Fasset Bridging Programmes -FAS/TL/PD/BP/CON0667/Y15

Fasset Bridging Programmes -FAS/TL/PD/BP/CON0667/Y15

Tender Briefing Session Minutes

25February 2015

Gauteng

Tania Lee started the session at 11h15 and provided an overview of the Fasset strategy. No questions were raised after this session.

Tania started the compulsory session,general guidelines to tenderingat 11h30 and the register was closed at that time.

The following questions were raised:

Question / Answer
Pricing: Will the impact of location be considered when reviewing the pricing? / Yes, pricing is evaluated holistically and the Bid Evaluation Committee(BEC) may recommend a bidder who has a higher priced bid based on the total offering as well as on the scarce skills hierarchy.
Can bidders Photostat the colour coded letters in respect of additional submissions? / Yes, since we have a record of the bidders who attended the session. Bidders may also take more than one copy if they know how many submissions they intend to make.
Once bids make it through the functionality scoring, how will Fasset guard against simply awarding the contract to the lowest priced bid? Bearing in mind that value-adds included in the pricing may result in the bidder appearing to be non-competitive. / Bidders are asked to summarise their costs according to unique parts of the proposal. Pricing is evaluated ITO academic, technical, soft skills and value-adds. The BEC may then recommend a bidder who has higher priced bid based on the total offering as well as on the scarce skills hierarchy. Fasset may also negotiate with bidders regarding certain elements that may be viewed as being too costly.
Will the provider be in a position to recruit candidates who have dual citizenship. / Fasset will only fund South African learners as defined by DHET:Only Black African learners who are South African citizens, bybirth or became a South African citizen before 27 April 1994,with a valid South African identity document may apply or be putforward for the programme.
How will Fasset monitor that an institution has achieved the set pass rate? / Fasset will monitor the project from inception and will perform various audits, internal and external to ensure that the project will meet the stated outcomes. If at any time, Fasset feels that the project is at risk, Fasset reserves the right to close the project and thus prevent fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
The bid states that the project should ideally be completed by 31 March 2016. Will bidders be able to motivate a later closing date? / Yes.
Will the submission of references still be a requirement? / Yes. NF added that bidders need to think creatively as to how they will collect letters recommending their services as this always gives the BEC a sense of trust in the bidders’ stated abilities.
Previous Questions that may be useful to bidders:
Must we provide a separate income tax registration certificate? / Not necessarily. As long as the income tax registration information is on the tax clearance certificate (TCC).
Will an affidavit be accepted in respect of B-BBEE Certificate? / Yes
Is a TCC indicating good standing sufficient or does it need to indicate “tender TCC”? / Good standing TCC is acceptable
SARS will be rolling out a PIN system and will not be issuing TCCs anymore. How does this affect the submission? / Fasset will address this issue if it is implemented before the deadline date. Fasset will also follow up with SARS directly and communicate the response to bidders.
Are we required to recruit from all 9 provinces? / The ToR indicates that recruitment is provider driven and models proposed should be justified
Does Fasset provide the student materials? / The ToR indicates that the material provision is provider driven and can be done in-house if appropriate. However, material production costsshould be included in the proposal.
It was further noted that tablets and laptops have been used in previous projects to reduce material production costs.
Must the learning material must be South African? / There is no stipulation, however the programme delivery should be suited to the South African market and needs.
How should the costing related to learners with a disability be approached? / Fasset will incur additional costs in respect of accommodating people with disabilities. This allowance is encouraged and the cost should be noted separately in the proposal.
Is there a local content requirement on imported learning material? / Not as far as we are aware.
Bidders are also encouraged to visit the National Treasury website review supply chain practice notes.

Marlie Spencer provided anoverview of theFAS/TL/PD/BP/CON0695/Y15tender window as per the presentation.

The following questions were raised:

Questions / Answers
Will professional Bodies be able to propose taking their members from one level to another, for example from “silver” to “gold”? / Bidders are encouraged to describe this progression very clearly in the proposal and how members will be assessed in order to move from one level to the next. As long as the proposal addresses Fasset’s objectives, it will be positively reviewed.
NB: Fasset will not fund student membership since this is not the intention of the bid. The intention is for professional bodies to describe the obstacle(s) preventing candidates from attaining full membership and how the proposed offering will overcome these obstacles and increase throughput into membership.
The bid describes academic progression from one academic year to the next in the same qualification. Is there scope to propose the progression from one qualification to another? / Yes.
Can bidders propose moving across the two options? In other words from the academic qualification, ie from BCom into full membership? / Yes, provided it represents articulation into a higher qualification since designations are not necessarily ranked on the NQF. MS added that bidders need to be very clear in their proposals as to how the proposed offering will result in the Fasset objectives being met for this tender.
Does throughput include all subjects in an academic year? / Bidders are required to identify the “high risk” subjects and describe a solution. Leaners mostly lack “mentorship” and/or “technical” know how in order to succeed. These are the areas that must be addressed as part of the proposal.
Is there a preference for bidders to submit separate bids IRO unique programmes that could run parallel to one another? / Bidders may propose all unique elements as part of one bid however, explaining various scenarios may become tricky. It may therefore be easier for bidders and the BEC if each unique element was submitted as a standalone bid.
MS added that bidders must take care to name each bid uniquely as it becomes difficultfor evaluators to distinguish between the different programmes proposedif thedocuments from the same bidderlooksimilar.
Can bidders propose 3 different solutions to address the same problem? Is there a possibility that all 3 solutions could be funded? / Yes. The evaluation team will again look at the offerings in totality and should all 3 solutions qualify for funding,all 3 will be recommended.The BEC will however, interrogate the capacity of the provider before making such recommendation to the Board.
MS added that evaluators need to be able to place trust in what the bidders are proposing. Bidders therefore need to describe in full detail the “how” and “what” will be done in order to ensure effective delivery of the programme.
NF added that bidders must not assume that Fasset knows all there is to know about bidders, especially those who may have previously been funded by Fasset. Bidders must present information in such a way that anyone inside and outside of Fasset will be in a position to understand the offering.
Previous Question that may be useful to bidders:
Can you provide more clarity on the PIVOTAL aspect? / Pivotal programmes mean professional, vocational, technical and academic learning programmes that result in qualifications or part qualifications on the NQF. A part qualification means an assessed unit of learning that is registered as part of a qualification. For example a part qualification can be a module, unit standard, etc.

Tania closed the session at 12h25