GUIDANCE

An unsolicited proposal refers to a study prepared by a private Bidder which is submitted directly to either the Department of Finance or to a Government Entity for consideration of procurement. It must be an original, innovative, and comprehensive proposal that directly addresses the need for an issue that is recognised as pressing and demanding of immediate attention by the Emirate of Dubai. The proposal submitted by the private Bidder must function either as a brief version of the Feasibility Study, or as a comprehensive one:

  The brief version would serve as an extension of the Project Concept Report which will be similar to the one prepared by government entities for projects prior to their shortlisting as part of the pipeline. The purpose of the brief version of the Feasibility Study is to serve as an initial overview of the project in order to gauge if the broader idea is worth pursuing, before the private Bidder spends an unreasonable amount of time and resources on the preparation of a comprehensive feasibility analysis. Should the initial version of the study be approved by the Department of Finance in conjunction with the relevant Government Entity, the Bidder in question that submitted the unsolicited proposal would be required to prepare a comprehensive feasibility analysis, as would be done on regular PPP Projects.

  The comprehensive Feasibility Study shall include a detailed description of the project; describe the need that the Project addresses; refer to particular Emirate-wide, national, or agency-specific objectives, if applicable; make a case for why the private sector's solution is particularly innovative and worth considering; include a high-level costing estimate; and, include a brief version of the needs assessment - stating the broad parameters of the Project, outlining the key Stakeholders, and detailing the scope of the project. The comprehensive Feasibility Study shall be similar to the feasibility analysis prepared by the Government Entity with the assistance of the Transaction Advisor on traditional PPP Projects. In summary, this study shall include project-specific objectives, the determination of key Stakeholders, outline of the project scope, output specifications, as well as the technical, legal, and environmental Due Diligence analysis.

The Feasibility Study should be submitted to the Department of Finance, who will review it and provide its initial approval. Following the approval, the Department of Finance will nominate the relevant Government Entity, which will set up the PPP Project Team, add a representative from the Department of Finance if the project value is greater than AED 200 million, and review and recommend the feasibility analysis.

The approval of the feasibility analysis follows the same procedure based on Threshold values, as outlined earlier: if the project value is below AED 200 million, the Director General of the Government Entity provides the approval; if the project value is between AED 200 million and AED 500 million, the Department of Finance provides the approval; and, if the project value is above AED 500 million, the Supreme Fiscal Committee will provide the approval. However, before proceeding to procurement, the Government Entity must take a decision regarding the status of the Bidder who submitted the unsolicited proposal. It is recommended that the Bidder be awarded for its effort in one of two ways, as outlined below:

  Either the Bidder in question is designated the sole Bidder on the Project, with the PPP Project Team empowered to carry out negotiations with them, which, if they break down, would result in the procurement process being suspended; or,

  Were the project to be openly tendered, the Bidder in question could be privileged in terms of the evaluation - either in terms of preferential scoring around the margins, or by allowing them to match the lowest bid.

The process for recruitment of the Transaction Advisor by the PPP Project Team remains the same as outlined in the "Annexure 1 - Procuring Transaction Advisors".