Expression of Interest (EoI) - Provision of Travel Management Services for GIZ Rwanda
Transaction no.:7000012114
Project processing number:B100012
Country: Rwanda
Submission deadline: 16.06.2026
1. Context and general information
1.1 Information on GIZ Rwanda/Burundi
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federally owned international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. GIZ has worked in Rwanda for over 40 years. The primary objectives agreed to between the Government of Rwanda and the Federal Republic of Germany are poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable development. To achieve these objectives, GIZ Rwanda is active in the sectors of Decentralization and Good Governance, Economic Development and Employment Promotion, Energy and Information and Communications Technology.
GIZ Office Rwanda intends to conclude a contract with a travel agency to provide airline ticketing services for its operations in Rwanda. The service provider will be responsible for the procurement of airline tickets (domestic and international) of the GIZ Office and its joint programmes. The service will include – among others - booking, issuing and billing of tickets as per GIZ guidelines and travel regulations.
1.2. Notes on tender
The purpose of this tender is to conclude a framework agreement, for the provision of travel management services to GIZ Rwanda and Burundi by qualified Travel Agency during the term of the agreement. The aim is to commission one contractor under the framework agreement. The assignments for the provision of travel management services are called off under this framework agreement.
2. Term and scope of agreement
The expected term of the framework agreement is 1 year, with the option to extend the contract for a further one (1) year as per the requirements
GIZ calculates the total amount to be an estimated amount of 792,000,000 RWF for 12 months. The maximum amount792,000,000 RWF for 12 months. It is expected that these estimated and maximum amounts will be distributed as follows:
| Amounts during the t term of the agreement(12 months) | Amounts under t extension(s) of the term of the agreement(12 months) |
| Economy Class Tickets: 720.000.000RWF Business Class Tickets: 72.000.000RWF | Economy Class Tickets: 720.000.000RWF Business Class Tickets: 72.000.000RWF |
This is merely an estimate; actual call-off amounts may vary annually. There is no entitlement to an actual call-off in the stated order of magnitude, nor do the estimated and/or maximum amounts constitute minimum purchase amounts.
3. Services to be provided and requirements to be met by the contractor
Primarily, the Travel Agent shall provide travel services during working days (Mo-Fr) and working hours (08:00-18:00hours Rwandan time). Additionally, the Travel Agent shall provide 24 hours a day emergency service, as well as for services during weekends and other official holidays whenever emergency travel services are required. Services from the Travel Agent can only be requested by GIZ staff based in Rwanda through their business e-mail firstname.surname@giz.de (i.e. max.mustermann@giz.de). Bookings for external partners (e.g. government officials, staff of partner organizations) must be facilitated through a GIZ Rwanda employee. The Travel Agent must not issue tickets for private/leisure travel.
3.1 Reservation and Ticketing
The Travel Agent will provide GIZ with a template form (Word-Document) which all travellers are obliged to use when requesting flight details from the Travel Agent. This template will indicate the sequence of information which best suits the Travel Agent’s operation within its systems. The template should at least contain the following information: name of traveller, departure and arrival dates and times, booking class, GIZ project number (mandatory field) and preferred route.
As per GIZ’s Travel Guidelines, combining private trips with business trips is permitted only if the trip is primarily undertaken on GIZ business. In cases where GIZ staff would like to extend their trip for private reasons, the Travel Agency must indicate in their offer whether additional costs will be incurred by the extension or if the price remains the same. The template form must include a field where staff can indicate whether such price comparisons should be obtained. Staff members do not need to provide evidence of a price comparison of the flight costs if they include a private stay at the place of business the weekend directly before or after the business trip.
As part of the tender procedure, the Travel Agent is requested to submit an example of a template form.
GIZ authorizes the Travel Agent to return requests which do not adhere to the agreed standards.
Upon receipt of the travel request, the Travel Agent will provide the GIZ staff member with three (3) flight optionswithin 24 hours (one working day) and recommend the most economic flight option available at the time. The Travel Agency must provide proof (i.e., screenshot) of how and where the offers were received from. The proof must be from the official airline website. The offers must clearly indicate the base fare and any additional fees (i.e. taxes, commission by the airline, other costs). The fares must be fixed for a duration of at least 18h in order to allow the traveller to confirm the booking. If the traveller confirms the route after the reservation period of 18h, the Travel Agency may proceed with the booking only if the price remained the same or is lower. If the price increased in the meantime, then the Travel Agency must inform the traveller accordingly and provide three (3) quotes again.
Exception: If GIZ Staff with line manager authorization expressively confirms that a higher ticket price may be booked without receiving three additional quotes after the reservation period.
In cases where three options cannot be provided, the Travel Agency must submit a justification. All offers must be fully refundable. The offers should also indicate any cancellation fees of the airline. Tickets for first class must not be booked or proposed under any circumstance.
Once the quote and route are confirmed by the project, GIZ will send a scanned version of the completed Travel Application Form (annex to be provided to the successful bidder). The Travel Application Form must be validated via physical signature or e-mail approval by the responsible line manager or officer responsible for the programme (AV). The signatory must be copied in the final confirmation. Only this process qualifies for air ticket issuance.
Upon written approval by the signatory and in accordance with GIZ travel guidelines, the traveller can book a less economical flight option.
In the event that required travel arrangements cannot be confirmed, the Travel Agent shall notify the requesting party of the situation and present alternative routings/quotations for consideration.
For wait-listed bookings, the Travel Agent shall provide regular feedback on status of flight.
The Travel Agent shall accurately advise the GIZ of ticketing deadlines, holding times and other relevant information every time reservations are made, in order to avoid cancellations of bookings.
The Travel Agent shall provide an information service to notify the GIZ and the traveller of such events as airport closings, cancelled or delayed flights, trains, buses voyages and strike situations as well as of local political or safety conditions, which may affect travel to any particular destination.
Any special or seasonal offer or a special discount provided by the Airline should be disseminated to GIZ by the Travel Agent.
The Travel Agent shall provide each traveller a complete itinerary document which includes the following:
- Flight number(s) and seat assignment(s);
- Confirmed upgrade (if applicable)
- Departure and arrival time(s) for each segment of the trip
- Intermediate stops
- Airport and other taxes
- Travel Agent’s emergency assistance number
- Any other information such as change in international date lines.
3.2 Refunds
Should the situation arise where the GIZ travellers anticipate that he/she will not be able to take up the flight he/she should immediately contact the Travel Agent and convey this information. Only then is the Travel Agent in a position to cancel the flight. This will reduce the costs of ‘No show’ tickets which are costly and should be avoided.
By using the Travel Agent’s emergency / after-hours assistance the traveller must indicate whether he will re-use the ticket or require a refund. Re-used tickets must be taken up within 12 months for international flights.
For each booking, the Travel Agent will provide the traveller with the emergency / after-hours assistance together with the e-mail of confirmation of the flight booking.
GIZ shall be reimbursed by the Travel Agent for partly or fully unused tickets and cancelled tickets subject to applicable regulations. The Travel Agency shall process these refunds on all returned airline tickets within 30 days through credit note and payment.
3.3 Service Standards
The Travel Agent shall provide the necessary personnel to provide prompt, courteous and efficient service to GIZ. The number of assigned personnel shall be sufficient to meet all services requirements under this Terms of Reference. The Travel Agent shall sensitize his staff on a customer service-oriented approach for all exchanges with GIZ. Aside from the initial submission of the 3 offers within 1 working day, all ongoing ticketing requests must be responded to within 2 working days.
The Travel Agent must nominate a focal point who shall be available for overarching queries by GIZ, resolve issues as they arise as well as participate in regular exchanges with GIZ as and when necessary. Furthermore, GIZ shall be informed of the focal points absence and an alternate nominee shall always be accessible.
The Travel Agent is responsible for providing replacement personnel in case of absenteeism, vacation, sick days, etc of the regular personnel assigned.
3.4 Supplier Relations
The Travel Agent shall not favour any particular carrier when making reservations. The Travel Agent shall maintain excellent relations with all carriers for the benefit of the GIZ. Potential conflict of interests must be reported to GIZ immediately.
3.5 Reporting
The Travel Agent shall provide GIZ with quarterly management information reports consisting, of sales activity showing detailed analysis of the number of trips (total bookings), the value in RWF, destinations (domestic and international), carriers used, booking class (economy or business) savings achieved from the carrier’s lowest available fare. The reports shall be submitted to GIZ’s Head of Finance and Administration as well as other authorized personnel. Based on GIZ’s feedback, the format or content of the report must be adjusted for subsequent reports.
The report is due within 10 working days after the respective quarter. The Travel Agent shall submit the statistics without being requested to do so.
The Travel Agent shall hold meetings with GIZ’s authorized travel services personnel at regular intervals to address any issues which may arise and opportunities for improved cooperation. These meetings shall take place at a minimum on a quarterly basis.
3.6 Other services
The Travel Agent is not allowed to offer any other service (i.e., hotels, car rentals, travel insurance etc.) other than the booking of airline tickets to GIZ. Should there be a need for the service, the service provider will be informed.
4. Data Protection
Any and all data relating to the contract as well as any other information of which the contractor becomes aware in the course of performing the contract must be treated as confidential during and beyond the term of the contract. The contractor shall not be permitted to make use of any such data and information for the contractor’s own purposes. Personal Data of GIZ staff (i.e., passports or similar) that is not relevant for the invoicing process shall not be shared with GIZ Rwanda’s Finance Department.
The contractor must not make documents and/or work results of any kind, including in particular, but not limited to, reports, accessible to third parties without prior approval in text form by GIZ. Third parties under this provision also include the ultimate commissioning party/client.
The consultancy agrees to and cooperates on the following: Personal data will be processed on behalf of the client, represented by GIZ. Therefore, an agreement on "Outsourcing of data processing (AuV)" will be concluded with the consultancy in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union (EU). For this purpose, the technical and organisational measures (TOM) for compliance with the data protection requirements must be outlined prior to conclusion of the contract. If the consultancy has already been audited by GIZ in the past, an update in accordance with GDPR must nevertheless be sent. After a positive check, the contract is concluded with the AuV attachment. The AuV is attached as part of these tender documents.
The bidder is required to submit the TOM along with the technical proposal. The TOM that must be outlined are specified in the document “Annex 1 - Outsourcing of data processing”. The TOM will not be assessed during the evaluation of the technical proposal; however, it is mandatory to submit them.
Failure to do so can result in your bid being excluded from the tender procedure.
5. Payments
GIZ will not issue any advance payments at any time throughout the contract period.
The Travel Agent will send invoices on a monthly basis. All booked and issued tickets shall be registered and summarized in one spreadsheet/overview and sent to GIZ Rwanda. The invoice, booking overview, a generated EBM and all supporting documents must be printed and physically sent/brought to GIZ Rwanda Country Office located in 17 KN 41 St, Kigali. Additionally, the contractor shall submit the invoice and all supporting documents digitally to GIZ Rwanda’s Finance Unit (fin.processing_RW@giz.de ).
The respective invoices must include:
- Invoice number
- Ticket number
- Traveller’s name, route travelled and dates and times of flight
In addition to the digital submission (see above), each invoice should include the following supporting documentation printed recto verso:
- All correspondence from new to old (date)
- Flight options suggested from Travel Agent and selection from GIZ of the most economical option
- Copy of e-ticket
- Screenshot of ticket status (i.e. Boarding Pass)
- Traveller’s Travel Application Form with line manager approval
For those cases where the initial booking by the traveller has to be amended after the Travel Agent has already invoiced GIZ, the Travel Agent will ensure that the revised (second) invoice captures the changes requested by the traveller; thereby linking the initial invoice to the revised invoice, by indicating the invoice number of the initial invoice on the revised invoice.
This rule would also apply to cancelled flights where a refund is requested or where the ticket is left open for future use within the required time.
GIZ will inform the Travel Agent’s Finance Department immediately regarding remittances made by e-mailing them a summary of the invoice numbers and individual amounts which total the transfer in order for the Travel Agent to allocate the invoices correctly in their system.
The Travel Agency must be equipped with a fully automated accounting system interfaced with the computerized reservation system to cater for GIZ requirements.
All payments will be made in accordance with the original invoices provided as per the bookings on a monthly basis. The invoices for each billing cycle shall be generated and submitted within 5 working days. Payments will be issued in accordance with GIZ’s General Terms and Conditions of Contract.
6. Complaint Management System
The Travel Agent shall investigate any complaints from Travellers and GIZ staff and follow up on the recovery of lost baggage, if any. The complaints shall be summarized and incorporated in the quarterly reports to GIZ.
7. Deadlines
The below stated deadlines apply for regular tasks as outlined in these Terms of References:
| Tasks | Deadline |
| 1 – Ticketing | 3 Offers within 1 working day (24 hours) |
| 2 – Refunds | within 30 days of returned airline ticket |
| 3 – Management Information Reports | within 10 working days of the following quarter |
| 4 – Jour Fixe Travel Agent Representative / GIZ | quarterly basis |
| 5 – Invoices | within 5 working days of the following month |
Deadlines for other tasks not listed in this overview will be communicated by GIZ when necessary.
8. Termination
GIZ reserves the right to withhold, reduce or refuse payments if
- the Travel Agent’s performance is not in line with the above-mentioned requirements,
- the Travel Agent repeatedly misses deadlines for bookings, refunds, reports, or other tasks,
- the Travel Agency violated Data Protection Guidelines, Supplier Relations Requirements or overcharged GIZ.
Depending on the severity of the above-mentioned infringements, GIZ reserves the right to terminate the agreement with 30 calendar days’ notice.
In case of any delay, wrong reservation or request for ticket issuance from unauthorised personnel, the Travel Agent shall be liable for paying the ticket or replace it with another ticket.
GIZ will terminate the contract when a GIZ global travel agency contract comes in effect.
9. Technical Proposal
In the bid, the bidder is required to show how the objectives defined in Chapter 2 are to be achieved. In addition, the bidder must describe the project management system for service provision. A template following the structure of the technical proposal is provided (Annex 4). The following key points must be addressed in the technical proposal:
Technical-methodological concept
Strategy (20 % weighting in the technical assessment grid): The bidder is required to consider the tasks to be performed with reference to the objectives of the services put out to tender (see Chapter 1). Following this, the bidder presents and justifies the strategy with which it intends to provide the services for which it is responsible (see Chapter 2).
The bidder is required to describe the key processes (10 % weighting in the technical assessment grid) for the services for which it is responsible and create a schedule that describes how the services according to Chapter 2 are to be provided. In particular, the bidder is required to describe the necessary work steps in accordance with Chapter 2.
Project management of the contractor
(13 % weighting in the technical assessment grid)
The Travel Agent is required to explain its approach for coordination with the GIZ project.
In addition to the reports required by GIZ in accordance with the General Terms and Conditions, the contractor submits the reports as detailed in chapter 3.
The bidder is required to draw up a personnel assignment plan with explanatory notes that lists all the experts proposed in the bid, their background and their respective tasks.
The bidder is required to describe its backstopping concept. The following services are part of the standard backstopping package:
- Service-delivery control
- Managing adaptations to changing conditions
- Ensuring the flow of information between GIZ and Travel Agency
- Securing the administrative conclusion of the project
- Ensuring compliance with reporting requirements
- Sharing the lessons learned by the contractor and leveraging the value of lessons learned on site
Further requirements
(10 % weighting in the technical assessment grid)
In the technical proposal, the bidder is required to elaborate on the ticketing procedure and how he intends to transparently communicate the offers. Further, the bidder is also asked to explain how the most cost-effective flight prices will be obtained throughout the contracting period. Lastly, the bidder is asked to submit an example of a round-trip economy fare from Kigali, Rwanda (Departure 12.07.2026) to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Departure 24.07.2026). The price itself will not be considered, however, it will be evaluated whether the format of the three offers complies with the specifications.
Personnel concept
The bidder is required to provide personnel who are suited to filling the positions described, on the basis of their CVs (see Chapter 7), the range of tasks involved and the required qualifications.
The below specified qualifications represent the requirements to reach the maximum number of points. The percentages reflect the weighting in the technical assessment grid.
Focal Point
Tasks of the Focal Point
- Overall responsibility for the service provision (quality and deadlines)
- Coordinating and ensuring communication with GIZ Country Office, GIZ Staff and the GIZ Management Team
- Personnel management of the assigned staff
- Regular reporting in accordance with the deadlines
Qualifications of the Focal Point
- Education/training (2.1.1, 5 %): University qualification (Master’s degree) in Travel, Tourism, Hospitality, Business, Management, or similar
- Language (2.1.2, 1 %): Fluent business language skills in English
- General professional experience (2.1.3, 8 %): 8 years of professional experience in the Tourism and Hospitality sector
- Specific professional experience (2.1.4, 5 %): 3 years of experience in retail, customer service, travel management or similar
- Leadership/management experience (2.1.5, 3 %): 4 years of management/leadership experience as project team leader or manager in a company
- Regional experience (2.1.6, 3 %): 3 years of experience in projects/companies in Sub-Sahara Africa (region)
Expert-pool with minimum 2, maximum 8 members
Tasks of the expert pool
- Day-to-Day Tasks as detailed in chapter 2, among others:
- prepare and issue flight tickets for GIZ Rwanda staff
- advise GIZ Rwanda staff on most economical itinerary
- arrange refunds and handle complaints
- support the focal point in compiling the quarterly overview of issued tickets
- uphold service standards
Qualifications of the expert pool
- Education/training (2.6.1, 3 %): At least 1 expert with university qualification (German ‘Diplom’/Master) in Tourism, Hospitality, Business, Management or similar
- Language (2.6.2, 1 %): All experts with very good language skills in English
- General professional experience (2.6.3, 8 %): 2 experts with 4 years of experience in the Tourism and Travel sector,
- Specific professional experience (2.6.4, 7 %): 2 experts with 2 years of experience in retail, customer service, travel management or similar
- Regional experience (2.6.5, 3 %): 2 experts with at least 1 year of experience in Sub-Sahara Africa (region)
The bidder must provide a clear overview of all proposed short-term experts and their individual qualifications and compare them with these requirements.
10. Financials
As elaborated, GIZ shall not be charged any additional commission fees by the Travel Agent. All fees, taxes and profit shall be included in the price that is communicated to the GIZ Staff. Additionally, the Travel Agency must clearly indicate how the price was calculated (i.e., table with base fare, airline commission, profit, other costs).
Working days/hours of staff for tasks such as the compilation of reports and participations in meetings with GIZ will not be remunerated separately.
As part of the financial evaluation, the bidder is required to submit a quote for the following routes:
| Financial offer for 1 year of contract | |||||
| From | To | Departure | Return | Option | Number of tickets |
| Kigali, Rwanda | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 12.07.2026 | 24.07.2026 | Economy class | 546 |
| Kigali, Rwanda | Frankfurt Germany | 01.10.2026 | 09.10.2026 | Business class | 20 |
| Option: Financial offer for 1 year of contract extension | |||||
| From | To | Departure | Return | Option | Number of tickets |
| Kigali, Rwanda | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 12.07.2026 | 24.07.2026 | Economy class | 546 |
| Kigali, Rwanda | Frankfurt Germany | 01.10.2026 | 09.10.2026 | Business class | 20 |
The option quoted for must be fully refundable. The proposed quotes must align with the specifications set.
However, these figures are only for the basis for the financial evaluation. Bidders must submit their financial bid in the given format “Annex 2 – Form of Price Sheet
11. Eligibility Requirements
In order to be considered for the technical and financial evaluation of the tender, bidders are required to fulfil the following eligibility requirements:
The Travel Agent must have provided travel related services for a minimum of three (3) years to exclusive clientele, and must have capacity to provide the whole range of services requested in the TOR with the following qualification:
- Evidence of commercial register entry (i.e., Registration Certificate issued by RDB)
- Evidence of tax registration/clearance (i.e., VAT Certificate issued by RRA)
- Accredited IATA Travel Agency duly licensed in the country (i.e., IATA Certificate)
- Maintains a good track record in serving international organizations, embassies and medium to large multi-national corporations (i.e., 2 references must be provided)
- Financial Stability (i.e., last 2 annual reports must be provided), with the annual turnover for the last two financial years
- List of employees and managers, with at least average of 5 employees for the past two years
12. Requirements on the format of the bid
The structure of the bid must correspond to the structure of the ToRs. In particular, the detailed structure of the concept (Chapter 9) is to be organised in accordance with the positively weighted criteria in the assessment grid (not with zero). It must be legible (font size 11 or larger) and clearly formulated. The bid is drawn up in English (language).
The complete bid shall not exceed 12 pages (excluding CVs).
The CVs of the personnel proposed in accordance with Chapter 9 of the ToRs must be submitted using the format specified in the terms and conditions for application. The CVs shall not exceed 4 pages. The CVs must clearly show the position and job the proposed person held in the reference project and for how long. The CVs can also be submitted in German (language).
If one of the maximum page lengths is exceeded, the content appearing after the cut-off point will not be included in the assessment.
The evaluation and selection will solely be made on the basis of the technical proposal. A financial bid is not necessary neither will it be considered.
A template following the structure of the technical proposal is provided (Annex 4).
To summarize, the following documents must be submitted:
- Eligibility documents (see chapter 11)
- Technical Proposal (incl. Sample Travel Request Form and Sample Travel from KGL – ADD) + CVs (see chapter 9)
- Outsourcing of data processing (see chapter 4)
Failure to submit the required documents can lead to an exclusion of the entire bid.
13. Option
After the tasks put out to tender have been completed, important elements of these tasks can be extended within the framework of a follow-on assignment.
- Type and scope:The Travel Agent shall be required to perform the same services as stated for one (1) more year. The extension will not be issued automatically but only on the condition that GIZ issues a letter expressively requesting this.
The option is exercised in the form of an extension to the contract based on the already offered individual rates.
14. Submission of the offers
Please submit your technical and financial bids by16.06.2026 inEnglish only to RW_Quotation@giz.de.
The offer must be submitted in 2 separate emails in PFD format. The email subject line should be in the form of:
- 7000012114 -Technical Offer This includes eligibility documents and technical proposal in PDF files
- 7000012114 - Financial Offer in the format of price schedule provided
Details of our submission requirements are explained in the enclosed terms and conditions for application. Tenders which are submitted after the deadline, or which do not comply with the terms and conditions for application, will not be considered.
Sustainability
We have developed a Guide for Practising Corporate Sustainability (GPS) so that our contractors can learn about corporate sustainability at GIZ. We encourage all tenderers to complete the GPS online course and obtain the certificate.
Completing the GPS will not influence the award decision in this procedure. However, we would very much welcome your participation: https://gps.giz.de/en/.
15. Annexes
Annex 1 – Outsourcing of Data Processing
Annex 2 – Grid for the eligibility assessment of bids
Annex 3 – Grid for the technical assessment of bids
Annex 4 – Template for the Technical Proposal
16. List of abbreviations
AVOfficer responsible for the commission
EBMElectronic Billing Machine
GIZDeutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH
IATAInternational Air Transport Association
RDBRwanda Development Board
RRARwanda Revenue Authority