EUROPEAN UNION Delegation of the European Union to Australia and New Zealand

Delegation of the European Union to Australia and New Zealand 18 Arkana Street, Yarralumla ACT 2600 Australia

Tel: +61 2 6271 2777 | Fax: +61 2 6273 4445 | Email: delegation-australia@eeas.europa.eu

Canberra, 4 December 2015

TENDER SPECIFICATIONS

Travel Agency Services 2016 Contract

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Contents

INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 3 1.

SUBJECT OF THE CONTRACT ...................................................................................................................... 3 2.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS AND STANDARDS ......................................................................................... 4 3.

3.1. Scope of the Service ........................................................................................................................ 4 3.2. Ticket Issue ...................................................................................................................................... 4 3.3. Working Hours ................................................................................................................................. 4 3.4. Cancellation ..................................................................................................................................... 4 3.5. Visas ................................................................................................................................................. 4 3.6. Communication of Interest to the Delegation ................................................................................ 4

CRITERIA ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 4.

4.1. Exclusion Criteria ............................................................................................................................. 5 4.2. Selection Criteria ............................................................................................................................. 5 4.3. Award Criteria .................................................................................................................................. 6

PRESENTATION OF TENDERS ..................................................................................................................... 7 5.

5.1. Period of Validity of the Tender ...................................................................................................... 7 5.2. How Your Tender Will Be Evaluated ................................................................................................ 8

PAYMENT OF INVOICES ............................................................................................................................. 9 6.

QUESTIONS ................................................................................................................................................ 9 7.

TENDER SUBMISSION DEADLINE ............................................................................................................... 9 8.

ANNEX I. DECLARATION OF HONOUR ON EXCLUSION CRITERIA AND ABSENCE OF CONFLICT OF 9.INTEREST .................................................................................................................................................. 10

ANNEX II. TECHNICAL BID ........................................................................................................................ 12 10.

ANNEX III. FINANCIAL BID ........................................................................................................................ 13 11.

ANNEX IV. BANK ACCOUNT AND LEGAL ENTITY INFORMATION ............................................................. 14 12.

ANNEX V. DRAFT SERVICE CONTRACT ..................................................................................................... 15 13.

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INTRODUCTION 1.

The Delegation of the European Union to Australia ("the Delegation") is a diplomatic mission that represents the 28 member states of the European Union.

SUBJECT OF THE CONTRACT 2.

The purpose of this call for tender is to seek a competitive price for travel agency services for 12 months, commencing early 2016, with an option to renew for a further 12 months. Intention to renew the contract must be indicated by either party in writing no later than two (2) months before the anniversary of the date on which the contract was signed.

As a guide, and with no obligation on the part of the Delegation as to the actual volume over the period of execution of the contract, the table below shows the number of bookings made over the last three years:

Year Domestic International

2013 68 57

2014 92 19

2015 (to 1 Dec 2015) 74 21

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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS AND STANDARDS 3.

3.1. Scope of the Service

The travel agency shall be able to find and present various travel options/routes and connection flights to a requested destination. The agency shall find the cheapest options based on the Economy Class rates unless otherwise instructed by the Delegation (combining the most direct and least expensive routes to achieve cost effectiveness). Business Class rates shall be quoted if the journey includes at least one segment involving at least four hours of continuous flying time.

The travel agency shall ensure that all levies and taxes are included in the airfare quotation price.

As a rule, the travel agency shall find the most economic travel option to minimise transit/connection times and stopovers, if applicable.

The travel agency shall also provide at least two comparison quotes with either the same or different route options.

When possible, quotes shall be held for at least three (3) working days.

The travel agency shall reserve and issue tickets for all air, and other travel if requested, upon authorisation to do so by the Delegation.

Whenever the Delegation requests a fare quotation for a particular route, the service provider shall be able to present the relevant information by email within 24 hours of the Delegation's request.

3.2. Ticket Issue

The travel tickets will be delivered electronically or physically to the premises of the Delegation at least 48 hours before the time of departure. No additional charge should be made for this delivery service.

3.3. Working Hours

The service provider must able to provide services, including ticket delivery, during normal working hours of the Delegation (Monday to Thursday 9:00-12:30 and 13:30-17:00; Friday 9:00-12:30 and 13:30-16:00). Flexibility during weekends and holidays will be favourably viewed. In particular, the service provider must have a hotline service for urgent requests falling outside normal working hours (the name of a contact person and telephone number must be provided).

3.4. Cancellation

In the case of cancellation at short notice, the service provider shall endeavour to minimise any penalties applicable to the Delegation. Penalties attributable to the fault of the service provider will not be accepted.

3.5. Visas

The travel agency shall notify the Delegation of all instances where visas must be obtained. If requested to do so, the travel agency shall obtain, pay and ensure visas are issued prior to travel.

3.6. Communication of Interest to the Delegation

The travel agent will inform the Delegation immediately of any changes in scheduled flights, including industrial action, natural disaster, political instability or other event, which may affect travelling arrangements for the Delegation.

In order to facilitate contacts and information exchange between the parties, the travel agency shall be able to process reservation, booking and delivery requests received by phone or by email. To this end, the contractor should have adequately skilled personnel.

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CRITERIA 4.

There are three types of criteria under this call for tenders: (i) exclusion criteria, (ii) selection criteria, and (iii) award criteria.

4.1. Exclusion Criteria

Tenderers shall be excluded from participation in a procurement procedure if:

they are bankrupt or being wound up, are having their affairs administered by the courts, have entered into an arrangement with creditors, have suspended business activities or are in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure provided for in national legislation or regulations;

they have been convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct by a judgment which has the force of res judicata;

they have been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means which the contracting authority can justify;

they have not fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of social security contributions or the payment of taxes in accordance with the legal provisions of the country in which they are established or with those of the country of the contracting authority or those of the country where the contract is to be performed;

they have been the subject of a judgment which has the force of res judicata for fraud, corruption, involvement in a criminal organisation or any other illegal activity detrimental to the European Union's financial interests;

following another procurement procedure or grant award procedure financed by the European Union budget, they have been declared to be in serious breach of contract for failure to comply with their contractual obligations.

4.2. Selection Criteria

Tenderers should have the necessary financial, economic, technical and professional capacity to perform their obligations under the contract. In particular, the tenderer must:

be a company duly established and existing under the laws of the country of its incorporation;

have an IATA registration number;

have a telephone number able to receive emergency situation calls 24/7;

make sure that it does not need any permit, licence or other authorisation (other than those already obtained) to enter into and comply with the contract and to perform any obligations thereunder;

not be engaged in or, to the best of its knowledge, threatened by any litigation, or administrative proceedings, the outcome of which might have a material adverse effect on performance of contractor’s obligations;

to the best of its knowledge and belief after due enquiry, not be in violation of any legislative requirement relevant for the performance of contractor's obligations;

include a sample invoice with the details identifying the subject, the amounts and the conditions.

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In order to demonstrate their eligibility under the abovementioned criteria, tenderers should submit, as part of their tender, the properly executed Declaration of Honour (Annex I) and provide detailed descriptions (Annex II).

4.3. Award Criteria

The travel agency is requested to propose and describe in detail in its offer the following:

able to present various travel options/routes (at least three) and connecting flights, if any, to the requested destination, when required;

has access to an IATA approved Global Distribution System (GDS) to enable direct access to airline booking information;

able to provide reminders to the Delegation, prior to ticketing deadline for purchasing of air tickets to avoid automatic cancellation by the airline system;

able to issue a single air ticket or E-Ticket for multiple airlines;

provide a description of its business, staff levels, history and highlights;

provide the Delegation with copies of CVs for the manager and consultants dealing with the Delegation's travel reservations together with a list of current corporate customers they service;

has a clear, transparent and timely way of invoicing. Invoices must indicate clearly the cost price of the transportation ticket and the fees charged by the travel agency and/or the discounts granted by the service provider;

if the traveller makes changes to the travel itinerary for personal reasons, then the travel agency must be able to apply the concept of "notional travel" to its invoicing. Notional travel is defined as the most economic and direct travel route for work only. Additional travel costs incurred from changes made to the notional travel itinerary are to be paid by the traveller directly to the travel agency and not billed to the Delegation. Therefore, the travel agency shall issue two invoices for the travel:

o one to the Delegation for the cost of the notional travel; and

o one to the traveller for additional travel costs from changes made to the notional travel.

Should the cost of the actual travel be less than the notional travel, the Delegation shall pay the full cost of the actual travel;

timely reimbursement of cancelled tickets. In their offer, the travel agency will give a description of the proposed system and the maximum delays.

In order to demonstrate their quality in the abovementioned criteria, tenderers should submit, as part of their tender, detailed descriptions of the service they provide (Annex II).

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PRESENTATION OF TENDERS 5.

Tenders must be submitted taking account of the following:

Prices must:

o be denominated in Australian Dollars and be firm and not subject to revision;

o be inclusive of GST.

The tender must be signed and dated.

The forms filled in by the tenderer may not be altered in any way.

Submission of a tender implies that the tenderer:

accepts all the terms and conditions governing the contract at Annex V to this specification; and

waives its own terms and conditions.

5.1. Period of Validity of the Tender

Your tender must remain valid for a minimum of three (3) months from the deadline for the

submission of tenders.

Documents to be submitted:

ENVELOPE (or email) 1 – Technical Bid:

(1) A signed Declaration of Honour (complete Annex I);

(2) Your Technical Bid (Annex II).

ENVELOPE (or email) 2 – Financial Bid:

(1) Your Financial Bid (complete Annex III).

Documents constituting the technical bid (to be placed in the "technical bid" envelope, or sent in a separate email containing "technical bid" in the subject field):

To contain the completed form from Annex I and your documents prepared from the

instructions in Annex II.

Documents constituting the financial bid (to be placed in the "financial bid" envelope, or sent in a separate email containing "financial bid" in the subject field):

To contain the completed form from Annex III.

If any of the documents listed above in "Documents to submitted" are missing or incomplete, the tender will be judged not to conform to requirements and will be rejected, subject to the application of Article 160(3) of the Rules of Application of the Financial Regulation (2012) applicable to the general budget of the European Union; which states:

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If, after the tenders have been opened, some clarification is required in connection with a

tender, or if obvious clerical errors in the tender must be corrected, the contracting

authority may contact the tenderer, although such contact may not lead to any alteration

of the terms of the tender.

5.2. How Your Tender Will Be Evaluated

The technical evaluation will be made by establishing a technical score based on the following criteria:

AWARD CRITERIA POINTS

Sample of document the travel agency will provide for travel options and cost

quotation

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Type and detail of Global Distribution System used 15

An overall description of the agency including: a brief history; CVs of the

manager and staff who will be working on the Delegation's account; staff

member dedicated to the Delegation's account

30

Sample invoice 10

Description of billing, cancellation and refund policy & procedure 20

List and details of current corporate clients serviced by the travel agency 10

TOTAL 100

Equal priority is given to offers (weight of 50% for price, 50% for the quality). For this reason, the award will be made according to the following rule:

Score = 50 x 𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒

𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒+ 50 x

𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒

𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒

The tender with the highest score will be proposed for award of the contract.

The maximum possible score is 100 and will only occur when one offer gets the best technical score and is the cheapest one at the same time.

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PAYMENT OF INVOICES 6.

The standard payment terms of the Delegation are payment within 30 days of receipt of invoice.

Payment will be made in Australian Dollars.

The invoice shall clearly identify the cost of the service fees charged and/or discounts granted.

In order to allow the Delegation to make payments, the contractor will be obliged to submit to the Delegation properly completed accounting forms (Legal Entity and Bank Account Forms) before the contract can be signed. The templates of LE and BA Forms are attached.

QUESTIONS 7.

Questions must be asked in writing. Questions asked after 3.00pm on Friday, 8 January 2016 will not be answered. Answers to questions will be sent to all candidates via reply email.

Please submit any questions you may have in writing to:

delegation-australia-tenders@eeas.europa.eu

TENDER SUBMISSION DEADLINE 8.

Tenders must be submitted either by email (2 separate emails – "financial bid" and "technical bid") to:

delegation-australia-tenders@eeas.europa.eu

or by hand (2 separate envelopes – "financial bid" and "technical bid") to:

Delegation of the European Union to Australia

18 Arkana Street, Yarralumla ACT 2600

No later than 4.00pm on Friday, 8 January 2016.

Tenders submitted after this time will not be accepted. The technical bid and financial bid must be separate because the technical bid is evaluated before the financial bid is opened.

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ANNEX I. DECLARATION OF HONOUR ON EXCLUSION CRITERIA AND ABSENCE OF CONFLICT 9.OF INTEREST

[Form 1 of 3 to be submitted with your tender]

The undersigned ..................................................................................... :

representing the following legal entity:

full official name: ...........................................................................................

official legal form

(e.g. limited liability company): ...........................................................................................

full official address: ...........................................................................................

...........................................................................................

...........................................................................................

GST registration number: ...........................................................................................

declares that the above mentioned legal entity is not in one of the following situations:

a) is bankrupt or being wound up, is having its affairs administered by the courts, has entered into an arrangement with creditors, has suspended business activities, is the subject of proceedings concerning those matters, or is in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure provided for in national legislation or regulations;

b) has been convicted of an offence concerning professional conduct by a judgment of a competent authority of a Member State which has the force of res judicata;

c) has been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means which the contracting authorities can justify including by decisions of the European Investment Bank and international organisations;

d) is not in compliance with all its obligations relating to the payment of social security contributions and the payment of taxes in accordance with the legal provisions of the country in which it is established, with those of the country of the contracting authority and those of the country where the contract is to be performed;

e) has been the subject of a judgement which has the force of res judicata for fraud, corruption, involvement in a criminal organisation, money laundering or any other illegal activity, where such activity is detrimental to the Union's financial interests;

f) is a subject of an administrative penalty for being guilty of misrepresentation in supplying the information required by the contracting authority as a condition of participation in a procurement procedure or failing to supply this information, or having been declared to be in serious breach of its obligations under contracts covered by the Union's budget.

declares that the natural persons with power of representation, decision-making or control over the above-mentioned legal entity are not in the situations referred to in b) and e) above;

declares that the above mentioned legal entity:

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g) has no conflict of interest in connection with the contract; a conflict of interest could arise in particular as a result of economic interests, political or national affinity, family, emotional life or any other shared interest;

h) will inform the contracting authority, without delay, of any situation considered a conflict of interest or which could give rise to a conflict of interest;

i) has not granted and will not grant, has not sought and will not seek, has not attempted and will not attempt to obtain, and has not accepted and will not accept any advantage, financial or in kind, to or from any party whatsoever, where such advantage constitutes an illegal practice or involves corruption, either directly or indirectly, inasmuch as it is an incentive or reward relating to award of the contract;

j) provided accurate, sincere and complete information to the contracting authority within the context of this procurement procedure ;

acknowledges that the abovementioned legal entity may be subject to administrative and financial penalties if any of the declarations or information provided prove to be false.

In case of award of contract, the following evidence shall be provided upon request and within the time limit set by the contracting authority:

For situations described in (a), (b) and (e), production of a recent extract from the judicial record is required or, failing that, a recent equivalent document issued by a judicial or administrative authority in the country of origin or provenance showing that those requirements are satisfied. Where the tenderer is a legal person and the national legislation of the country in which the tenderer is established does not allow the provision of such documents for legal persons, the documents should be provided for natural persons, such as the company directors or any person with powers of representation, decision making or control in relation to the tenderer.

For the situation described in point (d) above, recent certificates or letters issued by the competent authorities of the State concerned are required. These documents must provide evidence covering all taxes and social security contributions for which the tenderer is liable, including for example, VAT, income tax (natural persons only), company tax (legal persons only) and social security contributions.

For any of the situations (a), (b), (d) or (e), where any document described in two paragraphs above is not issued in the country concerned, it may be replaced by a sworn or, failing that, a solemn statement made by the interested party before a judicial or administrative authority, a notary or a qualified professional body in his country of origin or provenance.

If the tenderer is a legal person, information on the natural persons with power of representation, decision making or control over the legal person shall be provided only upon request by the contracting authority.

............................................................. ................................. ...............................................................

Full name Date Signature

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ANNEX II. TECHNICAL BID 10.

Please provide detailed descriptions and sample documents as required under all points in 4.2 Selection Criteria and 4.3 Award Criteria.

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ANNEX III. FINANCIAL BID 11.

Type of fee AUD

(including GST) Comments

Domestic Airfare

Domestic Airfare change

International Airfare

International Airfare change

After hours requests

After hours emergency requests

Cancellation of ticket

Obtaining visas

Consular services e.g. for passport reissue

Other costs e.g. courier

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ANNEX IV. BANK ACCOUNT AND LEGAL ENTITY INFORMATION 12.

The successful tenderer is required to complete and submit, with supporting documents, the following two forms:

1. Financial Identification Form (Bank Account)

[Form 2 of 3 to be submitted with your tender]

The Bank Account File (BAF) is a descriptive file containing bank details for all companies, organisations and individuals with which the Commission has financial dealings. Use of the BAF has been compulsory for a number of years for the purposes of automated payments via the SWIFT system, which demands great care when entering the bank details of payees. On the basis of requests from the authorising departments, all data in the BAF is validated by DG BUDG's bank account validation team (BAVT), which must be sent all the supporting documents it needs to validate requests and record the bank account in the BAF.

http://ec.europa.eu/budget/contracts_grants/info_contracts/financial_id/financial_id_en.cfm

2. Legal Entity Form (Private Companies)

[Form 3 of 3 to be submitted with your tender]

The Legal Entities File (LEF) records all third parties with which the Commission conducts revenue and expenditure transactions. No transaction may be made for the purposes of implementing the budget unless it involves a legal entity (LE) that has been validated beforehand. It follows that before a bank account can be recorded in the BAF, an LE must be recorded in the LEF: the bank account will be linked to that legal entity. An LE will not be recorded in the Commission's accounts until the legal entity validation team (LEVT) has validated the authorising department's request, which must be accompanied by the relevant supporting documents.

http://ec.europa.eu/budget/contracts_grants/info_contracts/legal_entities/legal_entities_en.cfm

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ANNEX V. DRAFT SERVICE CONTRACT 13.