Compliance requirements
The bidder and relevant members of its management, supervisory or administrative bodies, as well as persons authorised to represent, make decisions for or control it, must declare whether they have final convictions within the previous five years, or are still subject to an exclusion period, for participation in a criminal organisation, corruption, fraud, terrorist offences, money laundering or terrorist financing, child labour or human trafficking. Where applicable, the bidder may provide evidence of measures taken to restore its reliability, if self-cleaning is permitted for this procurement.
The bidder must also declare whether it has breached tax or social security contribution obligations in its country of establishment or the contracting authority’s country. The stated threshold is EUR 0. Under Estonian tax rules, a tax debt of less than EUR 100, excluding interest not established by an administrative act, or a debt whose payment has been rescheduled, may not result in a tax-debt certificate being issued; foreign bidders are assessed under the rules of their country of establishment.
Other grounds include significant or persistent failure to meet essential obligations under a previous public contract resulting in early termination, damages or comparable sanctions; a conviction for enabling a foreign national to work without legal grounds or in breach of applicable employment conditions; entering into the contract in breach of an international or Estonian government sanction; and lack of a right to submit a tender where the procurement documents impose a restriction based on the bidder’s place of establishment.
Qualification criteria and exclusion grounds
A separate tender must be submitted for each lot. The bidder must provide premises meeting the technical specification from at least the service start date; their location and description must be supplied using Form I. For Lot 1, the contracting authority will provide the successful bidder with premises at Sitsi 28, Tallinn, free of charge for contract performance.
The service team must have at least three members: a service manager and at least two staff performing harm-reduction worker and/or outreach-worker duties. At least two staff members must be working at the same time both at the centre and during outreach. The service manager must have at least secondary or vocational secondary education, previous work experience in the social sector and completed project-management training. Harm-reduction and outreach workers must have at least basic education. Anyone delivering the service must be at least 18 years old, legally competent and free of a current criminal conviction. The bidder must provide team members’ CVs and education certificates to demonstrate compliance.
For a comprehensive service, the bidder may also include a social worker, psychologist, mental health nurse, health adviser and/or peer counsellor. The social worker and psychologist must hold at least a professionally oriented higher education qualification or bachelor’s degree in their field. A mental health nurse must have professionally oriented higher education in nursing and completed mental health nursing studies; a health adviser must have professionally oriented higher education in nursing. A peer counsellor must have completed at least introductory peer-counselling training, have personal experience of drug use, and have completed treatment and/or rehabilitation for drug dependence. CVs and evidence of education and competence must be provided for any additional specialists included. If a professional certificate is absent, evidence of competence must be submitted. Copies of professional certificates issued outside Estonia must be provided. Education documents issued in certain countries must be legalised or apostilled where required.
The tender must include the service organisation and management plan (Form I), a risk analysis and emergency action plan including arrangements for working hours during a crisis (Form II), a forecast activity-volume plan (Form III), and a budget for one calendar month (Form IV). The budget must equal the monthly amount set for the relevant lot and cover all service delivery costs, including wages and related taxes. The tender must also identify the contract contact person and provide their name, telephone number, email address and role, as well as the premises description required in Form I. Conditional tenders are not permitted. Joint bidders must appoint an authorised representative and include an authorisation. Any information claimed as a trade secret must be identified and justified; the tender price and figures relating to award criteria may not be treated as trade secrets. Points are awarded for the service description, and additional specialists earn extra points; the detailed scoring and evaluation method must be checked in the procurement documents.