Presentation of the concept and the team leader as part of the technical
evaluation
0.
Public procurement: the legal context
In principle, presentations are permitted under public procurement law.1 The obligatory
minimum standards of transparency and non-discrimination apply to presentations. Bidders
must be informed right from the beginning about the significance of the presentation for the
evaluation of the offer and the decision to award the contract. The procedure for
presentations in terms of schedule, organisation and personnel must always be specified and
must be communicated to bidders as early as possible during the award procedure.
Moreover, it must be ensured that the work involved for the commissioning party and for
bidders is commensurate with the desired benefit of the trial run/presentation. On the basis of
these principles, presentations are handled as follows at GIZ:
1.
Procedure for contracts with an estimated value of more than
EUR 2 million

When placing contracts for consulting services with an estimated value of
EUR 2 million or more, the proposed concept is presented by the proposed team
leader (international long-term expert), supported where applicable by the
backstopper of the technically qualified bidders. The presentation forms part of the
technical bid.
1
Due to the strict distinction made in case law between qualitative selection criteria and award criteria,
particular care must be taken: questions and content that are essentially connected with the
assessment of the bidders’ technical eligibility for carrying out the relevant commission (e.g. the
company’s experience and qualifications) are ruled out as award criteria (Court of Justice of the
European Union, judgment of 12 November 2009 – Case C-199/07; judgment of 24 January 2008 –
Case 532/06), as they have already been examined in the call for competition when considering
eligibility. Although the Higher Regional Court in Karlsruhe recently regarded the ‘description of the
personnel concept applied’ as an inadmissible award criterion (decision of 20 July 2011 – 15 Verg
6/11), the facts of the case were different here, as in the area relevant to GIZ the quality of the
proposed personnel is central to the evaluation decision. This view has recently been confirmed by the
Higher Regional Court in Naumburg, decision of 12 April 2012: ‘Public procurement law permits
criteria and sub-criteria that relate to the specific services specified in the particular offer; public
procurement law does not permit criteria and sub-criteria regarding the evaluation of the economic
efficiency of an offer, which instead relate to the actual bidder... To distinguish between the two types
of evaluation criteria, it is decisive whether an aspect of the evaluation essentially or in terms of the
focus of evaluation is to be based on information that is of importance only for the specific
commission, or on information about the general abilities and skills of the bidder… The sub-criterion
‘Information to guarantee availability of personnel’ does not relate to the abstract performance
capacity of the personnel or to the human resources of the bidder in general (these would be
qualitative selection aspects and would not be admissible as award criteria), but instead clearly relate
to the bidder’s concept as to how and to what extent when carrying out the specific commission he or
she aims to guarantee that the contractor has competent contacts who can be reached by the
commissioning party. For the respondent, it is important for the commissioning party’s staff to be able
to reach competent contacts and hence evaluate the performance of the support services being
provided. It is easy to understand and obvious to a qualified bidder without further explanation that the
content of an offer will be evaluated as being of higher quality if it includes being able to be contacted
at any time, or at least for a considerable part of the time and, where applicable, involves often being
present on site or offering simple communication channels or the like.’
Last updated: 29 Oct 2012
Created by: Organisational Unit 530 and Dept. 4
Page 1

During the presentation and the subsequent discussion, the technical bid (concept
and personnel) is verified and examined to see whether it is suitable for achieving the
objectives specified in the terms of reference.
The letter of invitation to tender must mention that presentations by the proposed team
leader and, if appropriate, the backstopper are normally given in Eschborn and must state
the week and the language(s) in which the presentation is likely to be provided. Technically
suitable bidders are invited (for contracts worth more than EUR 2 million); if the contract is
estimated to be worth less than EUR 2 million, the bidder with the highest overall evaluation
can be requested to give a presentation.
The costs must be borne by the bidder.
2.
Evaluation in two stages
2.1.
First stage (preliminary evaluation)
Presentations by the technically suitable firms are not given until a preliminary evaluation of
all the technical bids has been conducted using the assessment grid. Following the
presentations, the technical evaluation of the personnel and the concept is either confirmed
or revised. The evaluation in two stages is based on the technical assessment grid that is
already sent out with the invitation to tender. The details are to be laid down during the
launch meeting.
In principle, the bidders must know the criteria that are important to GIZ during the selection
procedure. The criteria that are examined and evaluated in the presentation must already be
clearly stated in the assessment grid, particularly in terms of their importance. Particular
attention must be devoted to the weighting of the following criteria:
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Interpretation of objectives
Implementation of methodology
Specific qualifications (leadership skills and management, teamwork skills)
Language skills
Preliminary overall technical evaluation of all written bids in duplicate by the Sectoral
Department with notes: This evaluation is submitted to Organisational Unit OE 5300 and filed
as the ‘preliminary evaluation’.
2.2. Second stage (presentation and subsequent final technical evaluation)
Firms whose offers have been evaluated with fewer than 500 technical points are not invited
to present their personnel and concept. The Sectoral Department is responsible for reserving
the room and for preparing the letters of invitation. The invitations are sent out by
Organisational Unit OE 5300. The presentation can also be given by video conference and, if
appropriate, in the presence of the partners. The firm must receive an invitation or a rejection
letter in good time before the date. A short interval must therefore be scheduled between
completion of the preliminary evaluation of the written offer and presentation of the personnel
and the concept. Two to three days should normally be sufficient.
Last updated: 29 Oct 2012
Created by: Organisational Unit 530 and Dept. 4
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2.3
Participants and procedure at the presentation:
Participants in the procedure

The two technical evaluators (authorised to evaluate bids)

The officer responsible for the commission or a representative of the regional
division (authorised to evaluate bids)

The contract manager responsible

The bidders give their presentations in Eschborn on the same day. Each
presentation lasts for a maximum of 1–1.5 hours
Procedure

Welcome

Presentation of the proposed concept (10–15 min)

Presentation of the personnel concept, particularly in view of the team leader (5–
10 min)

Answering questions asked by the evaluators

Explanation of the further steps, leave-taking

15–20 min for joint adjustment of the technical evaluation
2.4
Final technical evaluation
The following criteria may be the subject of the evaluation:
Concept
In the talks with the team leader and backstopper, any questions about the proposed concept
should be clarified. If the backstopper and team leader cannot present the concept or cannot
present it adequately, this will lead to points being deducted in the final evaluation. However,
a concept that is acceptable in written form cannot be evaluated as being entirely unsuitable
after the presentation.
Team leader
The presentation is designed to verify the proposed team leader. It can be used in particular
to establish whether the proposed team leader does in fact have the language and sectoral
skills required. There should be no new evaluation separate from the CV, but instead an
alignment with the CV.
The personnel presentation can provide an idea about criteria such as leadership skills,
teamwork skills and management skills above and beyond the written offer. However, these
criteria are subjective in nature and should be objectified as far as possible. The categories
given in the assessment grid should be used for this and the values previously awarded
should be corrected if necessary.
If the team leader turns out to be unacceptable for personal reasons (e.g. breaches of the
code of conduct, criminal offences, alcohol or medication dependence, etc.), he/she will be
disqualified completely and given no points.
Further experts
Only the team leader and the concept are presented. Any further experts are not presented
and are therefore not re-evaluated. At most, the interaction between the various
qualifications in the team can be readjusted as part of the evaluation of the concept (to what
extent can the proposed concept be realised by the proposed team?).
Last updated: 29 Oct 2012
Created by: Organisational Unit 530 and Dept. 4
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Involvement of the partner
This is possible if agreed beforehand at the launch meeting. It can only be done within the
scope of the criteria already defined and their weighting. The partner must be instructed that
the aim is to verify the offer and not to select personnel.
3.
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4.
Roles and tasks
The contract manager is responsible for the process and for complying with the
aforementioned leeway and rules. He/she welcomes the participants and explains the
process.
The Sectoral Department is responsible for the technical moderation and for the
final evaluation of the concept and personnel together with the officer responsible
for the commission/the representative of the regional division. The preliminary
evaluation is verified, corrected and signed.
The final overall evaluation, showing the overall technical points and the technical
ranking, including notes, is then sent to Organisational Unit OE 5300 via the head of
division in the Sectoral Department.
Organisational Unit OE 5300 records the final technical evaluation and files it in the
contract file.
The further steps of the tender follow the standard procedure.
Dispensing with the presentation
The presentation can be dispensed with if the bidder with the most points after the
preliminary technical evaluation has over 200 points more than the bidder with the second
most points.
5.
Procedure for contracts estimated to be worth less than EUR 2 million
When awarding contracts estimated to be worth less than EUR 2 million, the bidder with the
highest number of points can be invited to present the team leader (international long-term
expert) as part of the contract negotiations. The bidder must meet the costs of the
presentation.
If, during the presentation, it turns out that the information given in the offer concerning the
team leader’s professional qualifications, language skills or other key qualifications cannot be
confirmed, the offer is excluded and negotiations are commenced with the bidder with the
second highest number of points.
Last updated: 29 Oct 2012
Created by: Organisational Unit 530 and Dept. 4
Page 4