Secretarial Tasks Evaluations for On-Site Equipment projects

Under the TACIS 1993-1996 the European Commission and the Russian and Kazakh authorities collaborated on a programme to improve the safety of Ukrainian and Armenian nuclear installations. This programme involved numerous equipment projects and a Procurement Agent (PA) was contracted to manage the procurement procedure under the contracts 22975, 24309 and 25071.

The TACIS Nuclear Safety Procurement Procedures for budgetary years 1993-94, 1995 and 1996 did not foresee an active participation of the Procurement Agent into the evaluation process which was managed by the On Site Utilities (or Engineer). The Procurement Agent action during the evaluation was limited to the back-up function of contacts with tenderers whenever clarifications were asked.

The objective of the service was to introduce the active participation of the Procurement Agent in the Evaluation Committee with the role of Secretary (in addition to the above functions).

The project was carried out according to the specifications.
Activities of the PA therefore concentrated during the evaluation period, namely:

• liaising with utilities on the organisation of the evaluations sessions.
• preparing formal documents necessary for the evaluation exercise (tender documents, evaluation grids, procedural guidelines).
• circulating and collecting the Declaration of Impartiality and Confidentiality.
• writing the minutes of all meetings of the Evaluation Committee and the relevant records and documents.
• registering attendance to meetings.
• signing (with the Chairman) any request for clarification.
• ensuring that the evaluation was conducted in line with EC procedures, established criteria and guidelines. In case of uncertainty or disagreement between the PA and the Utility on the application of EC procedures, the matter was referred to the EC.
• writing the Evaluation Report and its supporting annexes
• signing the Evaluation Report, collecting signature of the Chairman and the Evaluation Committee members and submitting the signed report at the end of the evaluation session to the EC for approval.

The duration of the participation of the Procurement Agent at the evaluation sessions (part time) for each project was around 3/5 of the total evaluation duration.

The contract lasted 3 years and 9 months.

The above activities were mainly performed where the evaluation took place (usually at Utilities' premises), with a preparatory action carried out at PA headquarters.

The Procurement Agent submitted the Evaluation Report of each supply project at the end of every evaluation session to the EC for approval.

A progress report was provided every 3 months with relevant information concerning project evaluation:

• a description of the evaluations; duration / place of the evaluation, utility in charge, number or offers, offer amount of the proposed awarded supplier
• report on the expenditure incurred (corresponding to the Break-down of prices).
• work plan for the following reporting period
• major deviation from plans, reasons for those and corrective actions taken.
• the final report was submitted to the EC, once all the evaluations were performed.