Question:

1/ a) All three legal entities – the architecture studio, the landscape architecture studio and the transport engineer – are located in Helsinki, Finland. We would like to ask whether:

• the extract from the Criminal Records Registry and other legal documents (from the tax office, the Commercial Register etc.) need be officially translated into English.
• the same applies to agreements demonstrating participation at the various project documentation levels and agreements between the studios and the Contracting Authority (the city). All the agreements are in Finnish. Should we have them translated?

Answer:

1/ a) The extract from the Criminal Records Registry and other legal documents need to be submitted in Czech or in English. A simple translation with the original language version appended to it is sufficient. If the translation is incomprehensible, we are entitled under Section 45(3) of the Act to request an official translation.

To demonstrate services under the technical qualification criterion, it is sufficient to submit a list that includes the price of the services, the period when they were provided and the client. The agreement is not expressly required. If you decide to submit agreements or a document demonstrating the contractor’s performance, the procedure concerning translation is the same as discussed above, i.e., a simple translation into Czech or English.

b) As part of the technical qualification criterion, these projects will only be assessed as a list. Projects that were used to demonstrate technical qualification will then be part of the reference portfolio, which is submitted as part of the Professional Approach. The portfolio will not be assessed even in the evaluation of the Professional Approach. The Professional Approach catalogue will contain selected examples of projects presented in the portfolio.

Question:

2/ a) We would like to work in a team comprising Czech and Swiss nationals. We are not sure, however, how to correctly demonstrate the basic qualification of the foreign co-author/architect. Do documents proving integrity (i.e., no final conviction in the last five years; no tax or payments against social security insurance or health insurance owed; not in the process of liquidation) have to be translated into Czech and officially verified?

Answer:

a) The submitted documents need to be submitted in Czech or in English. A simple translation with the original language version appended to it is sufficient. If the translations are incomprehensible, we are entitled under Section 45(3) of the Act to request an official translation.

b) If these team members are to be part of the company, an agreement concluded according to Section 2716 of Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code, as amended, needs to be submitted. If they are to be subcontractors, the agreement needs to be submitted with the proposed solution, i.e., after Workshop III.

Question:

3/ We are interested in the competition to redesign Charles Square. Please can you confirm what the requirements for the first stage submission, due on 12 October, are? Am I correct in understanding that we must complete and submit the master reference portfolio and master professional approach documents.  IS there any further documentation to be submitted?

Answer:

Master reference portfolio and master professional approach documents are not required for application to participate. It is necessary to submit them after the invitation to participate in the competitive dialogue. In this invitation will be stated all requirements needed for further participation in the process.

For details of the application to participate please see part II. 2. where you can find details about the qualification and part III. where are details of the application to participate. If you will have some further questions do not hesitate to contact me.

Question:
4/ We would like to register an interest in taking part in the Charles Square competition in Prague. As landscape architects we wish to be lead consultant and work to redevelop the park and dramatically improve its design and connections to the wider urban fabric of Prague. Can you please confirm how one registers? We will be submitting a document by 12 October as requested. Is an official registration required?

Answer: 

If I understood your question well, there is no other official registration required. You shall follow the provision of part III. - Applications to Participate of the Notification of Commencement of a procurement procedure involving competitive dialogue and submit no later than by 12. 10. 2017 your application to participate, which function as registration.

Question: 

5/ a) Does PPA accept any architectural and planning certificate in the world?

Answer:

a) PPA does not specify this. Based on your question, we will change the tender documentation, see below.

b) All members of the Supplier’s Team must meet the basic qualification criteria in accordance with Section 74. The requirements of Section 77 and Section 79 shall be provided by the contractor itself.

Modification and supplementation of the tender documentation

(pursuant to Section 99 of the Act)

The Contracting Authority hereby modifies and supplements the tender documentation and publishes it in the same manner as the Notification titled “Project No. 0042804 Revitalization of Charles Square, Stage II – proceedings involving competitive dialogue for design and engineering services”, i.e. on the Contracting Authority’s website.

Modification:

The text “or similar certifications / authorizations from other EU Member States, EEA or Switzerland if it is required in participant‘s country of residence.” in the Part II. Phases of the competitive dialogue procedure, 1) Phase 1, Art. 2.2. Professional qualification is hereby replaced by new wording as follows:

“or similar certifications / authorizations from other countries, if required for the performance of the above mentioned specialisations in the participant‘s country of residence. If an authorization is not required for the above mentioned specialisations in the participant‘s country of residence, the participant submit an affidavit stating that it is not required.”

Question:

6/ a) I would like to confirm whether I am interpreting the tender conditions correctly if I believe the first day of the tendering procedure was 9 August 2017 and that it is thus necessary for all authorized participants to have a certificate of authorization that is older than from 9 May 2017. Another possible interpretation is that the tendering procedure is understood to begin with the call for submission of final proposals. Please clarify. 

Answer:

a) Documents demonstrating the fulfilment of the basic and professional qualification may not be more than three months old before commencement of the tendering procedure, i.e., they must not be older than from 9 May 2017.

As part of the requirements for demonstrating professional qualification, the supplier is obliged to submit the certificate of authorization in accordance with Act No. 360/1992 Coll., on the Profession Practice of Certified Architects and on the Professional Practice of Certified Engineers, as amended, specifically for the fields of: landscape architecture (ČKA authorization A3 or A0), architecture (ČKA authorization A1 or A0) and authorized civil engineer for traffic infrastructure (ČKAIT ID00), or a similar authorization from another country, provided such certificate of authorization is required for the performance of the mentioned professions in the country where the applicant is active (domiciled). If no such authorization is required for the performance of the mentioned professions in the country where the applicant is active (domiciled), the applicant shall submit a declaration of honor stating that such authorization is not required. Only a simple copy of the certificate of authorization needs to be submitted. The requirements of Section 85(5) of the Act do not apply to the certificate of authorization, i.e., the certificate of authorization may be older than three months prior to the commencement of the tendering procedure.

Should a supplier demonstrate fulfilment of the basic or professional requirements by a method prescribed by Section 228 of the Act (extract from the list of qualified suppliers), such extract shall not be, as of the last day on which qualification may be demonstrated (i.e., as of the day of submission of the application to participate), older than three months.

Should a supplier demonstrate qualification by a method prescribed by Section 239 of the Act (certificate issued within the framework of the certified suppliers system) and such certificate meets the requirements stipulated in Section 239(1) of the Act, such certificate shall not be, as of the last day on which qualification may be demonstrated, older the one year.

b) We require documents to be submitted in Czech or English. A simple translation is sufficient. If the translations are incomprehensible, we are entitled under Section 45(3) of the Act to request an official translation

c) If several suppliers are submitting a joint application to participate, then a consortium agreement under Section 2716 of Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code, as amended, must be submitted.

Question:

7/ a) Can members of a team (such as the engineering consultants) be in more than 1 team?

Answer:

a) For a clear explanation of the tender documentation, it is necessary to specify the legal relationship between the team member and the Supplier.

b) Registration is not mandatory, it is not required for submitting of an Application to participate. However registration is recommended, because subscribers automatically get updates related to public contract in question, and it is not necessary for them to check the profile.

c) The entire (core) Supplier’s Team means 3 main team members, three natural persons required in the technical qualification.

d) The tendering conditions require that the three required Supplier’s Team members, landscape architect, architect and transport engineer, as natural persons, meet the technical qualification requirements. In the Czech Republic the authorization to perform the aforementioned professions is tied to a specific person, in the form of authorization for a given discipline. If the persons, who you want to nominate as members of the core Supplier’s Team, have adequate education and authorization to independently practice their profession in a given country, it is possible, but it is necessary to prove the qualifications required in your country for performing of the stated profession.

e) As part of the technical qualification criterion, these projects will only be assessed as a list (not evaluated). For this reason, it is unnecessary to submit more projects. We recommend you to submit only those that are needed for a proof of the technical qualification. Projects that are used to demonstrate technical qualification will be then part of the Reference Portfolio, which is showed in the Professional Approach. You will be invited to submit it in the invitation to take part in the Competitive Dialogue. In total, a maximum of six projects can be submitted in the Reference Portfolio, for this reason more than six projects should not be documented in the technical qualification. This would mean that these six projects from technical qualification would all have to be part of the Reference Portfolio and the Supplier would not have the opportunity to submit other projects at their own discretion.

Question:

Explanation of tender documentation (according to Section 98 of the Act)

Answer:

The Contracting Authority presents its explanation No. 12121/2017 of its tender documentation and publishes it in the same way as the notification of commencement of the procurement procedure entitled “Project No. 0042804 Revitalization of Charles Square, Stage II. – proceedings involving competitive dialogue for design and engineering services” was published, i.e., on the Contracting Authority’s profile.

Regarding the rising amount of questions about the legal position of the supplier’s team, we respond as follows:

Possible legal positions of the supplier’s team members as required by the Contracting Authority in the technical qualifications

• Member of the supplier’s team is his employee
• Team member is identical with the supplier.
• Team member is part of the company (pursuant to Section 2716 of Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code, as amended), and, consequently, a supplier.
• Member of the team is a subcontractor to the supplier.

In case of foreign team members, those must be authorized to prepare documentation used in the procedure of zoning decision and construction project documentation valid in the Czech Republic, pursuant to Section 4 Part 4 Act No 360/1992 Coll., about the performance of the  profession of authorized architects, authorized engineers and technicians in civil construction, as amended. A certificate proving compliance with this requirements must be appended to the supplier team members’ list.

A supplier cannot submit more applications (nor subsequent bids). A supplier that submits his application (as an independent subject, or together with other supplier) must not be identical with a person through whom another supplier demonstrates his qualification. However, it is possible that a person that had not submitted an offer is used by more than one supplier applying for participation, to demonstrate his qualification. Consequently, it is possible that one person constitutes a team member of more teams, but only if that person acts as a subcontractor to the supplier.

8/Question: The term ‘engineer/s’ and ‘traffic engineer/s’ are used interchangeable in the document and the questions and answers. Please confirm that a civil or structural engineer is not required at this application stage. 

Please, we believe that there is no mandatory formal application framework (paper size, page rank, font size, etc.) for stage 1 (submission of the Application to Participate) and that this, including the mandatory list of services, is formally entirely in charge of the Supplier?

Please, do we understand correctly that both sample layouts provided in the documentation (layout of the Professional Approach and Layout of the Reference Portfolio) relate to the second phase (competitive dialogue)?

“Suppliers shall submit their Application to participate in one single bound file. The application needs to be in Czech or English language (in accordance with Section 45 paragraph 3 PPA any documents in Slovak language and education certificates made out in Latin do not require translations). Individual sheets of the application shall be tightly bound together and sealed against tampering (for example by a string tied through punch holes in individual sheets, with the string sealed), and numbered by uninterrupted numerical sequence. The first page shall provide a table of contents and the last page shall contain the affidavit of the supplier specifying the number of sheets in the complete file.

Suppliers shall submit their application in 1 original (the front page carrying designation “original”) and in 1 simple copy (front page shall carry the word “copy“).”

For more information on the content of the Application to Participate, see Part III. Applications to Participate (page 12-13).

Point 2.3. of the "Notification of Commencement of Procurement Procedure Involving Competitive Dialogue” requires that members of the supplier’s team having authorisation for the field of architecture and/or landscape architecture document, in summary, that they have worked as authors or co-authors on a project of an immovable heritage object (park, historical garden or building) with a value of at least CZK 10 million.

a) Does the realisation of a public space (e.g., park or street) that is part of an urban monuments preservation area and listed as an immovable cultural moment of the Czech Republic satisfy this condition?

b) Is it necessary that the requested object be located in the Czech and thus be on list of immovable cultural monuments of the Czech Republic? If not, based on what criteria will the value of the monument protection of the mentioned object be assessed in relation to the required qualification condition?

a) With regard to the international context of the proceedings and as the legislative conditions of monument protection in other countries differ substantially to those applicable in the Czech Republic, we understand the term immovable cultural monument (Phase II – Competitive Dialogue, 1) Phase 1, Article 2.3 Technical qualification) to be broader than the one attached to it only by Czech legislation. The purpose of this technical qualification condition is for the participant’s team to demonstrate that it has experience with executing projects of corresponding importance and size that would require the ability to work with the responsible monument protection authorities in the respective municipality/country. In this respect, we will also accept projects that pertain to public space that is part of an urban monuments preservation area with a level of protection that corresponds to the highest level of monument protection in the respective country.

b) The required immovable cultural monument need not be located in the Czech Republic. See our response to the first question.

a) We do not understand the graphic manual. It appears that only one reference project is allocated to each criterion in the Professional Approach. I do not think that it is possible to describe such a large area through one other, and thus inevitably different, project. It also appears that the subject of the Professional Approach is not a specific layout/proposed solution to Charles Square. Is this correct? What output is thus expected under the Professional Approach?

b) What is the relationship of the four projects to be submitted under the technical qualification to the six projects to be submitted in the portfolio and the projects presented in the Professional Approach? Must/can some of them be contained in all these materials? I.e., if a project is listed in the technical qualification, does it have to be contained in the portfolio among the six projects as well as in the Professional Approach as part of one of the criteria? It may therefore occur that some of the material will be duplicated, and this to us does not seem to be very effective. Nevertheless, it does appear to us that this will be required of us, especially if the projects that we are using to demonstrate our qualification will observe the way of thinking that needs to be presented in the Professional Approach as well (this also relates to the previous question, i.e., whether each criterion is represented by only one reference project).

We would first like to call attention to the fact that your question refers to the original wording of the tender documentation that was, based on requests for explanation of the tender documentation, amended and specified also in this point. An overview of all amendments is available on the Contracting Authority’s profile.

a) At this stage, the Reference Portfolio and Professional Approach are not required. You will to submit them only after all the tender conditions set out in the tender documentation have been met, i.e.  after receiving the invitation to take part in competitive dialogue. The invitation to take part in competitive dialogue will contain the information and materials required for processing the Professional Approach to preparing the proposed solution and the requirements for submitting the Reference Portfolio (updated layout and instructions for completion). The updated layout is only indicative, to give you an idea about the future form of the expected documents in relation to the technical qualification.

b) As part of the technical qualification (this phase of the procedure), projects are reviewed only as a list (they are not assessed). Projects used to demonstrate the technical qualification will then be part of the Reference Portfolio, or project catalogue, submitted in the Professional Approach. Up to six other reference projects may be added to the Reference Portfolio with no further specification required. For this reason, we recommend at this stage only submitting projects that will help you demonstrate the technical qualification, so that you will have the possibility to submit other projects at your discretion in the next phase as well. Only projects in the Reference Portfolio may be used as reference projects for the various criteria in the Professional Approach.

A maximum of two projects may be used for each criterion of the Professional Approach; however, one reference project may be used for several criteria. The Professional Approach is in the form of a text proposal supplemented with your reference projects. The Graphic Approach, which deals with the revitalisation of Charles Square, is not the subject of the Professional Approach, but is part of the phase following Workshop I.