Request for quotation for the Provision of Air travel and ticket services to AIMS Research and Innovation Centre, Rwanda Tender at African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS)

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REQUEST FOR QUOTATION 

ANTI-CORRUPTION POLICY 

AIMS NETWORK has ZERO tolerance for any corrupt practice or behavior by any of the AIMS NETWORK employees and it svendors and contractors. AIMS NETWORK completely prohibits offering, giving, or agreeing to give to any employee of AIMS NETWORK any gift or commission, or consideration of any kind as an inducement or reward for: 

• doing or not doing (or for having done or not having done) any act in relation to the obtaining of any contract with AIMS RIC; or 
• showing or not showing favor or disfavor to any person in relation to any contract it enters with any vendor or contractor. 

The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS RIC) Research and Innovation Centre in Rwanda would like to invite potential Travel or service providers who are interested in providing Air tickets to submit bid proposals. The successful bidder shall be contracted for a period of one-year renewable following a successful evaluation: 

1. Service

Provision of air travel and ticketing services for AIMS RIC staff, Students, Researchers or any other stakeholder on a need basis. 

2. Scope of work

The Travel Agency shall provide full, prompt, accurate and expert international travel products and services to staff, Students, Researchers and any other stakeholders of AIMS RIC.

3. Deliverables: 

The products and services include, but are not limited to, the following: 

a) Reservation and Ticketing 

For every duly approved AIMS RIC Travel Authorization, travel agency shall: 

• Propose three (3) tickets of different appropriate itineraries and/or different appropriate airfares, make bookings and prepare formal quotations based on the lowest fare and the most direct and convenient routing. • In the event that required travel arrangement cannot be confirmed, travel agency shall notify AIMS RIC of the problem and present another three (3) alternative routings/quotations for considerations. 
• For wait-listed bookings, provide regular daily feedback on the status of the flight. 
• Reconfirm and revalidate airline tickets, re-issue tickets which are returned as a result of changed routing or fare structures and printed itineraries after receiving the confirmation from AIMS RIC travel portal. • Promptly issue and deliver accurate tickets and detailed itineraries, (in electronic format) • Show the accurate status of the airline on all segments of the journey. 

• Travel agency shall provide information on airline tickets schedules. 

b) Airfares and Airlines Routings / Itineraries 

• Travel agency shall advise market practices and trends that could result in further savings for AIMS RIC including the use of corporate travel booking tools with automated travel policy compliance and enforcement, and travel management reporting. 
• Travel Agency shall provide AIMS RIC with a complete automated itinerary document to include carrier(s), flight and voyage numbers, departure and arrival times (s) for each segment of the trip, tax-exempt information, etc.; • Travel Agency shall inform AIMS RIC upon booking confirmation, of flight/ticket restrictions, involuntary stopovers, hidden stops, and other inconveniences of the itinerary and provide required documentation for travels; • Travel Agency shall provide, upon request, AIMS RIC with online and offline relevant information on official destinations, i.e. VISA requirements, security procedures, airport transfers/land transportation facilities, local points of interest, currency restrictions/regulations, health precautions, weather conditions, etc. 
• Travel Agency shall promptly notify AIMS RIC of airport closures, delayed or canceled flights, as well as other changes that might affect or will require preparations from travelers, sufficiently before departure time; 

C) Billing and Invoice 

• Travel Agency shall send an itemized official invoice to AIMS RIC on a monthly basis as per the date agreed by both parties (end of the month) for all transactions that took place in the preceding month. The Travel agent shall submit monthly reports to AIMS RIC in a format that includes the tickets issued, routes, officers ticketed, and cost of ticket by the agency, the airline charges and the variances including the reasons for the variances between the agency and the airline charges along with the invoice. 
• AIMS RIC shall provide payment to the Travel Agency within 30 days after receiving the invoices, considering the credit line in place. 

D) Flight Cancellation / Rebooking and Refunds 

• Travel Agency shall process duly authorized flight changes/cancellations when and as required. • Travel Agency shall immediately process airline refunds for canceled travel requirements / unutilized prepaid tickets and credit these to AIMS RIC as expeditiously as possible (if applicable); 
• Travel Agency shall limit refund charges at airline rate only, i.e. no additional charges will accrue to the Travel Agency; 
• Travel Agency shall bear charges for cancellation and/or change in reservation dates, which are due to no fault of AIMS RIC.

4. AIMS RIC Roles and Responsibilities

AIMS RIC travel portal shall serve as the focal point for the following: 

• Ticket booking related communication with the travel agent. 
• Obtain monthly Invoice and pay in time. 
• Perform inspection of services, including verification of fares, rates, etc. 

5. Submission of proposal to offer services 

This will include. 

a) Mandatory Requirements (MR)

• Letter of application 
• Company profile and experience 
• Copy of Valid RATA/RTTA Certificate of Accreditation. 
• Copy of Certificate of incorporation/Registration
• Copy of RSSB compliance certificate (Local company) equivalent to the international bidder • Copy of Validity Tax clearance certificate 
• Proof of EBM V2 

b) Technical requirement.

• Methodology and Implementation (Turnaround time) 
• Model diagram of proposed system 
• Flowcharts for cancel or change reservations. 
• Proof of number of years in Air travel and ticketing industry (Five years and above, contracts from 2020) • At least Five (5) up-to-date Letters of Recommendations from corporate clients and NGOs the tenderer worked with

from the past five years (Duly signed and stamped)

• Financial strength: 

Submit audited accounts for the last two years. 

• Profile and Key management personnel. 

Organization chart and Team member names and roles (Details of at least 4 staff members, provide their CVs, with details) 

6. Financial proposal.

A clear breakdown of the financial proposal including: 

• all the chargeable taxes. 
• Credit line offered. 
• Applicable discounts and Terms of payment 

7. Compensation Scheme

Travel agency shall generate its income on a per-ticket/transaction basis. 

AIMS RIC travel portal shall, from time to time, evaluate and verify with other travel agencies and other industry indicators the comparability and competitiveness of the rates.

AIMS RIC reserves the right to terminate contract with the selected Travel Agency at any time if the Travel Agency charges AIMS RIC on higher rates than market standards or does not render minimum services described in this tendering document. 

8. Duration

The duration of the contract is anticipated to run for a period of one year which can be extended if the annual review is satisfactory. 

9. Contract Parameters

AIMS RIC recognizes the importance of confidentiality of the data provided: the proposal information and the travel itineraries and reservations of its travellers. Accordingly, the selected agency must keep confidential all dealings with AIMS RIC. 

A Service Framework Agreement will be signed once the best bidder has been Selected. 

10. Bid submission.

The application files (bids) will include the following:

Technical and financial proposals

11. Modification and withdrawal of tenders 

The tenderer may modify or withdraw its tender after the tender’s submission, provided that written notice of the modification, including substitution or withdrawal of the tender’s is received by the AIMS RIC prior to the deadline prescribed for the submission of tenders. No tender may be modified after the deadline for submission of tenders. AIMS RIC may at any time terminate procurement proceedings before contract award and shall not be liable to any person for the termination. 

12.Evaluation and comparison of tenders 

AIMS RIC will evaluate and compare the tenders which have been determined to be substantially responsive, the comparison shall be of the price including all costs as well as duties and taxes payable on all the materials to be used in the provision of the services. In addition to the tender price (Credit line and commission), the technical evaluation will be conducted (Operational plan) 

13.Award Criteria and Notification of award 

AIMS RIC will award the contract to the successful tenderer whose tender has been determined to be substantially responsive and has been determined to be the lowest evaluated tender, provided further that the tenderer is determined to be qualified to perform the contract satisfactorily.

AIMS RIC reserves the right to accept or reject any tender and to annul the tendering process and reject all tenders at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability or obligation to inform the affected tenderer or tenderers of the grounds for AIMS RIC’s action. 

Prior to the expiration of the period of tender validity, AIMS RIC will notify the successful tenderer in writing that its tender has been accepted. The notification of award will signify the formation of the Contract subject to the signing of the contract between the tenderer and AIMS RIC Simultaneously the other tenderers shall be notified that their tenders have not been successful. 

14. Validity: 

Your offer must remain valid until 31/1/2026 before which a frame work agreement, if placed, should be accepted by you. 

Alternatives: 

Alternative specifications must be confirmed by AIMS Research and Innovation Centre in writing before the submission deadline. Alternative specifications not confirmed as such will not be considered. 

Request for Clarification: 

Bidders are required to submit any request for clarification or any question in respect of this RFQ by e-mail to ricprocurementenquiries@aimsric.org  . No bid should be submitted to this address. Bidders are requested to keep all questions concise. 

AIMS Research and Innovation Centre will compile the questions received. AIMS Research and Innovation Centre may, at its discretion, copy any reply to a question to all the other invited bidders at once. 

Language: 

All documents, should appear in English. 

Distribution of documents and certificates 

• Offers must be submitted in one full set (single PDF file with all pages arranged according to the order listed above). 

Currency: 

All costs are to be given in Rwandan Francs (RWF) or United State of America dollar (USD) only. 

Contract Date: 

• A framework contract will be issued before or on 31st January 2026. 

All or None Clause: 

Bid Acceptance 

AIMS RIC may, at its discretion, extend the deadline for the submission of bids, by notifying all prospective suppliers in writing. The extension of the deadline may accompany a modification of the solicitation documents prepared by AIMS RIC at its own initiative or in response to a clarification requested by a prospective supplier. 

Please note that AIMS RIC is not bound to select any of the firms’ submitting bids and does not bind itself in any way to select the firm offering the lowest price. Furthermore, the contract will be awarded to the bid considered most responsive to the needs, as well as conforming to AIMS NETWORK’s general principles, including economy and efficiency and best value for money. 

Special Requirements: 

• All documents should clearly state "For Academic Use Only" 
• Proposals submitted after the submission deadline shall not be accepted. 
• AIMS RIC reserves the right to reject any or all bid proposals or to cancel the bidding process. AIMS RIC do not g u a r a n t e e any contract because of this invitation. 
• IMPORTANT: All inquiries regarding the information on this RFQ must be submitted in writing to ricprocurementenquiries@aimsric.org . No bid should be submitted to

ricprocurementenquiries@aimsric.org 

• After this RFQ has been released, contact between a Vendor and AIMS Research and Innovation Centre is prohibited, except for the aforementioned purposes. Violation of this clause may result in the rejection of the bid. 
• This is not a purchase order, and this document should not be construed in any way as an offer to contract your agency

Conditions for submitting offers: 

Bids in one full set (single PDF file with all pages arranged according to the listed order in “Required

documents and certificates” above) must be sent no later than 17:00 AM CAT on 02nd December 2025 at airticketing112025@aimsric.org  Only bids submitted to this email address will be considered. 

Offers not addressed, packaged, and sent as such will be automatically disqualified from the tender process. Faxed bids will not be accepted. 

Confirmation: 

Please send an acknowledgment of receipt of this document, and your intention to bid
to ricprocurementenquiries@aimsric.org  

Additional Terms and Conditions: 

Please state in your offer, your acceptance of attached AIMS-NETWORK Terms and General Conditions in Annex A below. Failure to do so may result in the disqualification of your offer from further evaluation. 

N.B. Kindly submit your best firm offers 

Thank you and best regards, 

______________________ 

Dr. Isambi Mbalawata, 

Director Scientific Development and Administration, AIMS RIC Research and Innovation Centre