Antecedentes

Within its overall governance efforts, UNDP is implementing the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) Project “Empowering Municipal Councils” with the overall objective to support the municipal councils to become more effective and autonomous, by properly fulfilling their constitutionally assigned roles of legislation, oversight and representation. In turn, these efforts will increase the transparency and accountability of the mayor towards the council, and the municipality towards the citizens. The end result will be an increase in citizen satisfaction with municipal service delivery and local governance.

In a context where decentralization is considered to be the cornerstone of internal stability (and inter-ethnic cohesion) of the country, this project targets the core of the local mechanism for delivering democratic and participatory governance, and providing efficient services. By targeting the municipal councils as the main “beneficiaries”, the project targets the entity that has the statutory responsibility to adopt decisions about the regulation and organization of municipal affairs, including on the municipal budget matters and overall financial management (the legislative function). The councillors represent their citizens and decide upon their own beliefs (the representation function) and are entitled to initiate an investigation procedure over the programmatic and financial operation of the municipal executive instances (the oversight function).

Using the budget process as the vehicle for achieving the project objectives, this intervention utilizes in a smart way the main rationale of why decentralization is so important process. The budget translates the local priorities into actions, addresses vulnerabilities, and reflects the consensus-building processes needed to balance efficiency and effectiveness with the power-sharing aspects of the local reality. Finally, the budgetary process is the way in which political representatives understand citizens’ needs.

While the basic parameters for the project have been set, the overall strategy envisages a sequencing, two-staged approach. In the first phase, the full project document will be developed based on analytical and conceptualization work while testing the concepts from the very beginning and allowing space and timely information in order to make any needed adjustments for the implementation of the project in the second phase.

In that context, UNDP wishes to identify an international consultant that will assist in the basic situation analysis relative to the best international practices on public finance management aimed to result in the preparation of the full project document.

Objectives

The overall objective of the assignment is to inform the development of the full project document “Empowering Municipal Councils” by assisting in the initial situation analysis including the basic (baseline) financial assessment (revenues, expenditures etc.) and capacity needs assessment of the municipalities and by transferring of best international practices in public finance management focused on municipal financial competences (such as collection of income, taxes, debts and arears management, accountability etc.).

While the primary focus of the consultant will be on public finance management aspects, he/she will be expected to provide related inputs for the complementary components of the project and work closely with the team of national and international experts.  The detailed tasks are explained below.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Preparatory desk work to assess the state of affairs

Based on the documents and materials to be provided by UNDP and the relevant institutions, the consultant shall get familiarized with the current state of affairs and existing legal and other documents related to the public finance management in order to get prepared for the field missions to the country. The preparatory work shall also include review of the legislative and institutional framework that would serve as basis for the next steps in the process of preparation of the project document.

The preparatory work should also look into existing/similar initiatives undertaken by UNDP and other local and institutional organizations to allow for complementarities and building upon existing foundations.

Three in-country missions

During the field missions to the country, the consultant shall work closely with UNDP and the relevant institutions and stakeholders including relevant ministries, the Association of Local Self-Government Units (ZELS) and municipalities towards preparation of a comprehensive written assessment of the state of affairs in the municipal public finance management and identification of issues and bottlenecks (legislative, institutional, practical implementation aspects) on the basis of the analysis and interviews/meetings. The mission agenda will be prepared, organized and coordinated by UNDP.

The primary focus of the work will be on some of the main elements of the project document to be prepared including:

• Based on the provided documents and previous assessments, the consultant shall prepare/consolidate an overall situation analysis (screening) of the public finance management issues at local level and define parameters for a baseline financial assessment of municipalities (a Public Expenditure Financial Accountability [PEFA] type of assessment) and related targets and benchmarks;
• Participate in meetings with relevant stakeholders/partners to discuss application of sound public finance management systems in local governance;
• Define parameters for capacity needs assessment for the municipalities, in order to identify their preparedness to become part of the project. The field work regarding the baseline financial and capacity development assessment of municipalities will be implemented by the Association of the Finance Officers (subcontracted by UNDP);
• Based on the capacity needs assessment, propose a capacity development programme, including a proposal for its transformation into e-knowledge  and peer-to-peer platforms for the municipal councilors and municipal administration to improve their knowledge of the budgeting process and to increase their accountability towards the citizens;
• Provide coaching/training on public finance management best practices to the pool of highly qualified and experienced 10-12 national advisors recruited through the Association of the Finance Officers which will be the “glue” for all project components and main drivers of the learning process for the councils (at individual and collective levels). The consultant will provide guidance to the advisors based on best international methods and tools in public finance management, on how to transfer the required knowledge and skills, facilitate the communication between the local actors and trigger the networking among the councils. For that purpose, the consultant will provide at least one training for the pool of advisors and will contribute to the preparation of the mentorship guidebook;
• Proposing an agenda and leading a workshops with key stakeholders (relevant ministries and Association of Local Self-Government Units (ZELS) and municipalities) on transfer of international best practices in public finance management (the workshops to be organized by UNDP);
• Translating the PFM elements into the indicative performance criteria and design of “good municipal councils” benchmark indicators as a basis for a “Best Municipal Council” practice and certification process including indicative implementation plans for performance-based on-budget grants;
• Based on the above tasks, the consultant will contribute to the preparation of the full project document by proposing PFM-related contributions to impact hypothesis and result chains, including outcomes, outputs, activities, and a cost benefit and cost effectiveness analysis of the programme intervention and recommendations for mitigation of the identified risks, improving sustainability and opportunities for up scaling, including exit strategy..

In addition, and in close communication and consultation with the other local and international experts, the consultant is expected to provide inputs/views to the following:

• Review of the Project Outreach and Participation Strategy consisted of a Stakeholders Map and Involvement Plan and Communication and Visibility Plan;
• Development of an initial set of criteria/indicators for selection of the beneficiary municipalities;
• Identification of potential initial sample of 6-8 municipalities and assist the startup of the support process with them with potential to take sound PMF approaches;
• Identification of additional two groups of municipalities according to their preparedness for capacity development and participatory budgeting exercises and PMF potentials.

During the missions, the consultant shall assist UNDP and the relevant stakeholders in better understanding and defining the correlation between the public finance management issues and other related municipal policy areas (such as the participatory budgeting, transparency and accountability, etc) and activities and provide advice as to how to ensure synergies and linkages.

This initial assessment shall also include analysis of the capacities of the municipalities in line with the envisaged project objectives so to be able to provide concrete recommendations on how to strengthen the capacities and strategic approach in the public finance management area and to prepare the ground for successful implementation of the full project.

During the missions, all other parameters and issues to be included in the project document will be explained and discussed with consultant so that the report takes due account of the overall framework and complementary objectives to be achieved.

Preparing a comprehensive report including a capacity development programme for municipalities 
Based on the comprehensive initial assessment and consultations, the consultant shall work on development of a comprehensive report that would aim to feed into the preparation and implementation of a full project document on empowering municipal councils to become more effective and autonomous in fulfilling their functions.

The consultant shall take due account of the findings of the existing and planned efforts, relevant studies/reports, as well as the factors of relevance of intervention in respect of the decentralization process in the country and the ultimate goal of the project to contribute to  improved service delivery for the citizens.

The document shall contain specific capacity-building recommendations for the municipalities to address the identified capacity gaps in a comprehensive and strategic manner. It shall also contain tailor-made indicators for monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of actions and recommendations.

The document shall be prepared also with due account of the applicable international public finance management standards and best practices.

Upon submission of the draft document, the relevant stakeholders will provide comments/inputs that shall be reflected/incorporated in the document.

Deliverables

• Mission reports for each country mission;
• Comprehensive draft report on the findings including a capacity-building programme by end-December 2015 for UNDP’s comments/review. The report should be focused, concise and results-oriented, and not exceed 30 pages without annexes.
• Final report based on comments/review by UNDP, by 31 January 2016.

During the entire consultative and drafting process and the provision of the deliverables, the consultant shall focus on the substantive aspects of the document in the context of the decentralization process and the final goal of effective service delivery to the citizens, but also on quality of the writing, formatting and style of the document.

Duration of the assignment, consultations and reporting

The assignment shall be completed in the period from September 15, 2015 – January 31 2016.

The overall duration of the tasks covered by this ToR has been estimated to not exceed 35 days, including the three missions to the country (approximately 8-9 days per mission) and related desk-work (approximately 10 days) to pre-review documentation and finalize the report.

Throughout the assignment, the consultant shall report to the Project Manager of the “Empowering Municipal Councils” project and work closely with UNDP and the representatives of the relevant ministries, the Association of Local Self-Government Units (ZELS) and municipalities. The consultant shall execute the abovementioned tasks making full use of and building on the best international practices as well as on the basis of in-depth quantitative and qualitative analyses, desk research, structured meetings and interviews of stakeholders.
 
UNDP shall provide to the consultant electronic copies of all the relevant documents, such as legislation, statistics and other materials/studies/reports (whenever available - in English), as well as answer to all assignment-related experts’ questions prior to the in-country mission. UNDP will prepare and organize the missions of the consultant, in coordination and cooperation with the relevant national and local institutions.

Payment Schedule

First instalment: 30 % upon successful completing of the first in-country mission and the relevant desk work.

Second instalment: 35 % upon successful completing of the second in-country mission and the relevant desk work.

Third instalment: 35 % upon completion of the third mission and approval of the final report.

Competencias

• Strong analytical skills;
• Proven ability for multi-disciplinary analysis;
• Demonstrates excellent organizational skills and proven ability to deliver consultancy products within deadlines;
• Writes clearly and convincingly, adapting style and content to different audiences;
• Speaks clearly and convincingly, demonstrating strong presentation skills in meetings;
• Listens actively, acknowledging and responding constructively to other points of view.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• University degree in relevant areas related to public finance management;
• Higher degree (MA or PhD) will be an asset.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of professional experience in the areas relevant for public finance management.
• At least 5 years of practical working experience as a consultant, advisor in international context and/or a management-level official in the public finance management sector;
• Experience in conducting at least two similar assessments/drafting documents related to public finance management of the sub-national authorities;
• Experience and knowledge of the country would be an asset.

Language:

•  Excellent writing, editing and oral communication skills in English.

Application procedure

The Consultant is expected to provide the following:

• A short summary (up to 1000 words maximum) of their expertise relevant to this assignment, the reasons why they consider themselves the best candidates for this consultancy; Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application;
• Please upload your personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects;
• Reference list of similar work/projects and contact details of the clients;
• Financial offer – specifying a total lump sum in USD for the deliverables (excluding local travel to municipalities) specified in the TOR.

The financial offer shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount:

• Number of working days in total and per deliverables;
• Daily fee in USD, all inclusive;
• Travel costs of travel from home base to Skopje (3 travels), by most direct and economical route; and
• Living allowance  for  8 - 9 days mission (3 missions in total). Living allowance is recognized only for overnight stay in the duty station.

The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, utilities, consumables, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Consultant are already factored in the financial proposal.).

Expected local travel

For the purposes of the implementation of the assignment, the Consultant is expected to travel to 6-8 municipalities. In total expected travel to the field are minimum 6 one day trips to the selected municipalities.
The Consultant and UNDP will jointly develop the Local Travel Plan as part of the in-country mission agenda’s.

Please note that UNDP will organize the local travel separately.

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

 Evaluation criteria

Consultants will be evaluated based on Combined Scoring Method taking into account a combination of the applicants’ qualification and financial proposal (70% technical and 30 % financial offer).

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the supplier whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only the highest ranked candidates who would be found qualified for the job will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation.
                                                                                                                                         Points obtainable 
University degree in relevant areas related to public finance management.
Higher degree (MA or PhD) will be an asset                                                                       Total 10
   
At least 10 years of professional experience in the areas relevant for
public finance management                                                                                                 Total 20  
    
At least 5 years of practical working experience as a consultant, advisor
in international context and/or a management-level official in the public finance
management sector                                                                                                              Total 20
   
Experience in conducting at least two similar assessments/drafting documents
related to public finance management of the sub-national authorities                                 Total 15
   
Experience and knowledge of the country would be an asset                                          Total 5
    
                                                                                                                                 Grand total 70

Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70% from the maximum available technical score (49 points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal and will equal to 30. All other price proposals will be evaluated and assigned points, as per below formula:

30 points [max points available for financial part] x [lowest of all evaluated offered prices among responsive offers] / [evaluated price].

The proposal obtaining the overall cumulatively highest score after adding the score of the technical proposal and the financial proposal will be considered as the most compliant offer and will be awarded a contract.

Please note that shortlisted candidates might be interviewed.