Section 59, The Public Procurement Act, 2004

(1) For the purposes of procuring the services of aconsultant, the procuring entity shall prepare a shortlist of 3 to 6 consulting firms, to the greatest extent feasible, comprising consultants of the same category, and similar capacity and business objectives, to which it shall provide the request for proposals for services; and the short-list shall be established from among those who have capacity to perform the required services, as demonstrated in their submissions. (2) When the estimated value of the procurement exceeds the threshold set in the First Schedule, in order to establish the shortlist, the procuring entity shall seek expressions of interest by publishing a notice in the Gazette, in national print media of wide circulation, and whenever feasible, on the internet, and where appropriate, the notice may also be published in a relevant trade publication or technical or professional journal. (3) For assignments of a value lower than the threshold set in the First Schedule, the shortlist may be established from market knowledge, or other sources of information but in the case of assignments which have an estimated value above that threshold, or are particularly complex , an advertisement shall also be utilised. (4) The request for proposals shall provide shortlisted bidders with the information necessary to enable them to participate in the procurement proceedings and to submit proposals that are responsive to the needs of the procuring entity including, in particular– (a) the name and address of the procuring entity; (b) the nature, time frame and location of the services to be provided, terms of reference, required tasks and outputs; (c) the criteria to be used in evaluating and comparing proposals, and their relative weights as compared to price; Two-stage Request for consultant’s services. 52 53 (d) the contractual terms of the procurement, and the manner of entry into force of the contract; (e) instructions for preparation and submission of proposals, and the place and deadline for submission of proposals; (f) the final selection procedures to be applied; (g) notice of conflict-of-interest restrictions and anti-fraud and corruption rules, including the grounds for potential debarment from future participation in procurement of goods, services or works that may result from the assignment under consideration; (h) and such other matters as may be prescribed in the regulations and standard documents issued by the Authority. (5) The price of a proposal shall be considered by the procuring entity only after completion of the technical evaluation.