Acquisition, implementation and support of an integrated computerised personnel file (DPI) solution for the benefit of RTBF

✓Boulevard Reyers, Brussels), with execution constrained by onsite safety and wellbeing regulations.

✓The bidder must provide a detailed execution planning with phases and milestones; this planning becomes contractually binding upon notification and is linked to payment milestones.

❓No site visit is explicitly described in the provided extracts, but any work on RTBF sites is subject to stringent safety and wellbeing requirements.

✓Award criteria and weighting are set out precisely.

✓A mandatory Proof of Concept (POC) is organised with each bidder to verify technical requirements and evaluate sub‑criteria 3.1 and 3.2.

✓The documents highlight numerous risks and special conditions for bidders.

✓Offers may be declared irregular and rejected for various reasons (wrong language, missing or incorrect documents, late submission, non‑compliance with technical specifications, inability to provide all services, insufficient French language mastery of personnel, essential non‑compliance in technical, security or GDPR aspects, failure to participate in POC).

✓The bid validity period is 150 calendar days from the deadline for receipt of offers.

✓On subcontracting, the documents impose transparency and security constraints.

✓Such as: the bidder must indicate in the offer the parts of the contract intended to be subcontracted and identify subcontractors, especially those involved in hosting the solution and data processing.

✓Given the nature of the data (HR and personal data), RTBF requires clarity on hosting providers and locations, and reminds that the general DPA conditions (Annexe 8.1) apply.

✓Use of third‑party capacities under article 78 LOI/73 AR PASSATION is allowed but requires firm, precise commitments covering the relevant part of the contract for the full duration, with no reservations; each such entity must provide its own DUME and meet access conditions.

✓RTBF emphasises information security and NIS2 readiness: bidders must provide either a CCB CyberFundamentals statement at level IMPORTANT or an ISO 27001 certification (with statement of applicability) covering the provided solution/services; RTBF reserves the right to audit security measures and may charge audit costs to the contractor if major discrepancies are found between declarations and audit results.

✓Such as: in case of internal contradiction, the following order applies: technical clauses of the cahier des charges, then administrative clauses, then the inventory, then other annexes.

✓The Q&A forum on eProcurement, the rectified cahier des charges and annexes all form part of the contract documents.

✓In terms of legal contradictions between sources of proof, the DUME is explicitly required and cannot be replaced by attaching supporting documents alone; supporting documents are complementary and may be requested at any time, but absence of DUME automatically renders the offer irregular.

Answers on the required criteria

Must securities be provided (bid bond, performance or warranty guarantee)? If so: which, in what amount and by when?

❓Such as regards securities, the contract requires the successful tenderer (adjudicataire) to provide financial guarantees but does not mention any bid bond.

✓Specifically, the adjudicating authority sets a “cautionnement” (performance-type guarantee) at 5% of the total amount of inventory items 1 to 9 of the successful offer (Section 12.2).

✓This cautionnement can be constituted in cash, public funds, collective guarantee or bank/insurance guarantee and must be constituted within thirty days of conclusion of the contract, with proof provided before commencement of performance.

✓It is released in one instalment after technical acceptance of the software.

✓In addition, the contractor must take out insurance for work accidents and third-party liability (Section 12.1), with evidence to be provided within thirty days of contract conclusion.

❓No separate warranty bond is specified beyond these mechanisms.

Is subcontracting allowed? If so: with which limits and which disclosure duties?

✓Such as concerns subcontracting, the text explicitly allows it but under tight conditions and disclosure duties (Section 14 and linked DPA annexes).

✓The tenderer must indicate in its offer the part of the contract intended to be subcontracted and the proposed subcontractors, including: the services likely to be performed by subcontractors; the identity of subcontractors involved in hosting; maintenance, support, specific developments, migration or data recovery; and the location of infrastructures used.

✓No subcontractor may be in an exclusion situation (Section 6.1), and the tenderer is bound by the list of subcontractors submitted at least via the DUME/ESPD.

✓As such, changing subcontractors later is only possible on motivated request and with prior written consent of RTBF.

✓Subcontractors have no rights against the contracting authority, and the adjudicataire remains solely responsible for performance and for its subcontractors’ compliance, including under the data processing agreement annexes.

Is there a site visit, and is attendance mandatory? If so: when?

❓Such as site access and meetings, the text does not provide for a formal pre-tender site visit for bidders nor indicate any mandatory visit during the bidding phase.

In which language must the tender and the supporting documents be submitted, and are documents in other languages accepted?

✓Such as language requirements, the offer must be drawn up in French (Section 7.1).

✓The language of contract execution is French (Section 13): all correspondence with RTBF and any written deliverables (documents, reports, analyses, technical/functional documentation, user manuals, training materials, minutes, etc.) must be exclusively in French, and meetings, workshops, trainings, demos, tests and steering committees are held in French.

✓Documents originally in another language may be translated by the economic operator itself; a sworn translator is not required.

✓In case of dispute, the French translation prevails vis-à-vis the contracting authority.

How long is the bidder bound by the tender (validity period), and is there a deadline for bidder questions? If so: until when?

✓Such as the validity period and bidder questions, the tenderer is bound by its offer for 150 calendar days from the deadline for receipt of tenders (Section 7.4).

✓Questions must be submitted via the e-Procurement forum only (Section 1.2), as RTBF may refuse to answer questions raised via other channels.

✓While no explicit “last day for questions” is stated, the text sets a specific deadline for pointing out errors or omissions in the tender documents: any operator discovering errors/omissions making pricing or comparison of offers impossible must notify the contracting authority immediately and at the latest ten (10) calendar days before the tender submission deadline (Section “Interprétations, erreurs et omissions”).

Further details

✓The input text is a Belgian public procurement “cahier des charges” issued by RTBF for a services contract to acquire, implement and support an integrated “Dossier du Personnel Informatisé” (HR personnel file system).

✓It sets out the legal and operational framework of the procedure from a Belgian law / EU law point of view, including selection, award criteria, financial guarantees, subcontracting, language of the procedure and execution, and communication via the federal e-Procurement platform.

✓However, it does foresee a mandatory “réunion de démarrage” (kick-off meeting) after contract award, before any services are performed, at which specific instructions (notably RGPD and integration in RTBF’s information systems) are given; no service may be executed before this meeting has taken place (Section 18.2.2).

✓Execution may take place on RTBF’s headquarters site in Brussels or at the contractor’s premises, within normal office hours (Section 17.2).

✓After the (possibly extended) tender deadline, bidders can no longer rely on such errors or omissions.