Background

Efficient, resilient, and well-planned road networks ensure that no one is left behind in the drive for inclusive growth. This is why roads are considered as an important foundation for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and a prerequisite for bringing communities together.

At present, only 24.6% of all provincial roads in the Philippines are of acceptable quality. Of the 12,726km of provincial core roads, 57.2% are unpaved and in need of upgrading, while 20.2% are in poor condition and in need of rehabilitation. The situation is similarly dire for the 19,098 km of non-core roads, with 67% needing upgrading and 7% in need of rehabilitation.

To address this situation, the Department for the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has launched the Conditional Matching Grant to Provinces (CMGP) initiative to improve the quality of the local road network across the country, by providing both financial investment for capital outlay, as well as strengthening the governance processes so that provincial governments are themselves able to effectively plan, design, implement and maintain their road networks. The Program addresses the underinvestment in local roads, and improvement of national-local roads connectivity to increase economic activity, and improve public access to facilities and services in the provinces. 

For FY 2017 General Appropriations Act (GAA), the Program has a total budget of P18.03 Billion under the Local Government Support Fund (LGSF). Aside from this, the DILG budget also has an allocation of P564.256 Million for FY 2017 intended to support the governance reform, quality assurance, and monitoring of road projects of the PLGUs.

The Program, however, is not only a road engineering intervention, it is also a governance reform program in local roads management (LRM) and public financial management (PFM). Thus, in partnership with DILG, UNDP has launched a project “Paving the Roads to SDGs through Good Governance (Roads2SDGs)” which aims to provide support to the governance reform and quality assurance components of CMGP through the ‘Road to SDGs’ framework. This framework will anchor the prioritization, planning, design, implementation, and maintenance of infrastructure projects to the achievement of the SDGs, incorporating the elements of partnership building, climate change and disaster risk reduction, gender mainstreaming, and citizen participation for transparency and accountability.

In line with the agenda to push for governance reforms on road projects, an integral component of the DILG-CMGP and Roads2SDGs is the provision of technical assistance to provincial local governments. This includes upholding minimum design criteria in road engineering based on DPWH standards.

It is aimed to complete the Quality Assurance Assessment before the year 2018 ends. Hence, procurement of about 48 Individual Contractors (IC) – Road Quality Assurance Field Engineers on was approved by the management to be deployed in 16 regions.

Three Road Quality Assurance Field Engineers is proposed to be deployed per region. The actual deployment will be further assessed by the Regional engineers.

Outcome

It is desired that at the end of Six (6) months, CMGP Road to SDGs projects are provided with technical guidance on quality assurance and conducted QA assessment using the QA tool.

Objectives

To achieve the foregoing, the engagement of a UNDP road design engineer shall seek to achieve the following:

1. Conduct and complete the Quality Assurance Assessment using the QA tool;
2. Gaps and good practices on road project implementation were identified; and,
3. Develop capacities of implementers through other interventions necessary towards relevant and responsive provision of technical assistance on Road Quality Assurance.

Expected Outputs

1. Quality Assurance Assessment for the identified roads project completed;
2. Provision of technical assistance to CMGP provincial engineers on road quality assurance;

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The Roads2SDGs Regional Engineers shall have direct supervision of the Road Quality Assurance Field Engineers.  The REs will identify the Projects to be covered by the IC. The Individual Consultant shall undertake the following:

1. Conduct Quality Assurance using the QA Assessment tool on the identified road projects assigned to the vendor;
2. Prepare complete reports on the conducted QA assessment
3. Provide technical assistance to field implementers related to Road QA as a result of the findings in the conducted QA assessment;

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The Vendor shall deliver the following outputs for the Project, with the corresponding timeline:

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
• Expertise in data collection and analysis
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Strong analytical and research skills; and
• Excellent organizational, and communication skills;

Required Skills and Experience

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

To select the best offer for this post, the combined scoring method will be used where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted a maximum of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a maximum of 30%.

Recommended Presentation of Offer

To ensure the use of the same criteria for all the offers, the applicants are requested to present the following documents for uniformity:

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP as shown in the Annex;
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
• Brief description of why you consider yourself as the most suitable for this assignment;
• Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

Complete and detailed TOR along with the application requirements can be accessed thru this link: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=50679

It is mandatory that the applicants indicate which Region/s they are applying for. Otherwise, applications will not be considered.

Applications must be emailed to procurement.ph@undp.org with the Region in the subject of the email. Each transmission must not exceed 4MB.

“In view of the volume of applications UNDP receives, only shortlisted offerors will be notified.”