TERMS OF REFERENCE
for experts ("assessors") to assist in the evaluation of grant
applications received in the framework of the call for
proposals
EuropeAid/136472 /DD/ACT/Multi
3rd Call for Proposals for the CBC Programme Serbia –
Bosnia and Herzegovina
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TERMS OF REFERENCE
Table of contents
1.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ..................................................................................... 3
2.
OBJECTIVE, PURPOSE & EXPECTED RESULTS ....................................................... 5
3.
SCOPE OF THE WORK ..................................................................................................... 5
3.1.
3.2.
4.
General ......................................................................................................................... 5
Specific Activities ........................................................................................................ 6
LOGISTICS AND TIMING ................................................................................................. 7
4.1.
4.2.
Location ........................................................................................................................ 7
Start date and period of implementation ...................................................................... 7
5.
REQUIREMENTS ................................................................................................................ 8
6.
REPORTS .............................................................................................................................. 9
7.
BUDGET …………………………………………………………………………………. 9
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1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Since 2007, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has been receiving EU financial aid under the
Instrument for pre-accession assistance (IPA). As a potential candidate country, out of five
components of IPA, BiH is eligible for the first two components:
1. Transition Assistance and Institution Building, and
2. Cross-border Cooperation (CBC)
The other three components are aimed at candidate countries only and comprise "regional
development", "human resources development" and "rural development".
The second component of the assistance supports cross-border cooperation (CBC) programmes
and activities between Bosnia and Herzegovina and EU member states as well as with candidate
and potential candidate countries. Under this second component of IPA, BiH participates in 6
Programmes as follows:

three bilateral CBC programmes with neighbouring countries: Croatia, Montenegro and
Serbia

IPA Adriatic CBC Programme

two transnational programmes: South-East Europe (SEE) and Mediterranean transnational
programme (MED)
In BiH, the Directorate for European Integration (DEI) is in charge of coordination of all issues
related to the EU integration process, including promotion of the integration process, horizontal
coordination of BiH Strategy for European Integration, legal harmonisation and coordination of
EC assistance. DEI is also acting as the Operating Structure for implementation of the three IPA
2007-2013 CBC Programmes with neighbouring countries: Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Programme with Serbia is implemented jointly by the two participating countries. Responsible
institutions performing the role of the Operating structure in Serbia is the European Integration
Office (SEIO) within the Government of the Republic of Serbia.
The role of the Contracting Authority is performed by EU Delegations to these two countries.
Implementation of the Programme is overseen by a Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) composed
of representatives of the two participating countries. According to IPA Implementing Regulation,
article 142.5f, JMC is responsible for selecting operations but may delegate this function a Joint
Steering Committee (JSC). In such case and in line with provisions of PRAG (Section 6.5.7.),
project proposals will be evaluated by Joint Steering Committee endorsed by the Contracting
Authorities comprising of a non-voting Chairperson, a non-voting Secretary and an odd number of
voting members (minimum three). Where the proposals received are particularly numerous or
highly technical, all or a part of the evaluation may be carried out by external assessors so that the
Joint Steering Committee may conduct its deliberations on the basis of their assessment.
In performing their functions, Operating Structures, Contracting Authorities and JMC are assisted
by the Joint Technical Secretariat responsible for day-to-day management of the programme
including support and advice to potential applicants. The JTS for Serbia-BiH programme is located
in Uzice (Serbia) with Antenna office in Tuzla (BiH).
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Financial allocations available for Bosnia and Herzegovina within the programme are as follows 1:
Year
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Amount
0,7
0,7
0,7
0,7
0,7
1,0
1,0
CBC programme BiH – Serbia / www.srb-bih.org
The overall objective of the programme is to stimulate the economies and reduce the relative
isolation of the eligible area by strengthening joint institutional networks and the capacities of
human resources. The Programme assistance should be concentrated on the following priority:
Priority 1: Social and economic cohesion through actions to improve physical, business, social
and institutional infrastructure and capacity.
The measures grouped to address the aim of the priority are the following ones:
Measure I.1 - Improving the productivity and competitiveness of the areas’ economic, rural and
environmental resources.
Measure I.2 – Cross border initiatives targeting the exchange of people and ideas to enhance
professional and civic society cooperation.
Calls for Proposals
The first Call for Proposals for this programme was launched in July 2009 including alocations for
2007 and 2008. The second Call for Proposals was launched in 2011 including allocations for
2009, 2010 and 2011.
The third Call for Proposals which includes financial allocations for 2012 and 2013 was
launched on 20th of April 2015.
After heavy rainfall in mid-May 2014 resulted in extensive flooding and landslides in a large area
of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, this Call was designed to help Serbia and Bosnia and
Herzegovina in the recovery efforts allowing private persons, business and public services to
resume their normal functions.
Specific objective for this Call for Proposals:
Maintaining the high quality of the environment of the eligible area as an economic resource
by cooperating in joint protection and exploitation initiatives, helping Serbia and Bosnia and
Herzegovina in the flood prevention, and recovery operations and emergency response.
1
Expressed in million euro
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2. OBJECTIVE, PURPOSE & EXPECTED RESULTS
The objective of the assessor’s assignment is to assist the Joint Steering Committee/Joint
Monitoring Committee to select the best proposals received under the 3rd Call for Proposals and
achieve a high-quality, complete and coherent selection process of projects in line with the criteria
set in the Guidelines for applicants, ensuring thereby adequate inputs for the Contracting
Authorities to conclude contracts with successful applicants within the 3rd Call for Proposals
launched within the IPA CBC programme Serbia-BiH.
Results to be achieved in this assignment will be in form of written assessment of each project
proposal on the basis of the evaluation grids contained in relevant Guidelines for Applicants, as
described in Section 3 below.
These assessments will be used by the Joint Steering Committee in the process of selecting the best
proposals.
3. SCOPE OF THE WORK
3.1. General
External assessors will be engaged to carry out detailed examination/evaluation of received project
proposals under the 3rd Calls for Proposals.
Evaluation of project proposals will be conducted respecting relevant Guidelines for Applicants
i.e. relevant check lists and Evaluation grids contained within the Application Pack. To ensure
impartial, professional and smooth assessment process experts will be given proper documentation
and guidelines.
The evaluation is carried out through the following three steps:
Step 1: Opening and Administrative Check and the Concept Note evaluation – The Administrative
Check includes screening of each and every application on the basis of the grant Application Form
and criteria contained within relevant check list. This is usually performed by Joint Steering
Committee with support of Joint Technical Secretariat of a given programme, so involvement of
external assessors will not be required.
Depending on whether the Call for proposals is of a restricted or an open nature and depending on
relevant JMC decision in both cases, assessors may or may not have to deal with the assessment of
a Concept Note. In case of this Call assessors will be required to perform the evaluation of
Concept Notes, they will have the task of carrying out a written assessment on this Note using the
standard Evaluation Grid provided in the Guidelines for Applicants. Each Concept Note has to be
assessed by at least two assessors, working independently of each other.
Step 2: Evaluation of the Full Application – Assessors will carry out technical and financial
assessment of the applications, i.e. Full Applications that have passed the previous evaluation
step(s), in accordance with the selection and award criteria set out in the Evaluation Grid provided
in the Guidelines for Applicants. Assessors must pay special attention to cost effectiveness of the
project in terms of getting the best value for the money requested from the EU. Each proposal has
to be assessed by at least two assessors, working independently of each other.
Furthermore, assessors MUST provide a comment for each score in each sub-section and an
overall comment on the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal. Assessors must ensure that
their comments and scores are coherent. Assessors will continue to evaluate all eligible proposals
even if a proposal scores less than minimum points required for Financial and operational capacity.
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At the end of the assessment, assessors must submit evaluation grids with scoring, justification and
recommendation both electronically and in written form. The written form, signed by the expert,
shall be handed over to the JSC within a given deadline.
On the basis of these Evaluation Grids, a ranking list of proposals will be prepared for presentation
and discussion with the Joint Steering Committee. The assessors may be called by the Joint
Steering Committee to present their assessments and to answer any questions regarding the
assessors’ work raised by the members of the Joint Steering Committee.
Assessors’ work will be closely monitored by the JSC Chairperson and in case that a project needs
more thorough evaluation or an additional assessment, the JSC may ask for a re-assessment of the
same project proposal by different assessor(s).
The Joint Monitoring Committees/Joint Steering Committes will take the final decision on the
basis of outcome of the assessor’s scores and comments. Subsequently, the Operating Structures
will submit the Evaluation Report to relevant Contracting Authorities for approval.
Step 3: Verification of Eligibility of the Applicants and Affiliated Entity(ies) - Eligibility
verification will be carried out based on the supporting documents requested by the Contracting
Authority under the Guidelines for Applicants. This is usually performed by the Joint Steering
Committee. However, if an assessor during his/her qualitative assessment of Concept Notes and/or
Full Applications notice that any of eligibility criteria had not been met, he/she will make note in
the Evaluation Grid and inform the JSC at the meeting.
3.2. Specific Activities
All assessors will be expected to sign and will be bound by a Declaration of Impartiality and
Confidentiality before starting each phase of the assessment. If an assessor believes there might be
a situation of conflict of interest in relation to one or more applicants, he/she must declare it and
submit the matter to the Joint Steering Committee Chairperson immediately. Any assessor who
withdraws from the evaluation for whatever reason will be replaced and the evaluation process will
be restarted.
For each task performed, the assessors (experts) must demonstrate appropriate ethical conduct and
must respect the confidentiality of the information and documents to which they will have access.
Furthermore, assessors may not be personally involved in project elaboration or linked to other
projects or activities implemented by the entities submitting project applications.
(1)
Role and tasks of assessors
Assessors should provide written technical and financial assessments of concept notes
and full applications.
At least two assessors, one from BiH and one from Serbia, must assess each concept
note and each full application, working independently of each other.
The assessments must be undertaken in accordance with the guidelines and
instructions provided by the Joint Steering Committee. These are based on the
published evaluation grids in the Guidelines for applicants. The overall assessment
should be based on the scores obtained under each subheading, added up by heading
and the final score is the arithmetical average of the scores given by the assessors.
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Each proposal must be assessed on its own merits, without regard to other proposals
or the views of any third parties. The assessors are expected to use their own
experience on the sector and project implementation when carrying out their analysis.
Assessors work under the supervision of the Chairperson of the Joint Steering
Committee. Assessment results which should be in English language, should be
provided to the responsible person in the JSC.
The assessors will be called before the Joint Steering Committee to present their
assessments and to answer any questions regarding them raised by the members of the
Joint Steering Committee or Contracting Authorities. On these basis assessors will
also prepare the Clarification Sheet for final contract award for the highest ranking
proposals.
(2)
Role and tasks of the Evaluation Committee
The Joint Steering Committee (JSC) performs the role of an Evaluation Committee. It
is proposed by the two Operating Structures of a given programme and appointed by
relevant Contracting Authorities. The JSC is composed of a non-voting Chairperson, a
non-voting Secretary and an odd number of voting members (minimum of three). Its
role is to conduct evaluation of project proposals in order to provide recommendation
to the Contracting Authorities on contract award in accordance with pre-established
criteria.
The Chairperson is responsible for coordinating the evaluation process in accordance
with the procedures in the Practical Guide and for ensuring its impartiality and
transparency. The Secretary to the Committee is responsible for carrying out all
administrative tasks connected with the evaluation procedure. These include
circulating and collecting the Declarations of Impartiality and Confidentiality and
keeping the minutes and any other relevant records and documents.
Where the proposals received are particularly numerous or highly technical, all or part
of the detailed examination may be carried out by assessors so that the JSC may
conduct its deliberations on the basis of their assessments, including the opinion of
the EU delegation representatives who take part in the work of the JSC in advisory
capacity.
Should the assessments not satisfy the quality expected by the JSC, it may be decided
on a re-assessment by another expert or by the JSC members.
4. LOGISTICS AND TIMING
4.1. Location
Place of execution of tasks could be Sarajevo (BiH) or Užice/Belgrade (Serbia).
4.2. Start date and period of implementation
For the 3rd Call for Proposals for this programme, it is anticipated that assessment will commence
during autumn 2015 and will indicatively last by the end of the first quarter of 2016.
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5. REQUIREMENTS
Minimum requirements for candidates include the following:
Qualifications and skills:
- The experts need to have at least a university degree (VII level of high education)
preferably in engineering, environmental sciences, agriculture or risk preparedness and
management;
- Excellent knowledge of English language (will be tested) and local languages
- Computer literacy
General professional experience:
- The experts need to have minimum 8 years of general professional experience.
Specific professional experience:
 have a minimum 3 (three) years of relevant working experience in the fields of flood
prevention, recovery operations and emergency response
 proven experience in international projects and programmes in sectors relevant to the
measure and specific objective of the Call
 proven knowledge and experience of Project Cycle Management and the Logical
Framework approach to project design and implementation;
 proven knowledge on Practical Guide to contract procedures for EC external actions
(PRAG), specifically grant related procedures as well as relevant national regulations
 previous experience in project proposal assessment will be considered as an advantage
 proven knowledge about IPA CBC Programmes in the Western Balkan countries and
related calls for proposals will also be considered as an advantage
 good analitical and drafting skills
 good communication and interpersonal skills
 willingnes to travel to the neighbouring countries, if required
Candidates will be appraised against the selection criteria based on data provided in the CV,
results of English language test (will be eliminatory in case of score below minimum threshold)
and during interviews.
The assessor cannot be a civil servant, staff of the Contracting Authority or the public
administration of the beneficiary country.
Through this Call for engagement of assessors, DEI is going to upgrade the existing pool of
assesssors created through a public invitation for assesors for evaluation of project proposals
within the previous Calls for all three programmes. Assessors will be engaged depending on timing
of evaluation/qualitative assessment and number of projects to be evaluated, taking into
consideration relevance of an assessor’s background expertize. If need occur, the pool will be updated accordingly through the same procedure. Services provided by assessors will be financed
from relevant direct grant contract concluded between EUD to BiH and DEI under “Technical
Assistance” priority. In the frame of a grant contracts implementation, CVs of external experts to
be engaged will have to be approved by relevant Contracting Authorities. Subsequently, selected
experts will be contracted by DEI on an individual service contract basis. Depending on dinamics
of evaluation process(es), selected candidates might be requested to be mobilized on a short notice.
Experts will be free to resign from the pool, as well as DEI also reserves the right to remove
experts from the list in case of insufficient performance, repeated unavailability or if problems
arise regarding the impartiality and/or confidentiality of an expert.
Working languages: Working language of the assignment is English language.
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6. REPORTS
Assessors will provide evaluation grids with scoring, justification and recommendation both
electronically and in written form. The written form, signed by the expert, shall be handed over to
the JSC within a given deadline.
The assessors' inputs in form of Evaluation grids will be incorporated in the CfP Evaluation
Reports. Therefore, no separate reporting will be required apart from the requirement to submit
time-sheets presenting dynamics of assessment in number of projects and working days. Missions
to the neighbouring countries should also be mentioned in these documents. The time sheets
should be signed by the assessors and the Chairperson of the Joint Steering Committee confirming
number of projects assessed with remark whether the assessment was accepted or rejected by the
Joint Steering Committee.
7. BUDGET
Cost of services provided by assessors will be covered from relevant direct grant contract
concluded between EUD to BiH and DEI under “Technical Assistance” priority of a given CBC
programme. The budget of this grant include “fee for assessor’s services” as well as “per-diem”
and “travel cost” budget lines related to assessor’s engagement.
The fee per project evaluated will be calculated in line with available funds in the grant budgets
assuming that an expert can assess five Concept Notes/two full applications per day. Based on this
assumption and expected number of projects proposals to be assessed, it is envisaged that the fee
per Concept Note assessed will be minimum 25 euro and the fee per full project assessed,
minimum of 75 euro. In case an assessment is rejected by the JSC due to insufficient quality, no
payment is envisaged for that project proposal.
Payments will be done according to the timesheets submitted at the end of assignment but not
before relevant report on evaluation is approved by respective Contracting Authority.
In addition, by relevant TA grant funds, per-diems and travel cost, calculated in accordance with
the Council of Ministers i.e. DEI’s rules, will be covered after each mission.
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