Consultant Guidelines- I. Introduction

Purpose

1.3 For the purpose of these Guidelines, the term consultants includes a wide variety of private and public entities, including consulting firms, engineering firms, construction managers, management firms, procurement agents, inspection agents, auditors, United Nations (UN) agencies and other multinational organizations, investment and merchant banks, universities, research institutions, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and individuals.⁴ Bank Borrowers use these organizations as consultants to help in a wide range of activities-such as policy advice; institutional reforms; management; engineering services; construction supervision; financial services; procurement services; social and environmental studies; and identification, preparation, and implementation of projects-to complement Borrowers' capabilities in these areas.

General Considerations

1.4 The Borrower is responsible for preparing and implementing the project, and therefore for selecting the Consultant, and awarding and subsequently administering the contract. While the specific rules and procedures to be followed for employing consultants depend on the circumstances of the particular case, five main considerations guide the Bank's policy on the selection process:

(a) the need for high-quality services,

(b) the need for economy and efficiency,

(c) the need to give qualified consultants from all eligible countries an opportunity to compete in providing the services fi-nanced by the Bank,

(d) the Bank's interest in encouraging the development and use of national consult-ants in its developing member countries, and

(e) the importance of transparency in the selection process.

1.5 The Bank considers that, in the majority of cases, these considerations can best be addressed through competition among qualified short-listed firms in which the selection is based both on the quality of the proposal and on the cost of the services to be provided. (Quality- and Cost-Based Selection [QCBS]). Section II of these Guidelines describes the procedures for QCBS. However, there are cases when QCBS is not the most appropriate method of selection. For complex or highly specialized assignments or those which invite innovations, selection based on the quality of the proposal alone (Quality-Based Selection [QBS]), as described in Section III, would be more appropriate. In addition, Section III describes other methods of selection and the circumstances in which they are appropriate.

1.6 The particular methods to be followed for the selection of consultants for any given project shall be selected by the Borrower in accordance with the criteria outlined in these Guidelines and agreed upon by the Bank and shall be specified in the Bank's project documentation and the Loan Agreement for such project.

Applicability of Guidelines

1.7 The consulting services to which these Guidelines apply are of an intellectual and advisory nature. These Guidelines do not apply to other types of services in which the physical aspects of the activity predominate (for example, construction of works, manufacture of goods, operation and maintenance of facilities or plant, surveys, exploratory drilling, aerial photography, and satellite imagery).⁵

1.8 The procedures outlined in these Guidelines apply to all contracts for consulting services financed in whole or in part from Bank loans or grants or trust funds⁶ implemented by the beneficiary. In procuring consulting services not financed from such sources, the Borrower may adopt other procedures. In such cases, the Bank shall satisfy itself that (a) the procedures to be used will result in the selection of consultants who have the necessary professional qualifications, (b) the selected Consultant will carry out the assignment in accordance with the agreed schedule, and (c) the scope of the services is consistent with the needs of the project.

Conflict of Interest

1.9 Bank policy requires that consultants provide professional, objective, and impartial advice and at all times hold the client's interests paramount, without any consideration for future work, and strictly avoid conflicts with other assignments or their own corporate interests. Consultants shall not be hired for any assignment that would be in conflict with their prior or current obligations to other clients, or that may place them in a position of not being able to carry out the assignment in the best interest of the Borrower. Without limitation on the generality of this rule, consultants shall not be hired under the circumstances set forth below:

(a) A firm which has been engaged by the Borrower to provide goods or works for a project, and any of its affiliates, shall be disqualified from providing consulting services for the same project. Conversely, a firm hired to provide consulting serv-ices for the preparation or implementation of a project, and any of its affiliates, shall be disqualified from subsequently provid-ing goods or works or services related to the initial assignment (other than a con-tinuation of the firm's earlier consulting services as further described in paragraph 3.10) for the same project. This provision does not apply to the various firms (consultants, contractors, or suppliers) that together are performing the contrac-tor's obligations under a turnkey or design-and-build contract.

(b) Consultants or any of their affiliates shall not be hired for any assignment which, by its nature, may be in conflict with another assignment of the consultants. As an ex-ample, consultants hired to prepare engi-neering design for an infrastructure project shall not be engaged to prepare an independent environmental assessment for the same project, and consultants as-sisting a client in the privatization of public assets shall not purchase, nor ad-vise purchasers of, such assets.

Eligibility

1.10 Only firms that are registered or incorporated in, and individuals and personnel who are nationals of, Bank member countries⁷ are eligible to compete for Bank-financed consulting services. However,

(a) Consultants from a member country may be excluded if (i) as a matter of law or official regulations, the Borrower's country prohibits commercial relations with that country, provided that the Bank is satisfied that such exclusion does not preclude effective competition for the procurement of the consulting services required, or (ii) by an act of compliance with a decision of the United Nations Security Council taken under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, the Borrower's country prohibits any pay-ments to persons or entities in that coun-try. (b) Government-owned enterprises in the Borrower's country may participate only if they can establish that they (i) are le-gally and financially autonomous, and (ii) operate under commercial law. No de-pendent agency of the Borrower or Sub-Borrower of the project or their employ-ees shall be permitted to submit or par-ticipate in a proposal for the provision of consulting services under the project.

Advance Contracting and Retroactive Financing

1.11 In certain circumstances, such as to accelerate project implementation, the Borrower may, with the Bank's agreement, wish to proceed with the selection of consultants before the related Bank loan is signed. This process is referred to as advance contracting. In such cases, the selection procedures, including advertisement, shall be in accordance with these Guidelines, and the Bank's normal review process shall be followed. A Borrower undertakes such advance contracting at its own risk, and any "no objection" issued by the Bank with regard to the procedures, documentation, or proposal for award does not commit the Bank to make a loan for the project in question. If the contract is signed, reimbursement by the Bank of any payments made by the Borrower under the contract prior to loan signing is referred to as retroactive financing and is only permitted within the limits specified in the Loan Agreement.

Associations Between Consultants

1.12 Consultants may associate with each other to complement their respective areas of expertise, or for other reasons. Such an association may be for the long term (independent of any particular assignment) or for a specific assignment. The "association" may take the form of a joint venture or of a subconsultancy. In case of a joint venture, all members of the joint venture shall sign the contract and shall be jointly and severally liable for the entire assignment. Once the short list is finalized, and Requests for Proposals (RFPs) are issued, any association in the form of joint venture or subconsultancy among short-listed firms shall be permissible only with the approval of the Borrower. Borrowers shall not require consultants to form associations with any specific firm or group of firms, but may encourage association with qualified national firms.

Bank Review, Assistance, and Monitoring

1.13 The Bank reviews the Borrower's hiring of consultants to satisfy itself that the selection process is carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Loan Agreement. (The review procedures are described in Appendix 1).

1.14 Under special circumstances, the Bank may assist the Borrower in any or all of the various steps of the selection process, such as the provision of short lists⁸ or long lists.⁹ In response to a written request from a Borrower, the Bank will furnish a short or long list of firms that it expects to be capable of undertaking the assignment. The provision of the list does not represent an endorsement of the consultants. The Borrower may delete or add other names as it wishes; however, the final short list shall be submitted to the Bank for its approval before issue of the RFP.

1.15 The Bank maintains an information system on consultants-DAta on CONsultants (DACON). Registration in DACON is not mandatory to be considered for a Bank-financed assignment, nor is DACON a list of preap-proved consultants. When firms register with DACON, they provide information that may be useful to Borrowers and the Bank in the preparation of short lists and review of qualifications of firms proposed by Borrowers. The Bank does not verify or endorse the information provided. The Bank provides this information to member governments, UN agencies, and other public international bodies upon request, without any charge for the Borrowers and at a cost to others. The Bank may, with the consent of the firms, also provide nonconfidential information to other consultants interested in seeking associates or partners for assignments.

1.16 The borrower is responsible for supervising the consultants' performance and ensuring that they carry out the assignment in accordance with the contract. Without assuming the responsibilities of the Borrower or the consultants, Bank staff shall monitor the work as necessary to satisfy themselves that it is being carried out according to appropriate standards, and is based on acceptable data. As appropriate, the Bank may take part in discussions between the Borrower and consultants and, if necessary, may help the Borrower in addressing issues related to the assignment. If a significant portion of project preparation work is being carried out in the consultants' home offices, Bank staff may, with the Borrower's agreement, visit these offices to review the consultants' work.

Reserved Consultant Services

1.17 If a competitive process under these Guidelines would be the appropriate way of procuring certain consulting services, but the Borrower wishes to reserve these services for one or more specific firms, the Bank may accept such reserved selection only on condition that:

(a) the assignment is not eligible for financing out of the Bank loan; and

(b) it will not significantly affect the satisfactory project implementation in terms of cost, quality, and completion time.

Misprocurement

1.18 The Bank shall not finance expenditures for consulting services if the Consultants have not been selected or the services have not been contracted in accordance with the agreed procedures in the Loan Agreement. In particular, the Bank will not finance a contract when the qualifications of the Consultant or the terms and conditions of the contract are not satisfactory to the Bank. In such cases, the Bank will declare misprocurement, and it is the Bank's policy to cancel that portion of the loan allocated to the services that have been misprocured. The Bank may, in addition, exercise other remedies under the Loan Agreement. Once the contract is awarded after obtaining a "no objection" from the Bank, the Bank may still declare misprocurement if it concludes that the "no objection" was issued on the basis of incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading information furnished by the Borrower.

References to the Bank

1.19 The Borrower shall use the following language¹⁰ when referring to the Bank in the RFP and contract documents:

"[Name of the Borrower] has received [or, 'has applied for'] a loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) in various currencies equivalent to US$___, toward the cost of [name of project], and intends to apply a portion of this loan to eligible payments under this Contract. Payments by IBRD will be made only at the request of [name of Borrower or designate] and upon approval by IBRD, and will be subject, in all respects, to the terms and conditions of the Loan Agreement. The Loan Agreement prohibits a withdrawal from the Loan Account for the purpose of any payment to persons or entities, or for any import of goods, if such payment or import, to the knowledge of the Bank, is prohibited by a decision of the United Nations Security Council taken under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. No party other than [name of Borrower] shall derive any rights from the Loan Agreement or have any claim to proceeds."

Training or Transfer of Knowledge

1.20 If the assignment includes an important component for training or transfer of knowledge to Borrower staff or national consultants, the Terms of Reference (TOR) shall indicate the objectives, nature, scope, and goals of the training program, including details on trainers and trainees, skills to be transferred, time frame, and monitoring and evaluation arrangements. The cost for the training program shall be included in the Consultant's contract and in the budget for the assignment.

Language

1.21 The RFP and the proposal shall be prepared in either English, French, or Spanish at the choice of the Borrower. The text of the contract documents in that language shall govern.

1.22 The Borrower may, at its option and provided the national language is widely used, permit national consultants (excluding joint ventures between foreign and national firms), to submit their proposals and sign their contracts in the national language only, which shall then be the governing language for the contract. In such cases, the Bank shall be provided a translation of the firm's proposal and the contract in the international language specified in the RFP for contracts subject to prior review. Borrowers shall not ask firms to sign contracts both in a foreign and in the national language.

Evaluation of the Performance of Consultants

1.23 Consultants shall observe due diligence and prevailing standards in the performance of the assignment. The Bank shall evaluate the performance of consultants employed under Bank-financed contracts in a fair and confiden-tial process. The performance ratings will be an input for future short-listing. In the case of repeated poor performance, the firm will be notified and provided an opportunity to explain the reasons for it and the remedial action proposed. If poor performance persists, the Bank may exclude the firm from participation in Bank-financed assignments for a stated period.

1.24 Consultants shall be responsible for the accuracy and suitability of their work. Although Borrowers supervise and review the consultants' work, no modifications shall be made in the final documents prepared by the consultants without mutual agreement. In the case of supervision of works, consultants may have more or less authority to supervise, from full responsibility as an independent engineer, to that of advisor to the client with little authority to make decisions.¹¹

Fraud and Corruption

1.25 It is the Bank's policy to require that Borrowers (including beneficiaries of Bank loans), as well as consultants under Bank-financed contracts, observe the highest standard of ethics during the selection and execution of such contracts. In pursuance of this policy, the Bank:

(a) defines, for the purposes of this provision, the terms set forth below as follows:

(i) "corrupt practice" means the offer-ing, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any thing of value to influence the action of a public official in the selection process or in contract exe-cution; and

(ii) "fraudulent practice" means a misrepresentation of facts in order to influence a selection process or the execution of a contract to the detri-ment of the Borrower, and includes collusive practices among consultants (prior to or after submission of proposals) designed to establish prices at artificial, noncompetitive levels and to deprive the Borrower of the benefits of free and open competition;

(b) will reject a proposal for award if it determines that the Consultant recommended for award has engaged in corrupt or fraudulent activities in competing for the contract in question;

(c) will cancel the portion of the loan allocated to the Consultant's contract if it at any time determines that corrupt or fraudulent practices were engaged in by representatives of the Borrower or of a beneficiary of the loan during the selection process or the execution of that contract, without the Borrower having taken timely and appropriate action satisfactory to the Bank to remedy the situation;

(d) will declare a Consultant ineligible, either indefinitely or for a stated period of time, to be awarded a Bank-financed contract if it at any time determines that the Consult-ant has engaged in corrupt or fraudulent practices in competing for, or in executing, a Bank-financed contract; and

(e) will have the right to require that, in contracts financed by a Bank loan, a provision be included requiring consultants to permit the Bank to inspect their accounts and records relating to the performance of the contract and to have them audited by auditors appointed by the Bank.

1.26. With the specific agreement of the Bank, a Borrower may introduce, into the RFPs for large contracts financed by the Bank, a requirement that the Consultant include in the proposal an  undertaking of the Consultant to observe, in competing for and executing a contract, the country's laws against fraud and corruption (including bribery), as listed in the RFPs.¹²   The Bank will accept the introduction of such a requirement at the request of the Borrower's country, provided it is satisfied:

(a) that the requirement of such an undertaking is part of an anti-corruption program initi-ated by the Borrower's country; and

(b) that such requirement will apply, within a timetable agreed between the Bank and the Borrower's country, to all similar public selections of consultants."

(next section: II. Quality- and Cost-Based Selection)

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Footnotes