Provision of an expense management solution

Such as for minimum qualification requirements, the tender sets exclusion grounds (mandatory and optional) aligned with Belgian law: criminal convictions (organised crime, corruption, terrorism, money laundering, trafficking, illegal employment of third-country nationals), unpaid social and fiscal debts beyond defined thresholds, bankruptcy or serious professional misconduct, collusion, conflicts of interest, prior serious performance failures, and attempts to unduly influence the procedure. Belgian bidders rely mainly on electronic checks (Telemarc) and an extract of the criminal record; foreign bidders must provide equivalent certificates identified via e‑Certis (criminal record, social/fiscal compliance, non-bankruptcy). On selection, bidders must demonstrate economic and financial capacity by disclosing global turnover and sector turnover for the last three financial years; sector turnover must be at least EUR 400,000 per year and they must have “créances certaines, exigibles et libres de tout engagement” at least equal to any debt minus EUR 3,000. Technical capacity requires a list of main services over the last three years and at least three references for expense management solutions, each representing at least 10,000 expense claims per year, with contract amount, number of notes, date and client identified. Within 30 days of contract conclusion, the awarded bidder must prove that it has insurance for workplace accidents and civil liability and must maintain this throughout execution.

Such as for the scope of the contract, the object is a single lot services contract for a digital, highly configurable expense management platform (notes de frais) with workflows, integrations and reporting; no lots, variants or options are allowed (variants and options, even free, are explicitly prohibited). The contract duration is three years; there is no reconduction clause beyond this, and RTBF may decide not to reconduct, with notified termination three months before the end, without indemnity. Pricing is mixed: some items are unit-price (bordereau) and others lump-sum/global, as detailed in the inventory; quantities in the inventory are indicative for unit prices and based on best estimates for global prices, but no right to price revision arises from quantity variation. Prices must be stated in euros, two decimals, with VAT rates per inventory item; evaluation is VAT‑inclusive. The solution must operate in RTBF’s environment, integrate with SAP, ULIS, AirPlus cards, identity/SSO (O365, SAML2.0, OAuth, OpenID), and comply with Belgian tax rules (including probative archiving), GDPR, security and wellbeing-at-work rules. It should be SaaS with at least production and test/integration environments accessible to RTBF; training must use anonymised test data. The place of performance is essentially RTBF’s sites (notably boulevard A. Reyers, Brussels) and RTBF’s information system; no specific site visit is mentioned as mandatory.

Such as for award criteria and weighting, the contract is awarded to the economically most advantageous regular offer. The criteria are: (1) Price – 40 points, using the formula P = 40 × (Pm / Po) where Pm is the lowest VAT‑inclusive price and Po the price of the offer assessed; (2) Technical quality of the solution – 40 points, evaluated via a max 20‑page note structured by sub-criteria: ergonomics/UX (20 points), automation and AI (10 points), integrations and architecture (5 points), reporting and evolutivity (5 points). RTBF may organise product demos to assess ergonomics. (3) Service quality – 10 points, based on a max 5‑page note covering technical service/maintenance, review methodology and frequency, and dedicated account management. (4) Implementation and follow-up – 5 points, via a max 5‑page note on deployment methodology, project support quality and planning. (5) Environmental management – 5 points, via a max 5‑page note on eco‑responsible hosting, CSR policy, digital accessibility and energy consumption reduction. For criteria 2–5, a qualitative scale from 0% (very bad) to 100% (excellent) is used; all criterion scores are summed, and the highest total wins, provided the offer is regular.

Such as for risks, guarantees and special conditions, the bidder is bound by its offer for 180 calendar days from the deadline for receipt. RTBF checks price realism and may inspect accounting documents and sites. The bidder must renounce any own sales conditions contrary to the cahier des charges, both at offer stage and via a reminder in execution clauses; Belgian law and Brussels courts (French language) have exclusive jurisdiction. A 5% performance bond (cautionnement) of the initial contract amount must be constituted (via deposit, guarantee or insurance) within 30 days of contract conclusion, with proof delivered before starting execution. Execution clauses emphasise full responsibility of the adjudicataire for staff and subcontractors; RTBF can demand replacement of personnel and re-performance of non-compliant services at the contractor’s cost. RTBF imposes strict obligations on safety, wellbeing, data security, GDPR, confidentiality and rights in data, with explicit clauses on incident handling, modifications, circumstances imprévisibles and compensation. Specific penalties apply: general penalties under AR RGE plus special daily/hourly penalties (EUR 500 per day of platform unavailability; EUR 100 per hour of support unavailability; EUR 100 per hour for SLA non‑respect), and delay fines of 0.1% per day of delay, capped at 7.5% of the value of delayed services. Force majeure must be notified within 48 hours by registered letter and email; RTBF may postpone or terminate, with limited indemnity (10% of already engaged amounts) if decision occurs within 7 days before execution. Communications (including recommended letters) are mainly electronic (e‑Notification, e‑Procurement, Aangetekend BV), with the bidder able to refuse electronic registered mail in Annex 1. Questions on errors/omissions must be sent via the e‑Notification forum at the latest ten days before the offer deadline; after the deadline, the bidder can no longer rely on errors in the documents or in its own offer. No mandatory site visit is described.

Such as for contradictions or corrections between documents, the hierarchy clause governs: technical clauses prevail over administrative clauses, which prevail over the inventory, which in turn prevail over other annexes. In case of unresolved contradictions, the bidder must immediately inform the contracting authority before submitting its offer so that a rectification can be issued; RTBF may publish rectificative documents and extend deadlines if needed. During execution, if there is a discrepancy between the adjudicataire’s offer and the cahier des charges, the cahier des charges always prevails. Furthermore, once the deadline for submission has passed (even if extended), the bidder can no longer invoke errors or omissions in the tender documents or formal defects in its own offer, which heightens the risk of non‑compliance if contradictions are not identified and raised in time.