Request for Proposal (RFP) No. RFP-22-08-01-Staff Health Insurance at Creative Associates International

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP)

 

West Africa Trade and Investment Hub Activity

 

To:                                     Offerors

From:                                Creative Associates International, Inc.

Subject:                            Request for Proposal (RFP) No. RFP-22-08-01

Subproject #:                   Staff Health Insurance

Performance Period:     12 months from receiving award

RFP Issue Date:                August 1st 2022

RFP Closing Date:           August 25th 2022

RFP Closing Time:           4:00 PM – Local Time, Nigerian Time     

 

Reference:                        USAID Agreement No. 72062019C00003

                            

Enclosed is a Request for Proposals (RFP). Creative invites qualified firms and organizations to submit a best-price proposal for West Africa Trade and Investment Hub Activity (WATIH) funded under USAID Agreement No. 72062019C00003. The issuance of a subcontract is subject to availability of funds, successful negotiation of the subcontract budget and terms, and receiving USAID’s Contracting Officer consent, if required. The Contract resulting from this award will be a single firm fixed price purchase order.

The requirements for this activity are described in the “Statement of Work” in Attachment I. Creative encourages your organization to indicate its interest in this procurement by submitting a proposal according to the instructions in Attachment II “Instructions to Offerors”. Proposals will be evaluated based on the “Evaluation Criteria” in Attachment III. Creative will make an award to the responsible Offeror submitting an offer which provides best value to the project: technical merit and price will be both considered.

To be considered, Offerors should submit a complete proposal no later than the closing date and time indicated above. Offerors should ensure that the proposals are well-written in English and French, easy to read, follow the instructions provided and contain only requested information.

Any questions should be submitted in writing and emailed to Procurement@westafricatih.com no later than three days after the issue date of this RFP. No questions will be entertained if they are received by means other than the specified email address, and any communications to alternate e-mail addresses will result in the disqualification of the bidder.  The solicitation number (listed above) should be stated in the subject line. Answers will be compiled and distributed within three days from the closing date of questions.  

Proposals must be comprised of one electronic copy of the Technical Proposal and one electronic copy of the Cost/Business proposal, sent in separate e-mails, and labeled with the above-stated subject, subproject number and title.  Submissions shall be delivered to:

Creative Procurement Department

bids@westafricatih.com

Sincerely,

Creative Procurement Department         

Attachments:

              Attachment I     : Statement of Work                     Attachment IV: Proposal Cover Letter

              Attachment II    : Instructions to Offerors             Attachment V: Prime Contract Flow-Down Clauses

              Attachment III   : Evaluation Criteria

ATTACHMENT I: STATEMENT OF WORK

West Africa Trade and Investment Hub Activity

Terms of Reference for Staff Health and Group Life Insurance

West Africa Trade and Investment Hub project requires the services a Health Management Organization (HMO) to provide insurance coverage for basic healthcare needs for staff. The healthcare coverage plan (the plan) must be available to all full-time staff and eligible dependents. The dependents shall be comprised of one spouse and up to Four children each under age 25 years of age. The plan will make responsible the selected vendor for receiving and vetting medical bills and for keeping track of costs submitted by West Africa Trade and Investment Hub employees.

Attachment II

INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS

1. General Instructions

These Instructions to Offerors will not form part of the offer or of the Contract. They are intended solely to aid Offerors in the preparation of their proposals. Read and follow these instructions carefully.

• The proposal and all corresponding documents related to the proposal must be written in the English language, unless otherwise explicitly allowed. Additionally, all proposals should be single-spaced with clear section headings, and be presented in the order specified in Attachment III – Evaluation Criteria.
• Proposals must include only the Offeror’s own work. No text should be copied from sources outside of your organization, unless those sources are adequately cited and credited. If Creative determines that any part of the proposal is plagiarized from outside sources, the Offeror will be automatically disqualified.
• Proposals and all cost and price figures must be presented in local currency. All prices should be gross of tax, but net of any customs duties. A firm fixed price purchase order will be issued to the successful offeror in local currency as per requirement of local Law.
• The Offeror must state in their Proposal the validity period of their offer. The minimum offer acceptance period for this RFP is 90 days after closing date of the RFP. If an Offeror has provided a validity period of less than 90 days, they will be asked to revise this. If the Offeror does not extend the validity period, their proposal will be rejected. Creative reserves the right not to make an award.
• The Technical Proposal and Cost/Business Proposal must be kept separate from each other. Technical Proposals must not make reference to cost or pricing information at any point. This will enable in order the technical evaluation to be made strictly on the basis of technical merit.
• Offerors must be licensed and authorized to conduct business in the Nigeria, as evidenced by submission of a copy of a valid Business License (if registered as a for-profit company), a valid Host Government license (if registered as a non-profit organization) or a municipal license (if registered as a local vendor of goods or import-export dealer). The copy of the license must clearly show a license number, official government stamp and a date of issue and date of expiry.
• No costs incurred by the Offerors in preparing and submitting the proposal are reimbursable by Creative. All such costs will be at the Offeror’s expense.
• Responsibility Determination: Award shall only be made to “responsive” subcontractors. To enable Creative to make this determination, the Offeror must provide a cover letter, as provided in Attachment IV.
• Late Offers: Offerors are wholly responsible for ensuring that their Offers are received in accordance with the instructions stated herein. A late Offer will be recommended for rejection, even if it was late as a result of circumstances beyond the Offeror’s control. Late offers will only be considered at the procurement department’s discretion.
• Modification/Withdrawal of Offers: Offerors have the right to withdraw, modify or correct their offer after it has been delivered to Creative at the address stated above, and provided that the request is made before the RFP closing date.
• Disposition of Proposals: Proposals submitted in response to this RFP will not be returned. Reasonable effort will be made to ensure confidentiality of proposals received from all Offerors. This RFP does not seek information of a highly proprietary nature, but if such information is included in the Offeror’s proposal, the Offeror must alert Creative and must annotate the material by marking it “Confidential and Proprietary” so that these sections can be treated appropriately.
• Clarifications and Amendments to the RFP: Any questions regarding this solicitation must be emailed to Procurement@westafricatih.com. No questions/clarifications will be entertained if they are received by another means. The solicitation number should be stated in the subject. Responses will be complied and emailed to the requesting potential Offeror, and will be sent to all organizations that requested this RFP, or re-posted publicly if offered as a full and open competition.
• Creative anticipates that discussions with Offerors will be conducted; however, Creative reserves the right to make an award without discussions. It is strongly recommended that Offerors present their best offer.
• Eligibility of Firms – Source/Origin/Nationality: The authorized geographic code for the source and origin of the goods and services and for the nationality of our suppliers under this contract is 937. A full discussion of the source/origin/nationality requirements maybe found at 22 CFR 228 (see http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_02/22cfr228_02.html). Offerors whose proposals fail to meet the nationality requirements will be considered non-responsive.

Failure to agree and comply with any of the above specifications will result in the Offeror being considered unresponsive and the proposal may be rejected.

1. Submission of Proposal:  

Proposals must be submitted in two separate e-mails:

1. E-mail 1 – Technical Proposal
2. E-mail 2 – Cost/Business proposal

Each e-mail should be clearly labeled with the RFP number and project title.

Proposals must be delivered no later than the specified date/time to the address below.

Creative Procurement Department
No. 2B Orange Close, Off Volta Street,

Maitama, Abuja. Nigeria.

 

Offerors who do not submit their technical and cost proposals separately will be automatically disqualified.

1. Content of Proposal:

The proposal shall be comprised of four sections:

1. The Cover Letter (Attachment IV)
2. Copy of the Offeror’s Valid Business license
3. The Technical Proposal
4. The Cost/Business Proposal

1. The Cover Letter: should be on the Offeror’s letterhead and MUST contain the information requested in Attachment IV.
2. Business License
3. Technical Proposal:

• Should clearly & precisely address theoretical and practical aspects that the Offeror has considered and will employ to carry out the statement of work.
• The Technical Proposal is the opportunity for the Offeror to demonstrate that the firm is “technically capable” of implementing the activity, and should demonstrate the Offeror’s understanding of and capabilities to carry out the work, and address the key issues described in the Evaluation Criteria in Attachment III.
• The Technical Proposal should be divided into clearly separate sections following the same order of the Evaluation Criteria in Attachment III. A mis-ordered proposal that makes information hard to find will result in lower scores.
•  If an Offeror submits a proposal that fails to respond to the majority of the information requested in this RFP, as outlined specifically in the statement of work and the evaluation criteria, the Offeror’s proposal will be automatically disqualified.

4) The Cost/Business Proposal: must be submitted separately from the technical proposal and will primarily indicate the cost for performing the work specified in this RFP.  At a minimum, the Cost/Business proposal should include the following information:

• A detailed budget that provides a break-down of costs by line item. Note that any indirect/overhead costs should be listed as a separate line item in the budget and should not be built into the direct costs. Use the budget template presented in the Evaluation Criteria, in Attachment III.
• Bidders should not use any “loaded rates” for labor.  Budgets should include base labor rates only. Forms with loaded rates (i.e. inclusive of staff bonuses or any other type of financial benefit) will be rejected.
• Detailed and comprehensive cost notes that provides information on each of the line items in the budget and explains why these items are needed for implementation of the activity.
• If indirect rates are charged, Offerors must provide supporting computations for the allocation for indirect/overhead costs, a copy of an audit report and balance sheet, and a profit and loss (P&L)/income & expenditure / revenue & expenditure statement OR a copy of the current Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA).
• USAID Biographical Data sheet (AID 1420) for each individual proposed in the proposal. The form must be signed by the individual and the offeror and should include daily rates in local currency only. Additionally, biographical data sheets should include base rates only. Forms with loaded rates (i.e. inclusive of staff bonuses or any other type of financial benefit) will be rejected.

Failure to comply with any of the above points will result in the Offeror being considered “unresponsive” and the proposal may be rejected.

If an Offeror provides insufficient information in their technical and/or cost proposal, Creative reserves the right to request additional information, or to request a revised proposal from the Offeror, if necessary.

Creative reserves the right to make no award, or multiple awards, under this RFP.