacity
- Company’s managerial capabilities
- Evidence for quality assurance systems in place
- Bidder must have delivered similar services satisfactorily to ICPALD or similar organizations during the last three years, and the services should have been delivered with no negative performance reports
- References in support of the satisfactory delivery of services specified above
SECTION V: PRICE SCHEDULE FORM
- Submit this document separate from the Technical Bid
- The Bidders are requested to prepare Price Schedule on transaction fee basis (Service fees) as per Table 1.
Table 1(a)
# | Description | Rate per transaction in USD for economy class | Weight |
1 | Local air e-ticket | 4 % | |
2 | Regional air e-ticket | ||
a) East Africa | 20% | ||
b) Rest of Africa | 30% | ||
3 | International air e-ticket | 15% | |
4 | Ticket change/ reissue | 5% | |
5 | Airport Transfer Return fares) within 25km radius | 16% | |
6 | Airport Transfer Return fares) within 50km radius | 10% |
Table 1(b)
# | Description | Rate per transaction in USD for Business class | Weight |
1 | Regional air e-ticket | ||
a) East Africa | 30% | ||
b) Rest of Africa | 40% | ||
2 | International air e-ticket | 20% | |
3 | Ticket change/ reissue | 10% |
- The cumulative Financial evaluation of the technically qualified proposals will be performed in the following way: the proposed fees would be multiplied by the weight of each service and would be added to get the total score obtained by each bidder ( being the rates for 15% economy class weighted and 5% business class )
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