Announcement No: 60-ADM/2017/288

INVITATION TO SUBMIT PROPOSALS

DEVELOPMENT OF STO SOCIAL HOUSING PROJECT - 14 STOREY RESIDENTIAL APARTMENTS

24^th December 2017

Disclaimer

The information contained in this Request for Proposals document (the “RFP”) or subsequently provided to Bidder(s), whether verbally or in documentary or any other form by or on behalf of the State Trading Organization plc (the “STO”) or any of its employees or advisors, is provided to Bidder(s) on the terms and conditions set out in this RFP and such other terms and conditions subject to which such information is provided.

Information provided in this RFP to the Bidder(s) is on a wide range of matters, some of which may depend upon interpretation of law. The STO accepts no responsibility for the accuracy or otherwise for any interpretation or opinion on law expressed herein.

The STO, its employees and advisors make no representation or warranty and shall have no liability to any person, including any Applicant or Bidder under any law, statute, rules or regulations or tort, principles of restitution or unjust enrichment or otherwise for any loss, damages, cost or expense which may arise from or be incurred or suffered on account of anything contained in this RFP or otherwise, including the accuracy, adequacy, correctness, completeness or reliability of the RFP and any assessment, assumption, statement or information contained therein or deemed to form part of this RFP or arising in any way for participation in this Bid Stage.

The STO also accepts no liability of any nature whether resulting from negligence or otherwise howsoever caused arising from reliance of any Bidder upon the statements contained in this RFP. The STO may in its absolute discretion, but without being under any obligation to do so, update, amend or supplement the information, assessment or assumptions contained in this RFP.

The Bidder shall bear all its costs associated with or relating to the preparation and submission of its Bid including but not limited to preparation, copying, postage, delivery fees, expenses associated with any demonstrations or presentations which may be required by STO or any other costs incurred in connection with or relating to its Bid. All such costs and expenses will remain with the Bidder and the STO shall not be liable in any manner whatsoever for the same or for any other costs or other expenses incurred by a Bidder in preparation or submission of the Bid, regardless of the conduct or outcome of the Bidding Process.

 1. Introduction

State Trading Organization PLC (STO) invites selected parties for development of STO Social Housing Project at Hulhumale’ Phase - Two.

2. Background

State Trading Organization Plc. (the “STO”), Head Office in the Capital City of Maldives, Male’, began operations in the year 1964 as a State- Trader with the initial intent to have a central purchasing organization to raise living standards and encourage development in the country. Over the years STO has evolved from being a sole importer operating as a monopoly to a public listed company operating in a very dynamic and competitive environment.

3. Definitions

For the purpose of this Request for Proposal (RFP), the following words and expressions shall have the meaning hereby assigned to them except where the context otherwise requires: -

3.1.     ‘STO’ means the State Trading Organization Plc, which expression shall unless excluded by or repugnant to the context include STO’s representatives.

3.2.     ‘STO’s Representatives’ means the staffs or any person authorized by who would be in charge of work and would sign the documents on behalf of the STO.

3.3.     ‘Contractor or developer’ shall be a person/firm/company or organization engaged in rendering services & shall include all his associates.

3.4.     ‘Bid Due Date’ means 02nd January 2018 at 11:00hours or date extended according to the process stated herein.

3.5.     ‘Bid Stage’ means the period between the date of this RFP and Bid Due Date.

3.6.     ‘LOA’ means Letter of Award notification.

3.7.     ‘Member or Associate’ means shareholder/s of the Bidder, Agent or a partner in business.

3.8.     ‘Subsequent Agreements’ means one or more agreements, deed, instruments executed between STO and Selected Bidder pursuant to the Project.

4. SCHEDULE OF BIDDING PROCESS

 State Trading Organization shall endeavour to adhere to the following schedule:

Event Description                                              Date

a) Issuance of RFP

b) Bid Due date                                                 02^nd January 2018 at 11:00

c) Validity of Bids                                               45 days of bid due date

5.  SCOPE

Development of STO Social Housing Project as per annexure 1 (project information sheet).

Additional Service

Additional Services – Additional services will include redesign of previously approved work where necessary, major revisions, which the STO and Contractor had agreed upon, to program and expansion of scope of work beyond the itemized in the service agreement. Delay or acceleration of the project schedule may be considered an additional service costs, payment terms and time period of additional services shall be negotiated between STO and the Contractor.

6. Instructions To Bidders. 

6.1.        Unless the context otherwise required or expressed, the terms not defined in this RFP shall have the meaning assigned thereto in this RFP.

6.2.        Bidders shall be responsible for careful examination of all Bid Documents. All the information necessary for the Bid shall be obtained at Bidders' responsibility and expense. Misrepresentation or misinformation does not justify bidder in any alteration of the submitted offer.

6.3.        Language of document shall be English.

6.4.        Bid currency should be in Maldivian Rufiyaa (MVR) or United States Dollar (USD).

6.5.        Each Bidder must submit only one proposal by itself. A Bidder who submits or participates in more than one proposal will be disqualified. If STO discovers or has a reason to believe that collusion exists among any/all Bidders, any/all such proposals will be rejected, and all participants in such collusion will be excluded from consideration for future proposals for the same work.

6.6.        The proposal price must be written without erasures, both in figures and in words. In case of discrepancy between figures and words, the words shall prevail.

6.7.        The Annexure shall be typed or written in indelible ink and signed by authorized signatories. Any change should be initialled.

6.8.        The performance security shall be 5% (five percent) of the contract value and should be submitted by the contractor within 10 days from Award Notification.

6.9.        Work once awarded cannot be outsourced.

6.10.     At any time prior to the Bid Due Date, STO may, for any reason, whether at its own initiative or in response to clarifications requested by a Bidder, modify the RFP by the issuance of Addenda. In order to afford the Bidders a reasonable time for taking an Addendum into account, or for any other reason, STO may, in its sole discretion, extend the Bid Due Date.

6.11.     Agreement shall be drawn with the selected bidder and this document with all terms and conditions shall form part of the Subsequent Agreement.

6.12.     Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this RFP, the detailed terms specified in the Subsequent Agreement shall have overriding effect; provided, however, that any conditions or obligations imposed on the Bidder hereunder shall continue to have effect in addition to its obligations under the Agreement.

6.13.     Deadline for submission of Proposal may be extended at the discretion of STO. 

6.14.     Proposal submitted after deadline shall be rejected.

6.15.     Bids received by STO after the specified time on the Bid Due Date shall not be eligible for consideration and shall be summarily rejected.

6.16.     Documents shall be emailed to mentioned email in this RFP.

6.17.     The Letter of Award notification (LOA) shall be sent to the Selected Bidder within the validity date of the Bidding process.

6.18.     STO will review each Bid and perform a detailed evaluation based on the evaluation criteria described in this RFP document.

6.19.     STO reserves the right to accept or reject any Bid, and to annul the bidding process and reject all Bids at any time prior to Contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to Bidder.

6.20.     In the event where the prices received are above the prices anticipated or where the submitted Proposals are not representatives of the prices in the general market, STO reserves the right to negotiate.

6.21.     Any and all travel and accommodation expenses related to this tender shall be arranged and paid by the Bidder.

6.22.     The liquidated damages for the whole of the works are 0.05% (point zero five percent) per day. Subject to change during agreement stage.

6.23.     The maximum amount of liquidated damages for the whole of the works is 15% (fifteen percent) of the final contract price

6.24.     The Defects Liability Period is 365 days from date of site takeover.

6.25.     5% of the contract value will be held as retention money during defect liability period

6.26.     STO reserves the right to reject proposals from Blacklisted Customers and Legal Customers, including the Default Customers/Parties and it shall extend to Subsidiaries of STO as well.

6.27.     Blacklisting is a consequence of failure on commitment or quality issues below. Bidders will not be blacklisted for unintentional mistakes or actions which do not tantamount to intentional cheating. STO has the right to Blacklist the Bidders permanently or to suspend the Bidder for a certain period of time depending on the severity.

a. Intent to cheat.

b. Misrepresentation of facts in Bid Proposals.

c.Malpractices in supplies or services

d. Intentional Disclosure of State trading organization plc. confidential information

e. Vendor participates in bidding/ Negotiations, wins the contract but subsequently does not execute the work.

f. Repetitive Quality issues in Supplies / Services

g. Extreme delays in deliveries or execution of services

h. Vendor’s repetitive delays getting into contractual agreement with STO after winning a contract.

i. Other violations of responsible business practices

j. Any other criteria as STO may deem appropriate in the interest of the organization or government in compliance with company policies and Laws of Republic of Maldives.

6.28 STO reserves the right to verify all statements, information and documents submitted by the Bidder in response to the [the RFP and/or the Bidding Documents] and the Bidder shall, when so required by STO, make available all such information, evidence and documents as may be necessary for such verification. Any such verification, or lack of such verification, by STO shall not relieve the Bidder of its obligations or liabilities hereunder nor will it affect any rights of STO thereunder. 

6.29 Bids shall be deemed to be under consideration immediately after they are opened and until such time STO makes official intimation of award/ rejection to the Bidders. While the Bids are under consideration, Bidders and/ or their representatives or other interested parties are advised to refrain, save and except as required under the Bidding Documents, from contacting by any means, STO and/ or their employees/ representatives on matters related to the Bids under consideration.

6.30 A Bidder shall not have a conflict of interest (the “Conflict of Interest”) that affects the Bidding Process. Any Bidder found to have a Conflict of Interest shall be disqualified. In the event of disqualification, STO shall be entitled to forfeit and appropriate the Bid Security as mutually agreed genuine pre-estimated loss and damage likely to be suffered and incurred by STO and not by way of penalty for, inter alia, the time, cost and effort of STO, including consideration of such Bidder’s proposal (the “Damages”), without prejudice to any other right or remedy that may be available to STO under the Bidding Documents or otherwise. 

6.31 The Bidding Process shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of Republic of Maldives and the Courts of Maldives in where STO has its head office shall have exclusive jurisdiction over all disputes arising under, pursuant to and/ or in connection with the Bidding Process. 

6.32 To assist in the examination of responsiveness, evaluation, and comparison of bids, STO may, at STO’s discretion, ask any Bidder to submit any documents (including and not limited to some mandatory documents which shall not affect the competitiveness of the process) for clarification and verification of the Bidder’s Bid. Any document which affect the competitiveness shall not be accepted during the resubmission period. The Tender Committee has discretion to reject any document submitted during resubmission period, if found, which shall affect the competitiveness of the Tender process.

6.33 Bidder must provide the below listed documents within 10 working days after receiving the award notification letter, failing to do so STO may award the project to the next winning bidder. 

a)       Copy of most recent Memorandum of Association

b)       Shareholders National ID Card copies/Passport copies of foreigners

c)       Threatened litigations against the bidder (must disclose if there are any)

d)       Letter comprising the bid

e)       Project Team

f)        Power of Attorney

g)       Performance Guarantee Form of Bank Guarantee for Advance Payment

h)       a credibility letter from internationally acceptable bank in favour of the project, confirmation the fund will be arranged for this project.

7. REQUIRED DOCUMENTS

Bidder shell provide documents or information listed in this section. STO may choose to accept a proposal which does not contain one or more of the documents listed in this section on the ground that information provided in another document or elsewhere in the proposal does satisfy the purpose for which the document is requested. 

a)       Copy of Company/Sole Proprietorship Registration Certificate

b)       Copy of Company GST registration certificate

c)       Audited Financial Data

d)       Bid submission summary form (As per the format provided in Annexure 1

8. Evaluation Criteria as follows. 

9. Evaluation Guidelines

STO will subsequently examine and evaluate the Bids in accordance with the provisions set out in this RFP.

Prior to evaluation of Bids, STO has right to request for missing documents and STO shall determine whether each bid is responsive to the requirements of this RFP.Marks shall be distributed on Pro-rata basis.

Proposed Price (70 marks)

Lowest price offered would achieve the highest. Higher Proposal will receive lesser marks in proportion to the lowest quoted. 

Interest rate (20 marks)

Lowest interest rate offered would achieve the highest. Higher proposal will receive lesser marks in proportion to the lowest quoted.

Payback period (10 marks)

Longest payback period offered would achieve the highest. Shorter duration proposal will receive lesser marks in proportion to the longer duration quoted.

10. selection of Bidder

10.1  Subject to the provisions of this RFP, the Bidder whose Bid is adjudged as responsive in terms of this RFP and who scores the highest marks in Evaluation (the “Evaluation”) shall ordinarily be declared as the selected Bidder (the “Selected Bidder”).

10.2  In the event that the Highest Bidder withdraws or is not selected for any reason in the first instance (the “first round of bidding”), STO may invite all the remaining Bidders to revalidate or extend their Bid validity date, if necessary, and match the Bid of the aforesaid Highest Bidder (the “second round of bidding”). 

10.3  In the event that no Bidder offers to match the Highest Bidder in the second round of bidding, STO may, in its discretion, retender and invite for fresh Bids (the “third round of bidding”)

11. Award of Contract 

After selection, a Letter of Award (the “LOA”) shall be issued, in duplicate, by STO to the Selected Bidder and the Selected Bidder shall, within 7 (seven) days of the receipt of the LOA, sign and return the duplicate copy of the LOA in acknowledgement thereof. In the event the duplicate copy of the LOA duly signed by the Selected Bidder is not received by the stipulated date, STO may, unless it consents to extension of time for submission thereof, appropriate the Bid Security of such Bidder as Damages on account of failure of the Selected Bidder to acknowledge the LOA, and the next eligible Bidder may be considered.

12. Bid Validity

The Bids shall remain valid for 45 (Forty-Five) days after the deadline for date of bid submission. 

13. Submission

Deadline for submission 02^nd January 2018, 1100hrs Maldives Time. Therefore, please ensure to email your proposal to [email protected] on or before, 02^nd January 2018, 1100hrs Maldives Time. Only proposals mailed before the deadline will be considered.

14.Queries & Feedback

All questions relating to the terms of condition shall be directed by email or in writing to:

Hussain Athir Abbas

Manager

Procurement Department
State Trading Organization Plc
BoduthakurufaanuMagu, 
Maafannu Male’ 20345 Maldives

Email: [email protected]

15. Confidentiality

Information relating to the examination, clarification, evaluation and recommendation for the Bidders shall not be disclosed to any person who is not officially concerned with the process or is not a retained professional advisor advising STO in relation to, or matters arising out of, or concerning the Bidding Process. STO will treat all information, submitted as part of the Bid, in confidence and will require all those who have access to such material to treat the same in confidence. STO may not divulge any such information unless it is directed to do so by any statutory entity that has the power under law to require its disclosure or is to enforce or assert any right or privilege of the statutory entity and/ or STO or as may be required by law or in connection with any legal process.

16.Disclaimer:

Notwithstanding anything contained in this RFP, STO reserves the right to reject any Bid and to annul the Process and reject all Bids at any time without any liability or any obligation for such acceptance, rejection or annulment, and without assigning any reasons therefor. In the event that STO rejects or annuls all the Bids, it may, in its discretion, invite all eligible Parties to submit fresh Bids hereunder 

Annexure 1: Project Information sheet

STO SOCIAL HOUSING PROJECT

Design and Construction

State Trading Organization PLC (STO) intends to develop two 14 storey towers of social housing complexes in Hulhumale’ second phase.  Land space allocated for this project is approximately 24,000sqft. Project includes commercial spaces and mid standard social housing facilities which will be beneficial to the organization as well as the general public.  

Project details

Project Type: Design and build.

Financial requirement: 15% equity to be financed by STO and 85% debt to be financed by bank which need to be proposed by contractor

Payback period: 10 to 15 years (preferred)

Interest rate: 4% or less preferred

Grace period:02 years

Project Duration: To complete two towers Within 730 days. (First five floors of both towers must complete within 240 days.

Site location: Hulhumale’ phase two

Land area: 12,000 sqft per tower

Building footprint: 12,000 sqft (approximately)

No. of towers: Two

No. of floor: 15 floors

Building program: 

 - Ground floor

Parking, Commercial spaces and amenities (approximately 30% for commercial area and remaining for parking and services)

 - First to fourth floor

19 x One bedroom apartments per floor. Total 76 apartments per tower. Unit area:433sqft.

- Fifth to Fourteen floor

12 x Two+1 bedroom apartments per floor 

Total 120 apartments per tower. Unit area: 643sqft.

2 x Two bedroom apartments per floor. Total 20 apartments per tower. Unit area: 594sqft

- Terrace 

For services and open terrace 

Building components details

Building structure: RC concrete

Exterior wall: Masonry wall

Exterior wall surface: cement plastering

Interior partition/walls: Masonry wall

Doors and Windows: Aluminum frame

Staircase: RC concrete

Lift: 2 cargo lift and 2 passenger lift

17. Annexure 1: Bid Submission Summary Form

Annexure 2: Appendix to Tender