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Liberian Gov't Publishes a Notification Rehabilitation & Development of the Western Cluster of Iron Ore Deposits Project
Feb 8, 2008
by Global News Network / Contributor

The Liberian government has put out a Public Notification Rehabilitation & Developmentof the Western Cluster of Iron Ore Deposits Project.

The Ministry of Lands, Mines & Energy and the Inter-Ministerial Mineral Technical Committee are pleased to announce to the general public that bid proposals for the rehabilitation and development of the western cluster of iron ore deposits have been concluded and that the result of the evaluation as outlined herein below has been provisionally approved by the President of the Republic, pending the outcome of due diligence; which shall be done by the Inter-Ministerial Concession Committee, under the Chairmanship of the National Investment Commission(NIC).

The Tender process was of two stages, namely (a) a pre-qualification stage launched through a Request for Expression - of – Interest (REOI), and (b) the final selection phase launched through a Request Bid Proposal (RBP).

During the Pre-qualification phase, 14 Expressions of Interest (EOI) were received.

These EOIs were evaluated and only 7 of the applicants were shortlisted and pre-qualified to participate in the bidding for the Western Cluster.

The emphasis during this pre-qualification phase, was on the applicants identity, past and present experience, capacity to perform technically and financially.

Although some of the successful applicants are “giants” in the industry, all seven (7) crossed the pre-qualification gate and were considered on equal footing going into the second phase.

The second phase was focused principally on the bid proposal submitted; and not on whether the applicant is a big player or a small player in the industry.

The Bid Proposal was evaluated for what it is worth and not on the basis of who submitted it. Proposals submitted were examined, cataloged and compared through an objective scoring process.

All of this was done under the watchful eyes of a GEMAP expert sponsored by USAID.

The bid proposals were evaluated on the following criteria:

Bidder’s Qualification ……………………………………………………… 10 points.
The Bid Proposal (completeness, Clarity, Quality, Suitability …etc.) …65 points
Bidder’s Proposed Financial Commitments …………………………….. 25 points
Total …………………………………………………………………… 100 points

The Results obtained are outlined below:


Bidders
Bidder's Profile
Bidder's Technical proposal Bidder's Financial Proposal Bidder's Total Scores
Delta Mining Consolidated (PTY) Ltd. 7.3 59.2 23.5 90.1
Sino Steel Corporation 8.9 54.2 20.9 83.9
Tata Steel 9.4 48.2 20.3 77.9
Xingxing Group Ltd. 8.0 50.1 16.9 75.0
ArcelorMittal 9.3 45.9 18.9 74.0
Bahlodi Africa (Liberia) Ltd. 5.4 38.5 15.8 59.7

The results speak for themselves:

in terms of Bidders’ profile, the “ Big Companies” took the lead with Tata Steel and ArcelorMittal (Mittal Steel) ahead;

In terms of completeness, clarity and quality of the Bidders (Technical and Financial) proposals for the specific project of the Wetern Cluster of Iron Ore Deposits, Delta Mining Consolidated took the lead.

The evaluation was based purely on the content of what was submitted as proposal by the bidders; no other consideration was taken into account.

The Evaluation process comprised the following steps:

Examination of the content of the proposals - the committee developed and adopted a FACT SHEET- a matrix format for extracting and cataloging the essential elements from the bidders’ proposals. Based on this Facts Sheet, the elements of each proposal were lifted and cataloged.

The Committee in plenary session reviewed each of these fact sheets to ensure consensus on the completeness and correctness of the facts lifted

Each Head of Delegation then took the final fact sheet back to office to brief his principal and consult on the Agencies position in terms of scoring;

In plenary session again, each agency scored each proposal separately; given marks to each of the components on the score sheet.

Finally, immediately thereafter, in the same sitting, the scores were tallied and the overall scores calculated. For each component, the separate scores of the agencies were averaged; hence the final score received represents the joint opinion of seven Ministries and Agencies, each represented by the best talents available.

All of this was done under the watchful eyes of a GEMAP expert sponsored by USAID.

In conclusion, the process is designed so that the Quality of the Bidders is evaluated at the initial stage through the Expression of Interest (EOI) , the Pre-qualification stage ; and the Quality of the Bidders’ proposals are evaluated during the second stage which was recently completed.

The Proposals, the Facts Sheets and the Scoring Sheets are available for review by authorized parties.

The next stage will include more due diligence and negotiations. Due diligence is continuous until the project is awarded.

Rigorous due diligence should now be done on the three successful Bidders, prior to and during negotiations.

About the Author:
Global News Network, Inc. (GNN), a local Liberian news agency, and is managed by a Liberian Journalist J. Cholo Brooks. Mr. Brooks served the BBC African Service as its Monrovia Correspondent for over a decade, he is a Senior Staff writer for The Liberian Times (www.theliberiantimes.com). He has been a member of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) since 1972. He is also one of the Contact Persons for the Committee to Protect Journalists, a US based Rights Organization. GNN Contact: Phone: +2316461010/+2315885625

Global News Network may be contacted at jcholobrooks@theliberiantimes..