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With reference to the Pre Bid Conference held at CGI, Johannesburg on 3rd February, 2016, the following issues raised in the Pre Bid Conference are clarified:
(i) OCI Services: It has been decided to keep OCI services out of the purview of this Contract.
(ii) Appointment System:
There is no objection to having an appointment system without any additional service fee and with separate counters to deal with them. There should not be any dilution of ‘walk in’ service as a standard procedure. The walk in applicants should be given service within the prescribed turnaround time indicated under Annexure E, and no one coming during the permitted time should be turned back.
(iii) Biometric for visa and passport applicants: The specific queries were:
(a) Will biometric collection be linked to visa applications? Yes.
(b) Frequency for biometric collection- biometrics collected once will be valid till when? Or it will be collected every time a person applies for visa?
The biometric enrollment is valid for five years. (This will be indicated when the application is filled online.)
(c) What about visa applications received by courier?
The Service Provider has to advise the applicant by email about the requirement of coming in person for biometric enrollment.
(d) The date by which the biometric system will be implemented for both visa and passport services:
Biometric enrollment is to be started from day one for visa services. However, biometric enrollment for passport services abroad is still in the initial stage. Mission/Service Provider will be intimated well in advance about introduction of biometric procedures for passports.
(iv) ISO 2302 Certification: Request for flexibility to produce this certificate. As per the RFP, this certificate has to be provided along with the Technical Bid.
The certification, ISO 23026-2015 can be submitted within three months from the date of award of Contract. During the period of the Contract, the Service Provider is fully responsible for the integrity and security of the website. The other two Certificates should be submitted mandatorily at the time of submission of tenders. Non-submission of the Certificate will lead to penalties. If the Service Provider does not submit the requisite certificate within the prescribed period, Mission will impose a fine of US$500 per day up to a maximum of 30 days after which Mission has the right to terminate the Contract and encash the Bank guarantee for premature termination of Contract. Mission with the approval of Ministry can however relax the provisions of penalty after considering the reasons for the delay.
(v) Educational qualification of personnel: The RFP provides that the personnel hired for the outsourcing work are to be graduates.
The staff working at the counters must be able to deal with the applicants courteously and capable of handling queries efficiently and hence the stipulated qualification. Relaxation in this regard could be considered taking into account the nature of job and the availability of persons locally. However, the exceptions may be kept at minimum, to ensure adequate quality of service.
(vi) Charges on telephonic queries: Toll free facility as indicated in the RFP guidelines.
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