Technical Audits for Municipal Road Projects in North Macedonia

Request for Expressions of Interest Consulting Services Implementing Agency: Ministry of Transport Country: Republic of North Macedonia Project: Local Roads Connectivity Project - P170267 Assignment Title: Technical assistance for carrying out the independent technical audits of civil works on the municipal sub-projects under LRCP implementation Loan No.: 9034-MK and 9210-MK REoI Reference No.: LRCP-9034-9210-MK-CQS-A.3.1.15 Estimated cost: EUR 200 K Issued on: November 28 , 202 5 The Republic of North Macedonia has received a financing from the World Bank - International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the form of a loan toward the cost of the Local Roads Connectivity Project and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services.

Local Roads Connectivity Project (“the LRCP”) is financed by the Loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development – World Bank in order to improve the government’s and municipalities’ capacities to manage local roads and to improve the access to markets and services.

One of the project components includes civil works for reconstruction and/or rehabilitation of about 260 km of local roads/streets in 287 sections, to improve their quality, safety and resilience, as well as respective consulting services for supervision. The number of Contracts is 50, with 20 Contractors and 3 Consultants for Supervision under 5 Contracts. The loan’s closing date is September 30, 2026.

The Ministry of Transport from the Republic of North Macedonia has established a Project Implementation Unit for implementation of Local Roads Connectivity Project (“the LRCP”) which is being financed by the World Bank.

Technical Audits will be carried out to enable the PIU/Ministry of Transport to critically assess the implementation of the Project, in particular to determine does the civil works under construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation of the local roads works were performed with a high quality.

The present Terms of Reference describe the Services of a Consultant firm to be retained for carrying out the Technical Audits for the period between February to June 2026.

The main objectives of the technical audits are to verify independently the extent to which (i) the roads are being constructed, reconstructed, or rehabilitated in accordance with the relevant civil works contracts, the relevant standards and specifications and good international practice, (ii) the documentation, timeliness and overall quality of project management, supervision and construction is appropriate, and iii) to identify lessons learned and opportunities to improve practices for ongoing or future similar civil works.

The technical audits will be a part of the due diligence activities for the Project Implementation Unit Local Roads Connectivity Project (“the LRCP”) within the Ministry of Transport and the World Bank.

The Terms of References in the English language may be obtained by interested eligible consulting firms (“Consultants”) from the website of the national electronic system for procurement: “ЕСЈН-Заеми/Донации/Грантови-Огласи од меѓународни институции” (https://www.e-nabavki.gov.mk) and from the website of the Ministry of Transport: http://mtc.gov.mk/javniOglasi.

The Ministry of Transport now invites eligible consulting firms (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services.

The qualification criteria are: The Consultant/technical audit firm shall be a firm or association of firms in the form of a joint venture or sub consultancy with following qualifications:, The technical audit firm must have previous successful experience with carrying out technical audits or similar quality assurance/supervision services in the road sector, in at least 3 (three) projects during the past 10 years.

Experience within the European Union or EU pre-accession countries as well as knowledge of conditions/legislation in subject area in North Macedonia is considered as an advantage; The Consultant must be fully independent and must demonstrate in its technical proposal that has no conflict of interest.

In particular must demonstrate that is not related in any way to contractors, supervision consultants and/or project management professionals currently working for or in contract with LRCP. Same applies for engaged key professional staff by the technical audit firm.

The credibility of mentioned experience shall be presented in a list of at least three (3) project references with similar nature, within last ten (10) years with description of services provided (including information on contract value, contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration, assignment budget, percentage carried out by consultant in case of association of firms or subcontracting and main activities) and accompanied by certificates of orderly fulfilment of the contracts verified by other party from such contracts.

The Consultant shall have the organizational capacity (it is expected that the Consultant shall have at least ten (10) employees/sub-contracted experts for performing activities under this assignment) to perform this assignment as well as available appropriate skills among staff. It is expected that the Consultant submits information on their organizational capacity in their Expression of Interest.

Note to Consultant: To facilitate the evaluation process, during the preparation of the EOI the Consultants should clearly indicate for each criteria list of projects, accompanied by certificates of orderly fulfilment of the contracts verified by other party from such contracts.

Hence, first should be indicated the criterion, and below the criterion it should be indicated the list of conducted contracts, under the list, the consultant should indicate the certificates/proofs for fulfilment of those contracts. If it is not clearly stated for which contract the certificate is issued, the Consultant should write the number and title of the contract on the certificate/proof.

The Qualifications and Experience of Key Experts are not included in the shortlisting criteria. Key Experts will not be evaluated at this stage. Consultants are required to confirm the availability of qualified key experts according to the positions and respective qualifications for each, as listed in the TOR.

The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to Section III, paragraphs, 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” dated July 2016, revised November 2017, July 2018, November 2020, September 2023 and February 2025 (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.

Consultants may associate with other firms to enhance their qualifications but should indicate clearly whether the association is in the form of a joint venture and/or a sub-consultancy. In the case of a joint venture, all the partners in the joint venture shall be jointly and severally liable for the entire contract, if selected.

A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Consultant’s qualifications-based selection (CQS) method set out in the Procurement Regulations, throughout Open International Competitive Procurement. The eligible consulting firms (“Consultants”) can obtain further information from the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) at the Ministry of Transport, Attn: Ms. Vlasta Ruzinovska, Ms. Natasha Stojanovska, and/or Mr.

Slavko Micevski, e-mail: vlasta.ruzinovska@piu.mtc.gov.mk; natasha.stojanovska@piu.mtc.gov.mk; and slavko.micevski@piu.mtc.gov.mk; procurement.piu.mtc@gmail.com during office hours from 09:30 to 15:30.

The eligible consulting firms (“Consultants”) must submit their Expression of Interest only by e-mail to all the below-listed e-mail addresses (as readable PDF files in the English language), latest on December 12, 2025, 15:30 p.m. Receipt of each Expression of Interest will be immediately confirmed. Ministry for Transport Project Implementation Unit Attn: Ms. Vlasta Ruzinovska, Ms. Natasha Stojanovska and/or Mr.

Slavko Micevski – procurement Specialists Street “Crvena Skopska Opstina”, Nr. 4, 1000 Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia Tel: + 389 (0)2 3145 531; Web site addresses: http://mtc.gov.mk/javniOglasi; https://www.e-nabavki.gov.mk.

E-mail addresses (obligatory): vlasta.ruzinovska@piu.mtc.gov.mk natasha.stojanovska@piu.mtc.gov.mk slavko.micevski@piu.mtc.gov.mk maja.lazarevska@piu.mtc.gov.mk procurement.piu.mtc@gmail.com Agency: Ministry of Transport and Communications Procurement method: Consultant Qualification Selection Notice type: Request for Expression of Interest Status: Published Value: 222200.0 USD