UNDP Jobs - 88046- Expert in Cost Formation (Costing) for Public Serv

Expert in Cost Formation (Costing) for Public Services

Location :

Home based consultancy with two missions to Tbilisi, GEORGIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

24-Oct-19 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

15 consultancy days with two missions (two days each) during November 2019 - April 2020

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Georgia has made significant progress in the development of public services. The rapid transformation by utilizing e-Governance tools and modern approaches has made public services in Georgia more transparent, accessible and comfortable for citizens. However, the positive changes in service delivery lacked the coherent unified framework and the progress was uneven across the sectors. Many elements of a complex business cycle were developed on an ad-hoc basis, while some technical and IT solutions have relied heavily on the expertise of individual employees. Lack of general framework that would ensure predictability and accessibility of innovative services and use of replicable methodologies and quality assurance systems by service provider agencies has proved to be a significant challenge in further improving public services in Georgia.

With the goal to solve the problem, the Government of Georgia (GoG) started working on developing unified standards for public service design and delivery that will be universal across all public service provider agencies (PSPAs). The leading role in this endeavor was granted to one of the key national entities responsible for service delivery - the Public Service Development Agency (PSDA). The activity falls under the Service Delivery pillar of the “Public Administration Reform (PAR) Roadmap 2020.”

With assistance of international and local experts “State Strategy on Development of Public Service Delivery” has been drafted. The document offers a set of common guiding principles and standards on the design, delivery, pricing and quality assurance of public services in Georgia. The document will create grounds for the subsequent gradual adaptation and harmonization of the service quality standards across the PSPAs. It will also enhance the ability of AoG to offer unifying policy guidance and develop the capacity of PSDA to assist other agencies in improving the overall standards of public service delivery, in line with current best practices. The draft has been approved by the PAR Council’s Service Delivery Working Group and is currently pending Government approval.

Two important objectives of the “State Strategy on development of Public Service Delivery” are introducing a service costing methodologies to help service providers improve their cost formation and strengthening service price elaboration practices through establishing a legal framework and relevant standards.

Challenges associated with costing of public services in Georgia are identified in the “Public Administration Reform Roadmap 2020”. Costing across various service provider agencies is chaotic and lacks a clear methodology. Formalized rules on how to calculate service pricing based on actual cost of providing a certain service are lacking. This does not affect the state agencies’ ability to monitor and report on the expenditure of already generated revenues, but it limits their capacity to forecast and assess financial risks.

Public service costing equally affects the service design and delivery process. Service providers should be able to responsibly calculate service costs based on a well-elaborated methodology. This would allow service provider to better develop service prices and to ensure that public agencies are not loss-making institutions, enabling further institutional capacity development and covering the costs of quality service provision. Robust pricing standard would help service providers take into consideration social and economic factor while pricing services, enabling them to establish pricing mechanisms that is adopted for socially unprotected and vulnerable citizens and customers.

Moreover, ability to determine the full cost of services by the public agencies is expected to lead to: a) enhanced resource allocation within agencies; b) more informed decision-making concerning policy options; c) enhanced ability of the Government to allocate resources through the budget process; d) benchmarking (where relevant) with the private sector or with agencies providing similar services. While costing of services requires the identification of all costs associated with a service delivery, the pricing of services is associated with the amount customers will be required to pay for a given service. Unless Government approves otherwise, prices should be set at levels that reflect the full costs of providing the services.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall objective of the consultancy is to provide relevant advice to a local expert to develop guidance on costing of public services to assist Georgia’s Public Service Provider Agencies in better understanding costs of their services and factors that have the greatest influence on those costs (i.e. the cost drivers) and thus improve their service costing practices. The outcome of the given assignment should be service providers’ strengthened capacity to explore a costing methodology with relevant instructions for more precisely calculating service costing, setting up pricing scheme and introducing modifications to the financial system if necessary.

Under the direct supervision of the PAR Project Manager and in close cooperation with relevant representatives from Georgia’s public agencies, in a team with a local consultant, the international expert is expected to assume the following duties and responsibilities:

Work in a team with a local expert, discussing, planning and coordinating development of all deliverables with him/her; get familiar with the assignment of the local expert;
Get familiar with the “State Strategy on Development of Public Service Delivery”, “Public Service Delivery Baseline Assessment Report”, interim report prepared by the local expert and other relevant documentation;
Develop a report on international best practice on costing of public services, describing experiences of countries with comparable financial systems;
Provide advice (remotely and on-site, if needed) to local expert on costing of public services; in particular, on development of interim report, relevant costing methodology and a detailed guidebook as well as training package on costing and implementation plan. Providing advice will include getting familiar with all documentation developed by the local expert, provision of relevant comments, discussion, remote consultations through skype or other means of communication, and alike;
Support the local expert in development of the interim report, the guidebook, training package and implementation plan through provision of relevant materials, as needed;
In a team with a local expert, conduct working meetings and presentations of the guidebook with key PSPAs and other relevant parties;
Develop a final report, describing the process of consulting the local expert and contribution to development of deliverables produced by the local expert: interim report (describing and analyzing the existing costing practice and challenges of service provider agencies), costing methodology and a detailed guideline, training package and implementation plan of the developed costing methodology for one public service delivery agency.
Perform up to two missions to Georgia for accomplishment of the above tasks;
Perform other tasks as deemed necessary.

Deliverables:

The consultant is expected to produce the following deliverables:

Deliverable 1 – A report on international best practice on costing of public services, describing experiences of countries with comparable financial systems. The report should be prepared in coordination with a local expert and close cooperation with relevant representatives from Georgia’s public agencies (up to eight consultancy days). Submission date – four weeks after the commencement of the assignment.
Deliverable 2 – Working meetings and presentations of the guideline to the representatives of public service provider agencies and other relevant parties; modified guideline that reflects the collected feedback if deemed appropriate (up to five consultancy days). Submission date – fourteen weeks after the commencement of the assignment.
Deliverable 3 – A final report, describing the process of consulting the local expert and contribution to development of deliverables produced by the local expert: interim report (describing and analyzing the existing costing practice and challenges of service provider agencies), costing methodology and a detailed guideline, training package and implementation plan of the developed costing methodology for one public service delivery agency (up to two consultancy days). Submission date – twenty-six weeks after the commencement of the assignment.

Payment modality:

The payment schedule will be agreed with the consultant and will be made in two (2) installments upon satisfactory completion/submission of the deliverables:

Deliverable 1 – 55 % of the consultancy
Deliverable 2-3 – 45 % of the consultancy

Management Arrangements:

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the UNDP Project Manager and in close consultation with relevant team from Georgia’s public agencies.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

Demonstrated commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values;
Sensitivity and adaptability to cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age;
Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty.

Functional Competencies:

Demonstrated ability to apply good judgment in the context of the given assignment;
Ability to conceptualize analytical frameworks based on available information and resources;
Strong communication and organizational skills as well as team work capabilities;
Excellent writing, editing and oral communication skills in English;
Ability to work toward creative, participatory and inclusive solutions;
An ability to complete the task in a timely fashion.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in management, public administration, finance, accounting, economics or related field (minimum requirement: 15 points).

Experience:

At least ten years of experience (such as linking financial management with delivery of services at an organizational or entire public administration system level, the conceptualization with different types of services and specifically related to costing systems, consulting, trainings, etc.) related to costing systems (minimum requirement: ten years – 10 points, more than ten years – additional 10 points);
Has performed at least five consultancy projects or designed a costing system for the entire public administration, advising organizations (out of which at least two are public service provider agencies) on improving their costing systems (minimum requirement: five projects – 10 points, more than five projects – additional 5 points)

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English language (both written and oral).

Evaluation:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis method: Offerors will be evaluated against combination of technical and financial criteria. Maximum obtainable score is 100, out of which the total score for technical criteria equals to 70 (desk review - 50 points and interview - 20 points) and for financial criteria – to 30. Offerors that do not meet Minimum Qualification Criteria will be automatically rejected, while the rest will form up the long list. The offerors who obtain minimum 35 points as a result of the desk review will be invited for the interview. Offerors who pass 70% threshold, i.e. obtain minimum 14 points, as a result of the interview will be requested the financial proposal.

Financial Proposal:

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in instalments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the ToR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount. Maximum 30 points will be assigned to the lowest price offer. All other price offers will be scored using the formula (inverse proportion): Financial score X = 30* the lowest price offer/suggested price offer. All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal as well.