Customs duties and import taxes should be excluded for the purpose of com parison among bids for the supply of goods (see Para. 6.1). For comparison of all bids, the currency or currencies of the bid price (see Para. 2.9) for each bid should be evaluated in terms of a single currency selected by the recipient and stated in the bidding documents. The rates of exchange to be used in such valuation should be selling rates published by an official source, and applicable to similar transactions, on the day bids are opened, unless there should be a change in the value of the currencies before the award is made. In the latter case, the exchange rates prevailing at the time of the decision to notify the award to the successful bidder should normally be used. 3.9 Preferences For awarding supply contracts through international competitive bidding, a limited margin of preference will be accepted at the request of the recipient country after excluding customs duties and other import duties from bid comparisons. Such preference margin is authorized to foster the productive capacity of developing countries and to strengthen cooperation among them. It will be as follows: a) manufacturers in the recipient country when comparing domestic bids with those from foreign manufacturers: up to 15%; b) manufacturers in other developing countries when comparing bids from such manufacturers with other foreign bids: up to 7.5%. Bidding documents should set out permitted preferences and specify the manner in which they will be applied in the bid comparison. For civil works a margin of preference up to 10% for domestic contractors and up to 5% for contractors from other developing countries will be accepted at the request of the recipient country under conditions to be agreed upon with the OPEC Fund (see further details under Para. 6.1). 3.10 Rejection of all bids Bidding documents usually provide that recipients may reject all bids. However, all bids should not be rejected and new bids invited on the same specifications solely for the purpose of obtaining lower prices, except in cases where the lowest evaluated bid exceeds the cost estimates by a substantial amount. In these latter circumstances, the recipient may, as an alternative to retendering and, after con sultation with the OPEC Fund, negotiate with the bidder who has submitted the lowest evaluated bid (or failing a satisfactory response, with the next lowest eva luated bidder) to try to obtain a satisfactory contract.
17
Powered by FlippingBook