Answers to requests for clarification of technical specifications
OPEN TENDER PROCEDURE No. OSHA/C/ROU/2010/01(OJ No. S191 of 03/10/2009, Tender No. 274183)
Provision of services in respect of analysis of data collected through the European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks
Q1. One of the criteria is the appliants' expertise in areas relevant to the projects. The work is straightforward in terms of what's required, and could easily be carried out by a small team. Do proposals from European consortia carry more weight?
-Answer:No. As stated in the award criteria, tenderers must demonstrate that the staff allocated to the tasks have the necessary qualifications and expertise to fulfil the the tasks. It is not relevant to the evaluation whether the expertise can be offered by one service provider or requires a grouping, provided that conditions for adequate competition are observed.
Q2. Do applicants need to demonstrate active involvement of European partners?
-Answer:No. See question 1, above.Participation in the tendering procedure is open on equal terms to all natural and legal persons coming within the scope of the Treaties and to all natural and legal persons in a third country which has a special agreement with the Communities in the field of public procurement on the conditions laid down in that agreement.
Q3. Is it possible to match the respondents from the survey of managers and survey of health and safety representatives?
-Answer:Yes. There is an identifier for each establishment where an interview with a manager was completed. In those cases where a follow-up interview with a health and safety representative was completed, the data is included under the same identifier.
Q4. Do we need to submit copies of the applicants' professional qualifications?
-Answer:No. It is sufficient to provide curricula vitae of the persons responsible for carrying out the specific tasks described in Section 2 of the tender specifications. In the event of being awarded the contract, EU-OSHA reserves the right to demand proof in support of the documents provided as evidence of technical and professional capacity.
Q5. Is it possible to know what type of work has been done on the data already and to give an estimate of its quality?
-Answer:Yes. The data has been processed and cleaned. In addition to the variables resulting directly from the interviews, the following information is contained in the dataset (available as either SPSS or ASCII data file):
- Unique identification number for each interview
- Size of the establishment in 5 size-classes (taken from MM102a/b)
- Size of the establishment in 10 size-classes (taken from MM102a/b)
- NACE version in which data were provided (NACE Rev.1.1/ Rev. 2)
- NACE Rev. 1.1 code at the one-digit level; for countries delivering NACE Rev. 2 data, this variable was created by a conversion of the Rev. 2 codes into Rev. 1.1 codes
- Three main sectors of activity (Industry, Private Services, Public Services), created from variable rev1_1di
- Variable indicating whether or not an eligible ER representation exists at the establishment (according to information from the MM interview, MM500 to MM504)
- Variable indicating whether or not an ER interview exists for the establishment
-For further information, please refer to the technical report that we have recently added to our ESENER-related information online at:
Q6. Our finance team will need some additional information on how to prepare the costings. It is mentioned in the tender specifications that VAT will be payable, but I seem to remember … that overheads (but not VAT) are paid for EU projects at 7%. Can you provide more information on that?
-Answer:Tenders shall not include the application of any taxes or levies since EU-OSHA is, in general, exempt from all taxes and levies, including Value Added Tax (VAT). During the performance of the contract, any invoices must show the VAT separately. If required, EU-OSHA will provide the contractor with a VAT and excise duty exemption certificate. The price submitted by tenderers must be all-inclusive. No overheads are payable separately; only costs incurred for any trips additional to those described in the specifications and made at the express request of EU-OSHA will be reimbursed.
Q7. Do the eligible costs cover software?
-Answer:The price tendered must include all costs associated with performance of the contract and must not exceed the maximum budgets indicated in the tender specifications. A breakdown of costs is not required as part of the financial offer. The only additional costs that may be paid under the contract are those incurred for any trips additional to those described in these specifications and made at the express request of EU-OSHA.
Q8. In which envelope should I place the administrative information and annexes?
-Answer:Administrative information and annexes should be placed in the same envelope as the technical offer.
Q9. Is there a standard model for the financial offer?
-Answer:No standard model or template exists. You are free to use whatever format you like so long as the requirements set out in the tender specifications are respected.
Q10. Are you able to provide us with details of potential partner organisations?
-Answer:No, we cannot proide details of other organisations that may be interested in submitting joint tenders.
Q11. Regarding only non-screening countries (as shown on page 29 Table 4.3.1of technical report), could you provide the file of non-responding establishments with valid addresses by type of non response and by all the other characteristics that can be derived from register: country, size, sector, etc?
-Answer:No, we are not able to provide this information.
Q12. Can you give more details about the characteristics you have for each establishment?
-Answer:No, all information regarding the establishment characteristics are available in the Technical Report and in the questionnaires. Both documents are available at:
Q13. Can you provide the file of managers who refused to give details of Health and Safety Representation by all the other characteristics that can be derived from register?
-Answer:Yes, details concerning management respondents who declined to give contact details for the health and safety representative form part of the dataset that the contractor will work with.
Q14. Holding the kick-off meeting at our premises will slightly reduce the total cost of the work; does the Agency have any preferences about travelling?
-Answer:No. The locations proposed by contractors for meetings in which staff from EU-OSHA will participate, shall not be considered when awarding the contracts – only the stated award criteria will be used for this purpose.
Q15. Each lot requires discussion of policy implications. If EU-OSHA was to implement these as policy recommendations, could we be sued under the conditions of unlimited liability if a resulting policy subsequently turned out to be bad?
-Answer:No. A contractor could not be held responsible for any consequences arising from their discussion of policy implications in the framework of the services that are the subject of this tender procedure. EU-OSHA does not implement or make policy recommendations and in any case, all of its products are subject to a tripartite consultation procedure before they are published.
Q16. In the context of EU-OSHA’s intellectual property rights, would we be able to publish from the work and use it in teaching?
-Answer:Yes. EU-OSHA actively encourages its contractors to further disseminate results of research through publications, conferences and other media. The only condition on this dissemination is that the role of EU-OSHA as owner of the information be acknowledged in all products.
Q17. Is it possible to state in the proposal that the price quoted is dependent on being awarded all four lots?
-Answer:Each of the four lots will be the subject of a separate contract that will be awarded following evaluation of its corresponding detailed proposal (technical and financial). Contracts for each lot will be awarded independently of the others and therefore prices quoted in financial proposals cannot be made conditional on the award of other lots.