National Consultant for Development of the Local Tax Revenue Strategies for 8 LIUPCP municipalities

Background

The Livelihoods Improvement of Urban Poor Communities Project (LIUPCP) is a six-year Programme that targets sustainable improvements in the livelihoods and living conditions of the urban poor across towns and cities of Bangladesh. Funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Government of the United Kingdom, it is being implemented by the Local Government Division (LGD) of the Government of Bangladesh together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). At its heart LIUPCP is a governance Programme. LIUPCP seeks to address urban poverty issues not through the direct implementation of infrastructure improvements, or charitable giving to selected urban poor beneficiaries; rather to influence the environment in which poverty reduction policies and thinking take place, and thereby having a potentially much more widespread and lasting effect.

In order to bring about improvements in living conditions and the livelihoods of the urban poor, LIUPCP’s task is to work together with national and local governments, empowering urban poor communities to understand issues and advocate for their needs, and to improve urban governance overall. Ultimately the design and implementation of pro-poor policymaking and planning will rely on key stakeholders of the Programme, that include urban poor communities, civil society, the private sector, and local and national governments. They will bring about and successfully implement. This Programme sees its goal to develop tools, methods, and facilitate processes that can help to build capacity, experience, and confidence to do that, at the community-, city-, and national-levels.

LIUPCP will reduce urban poverty through both direct, and indirect, means, and in doing so positively improve the lives of Bangladesh’s urban poor. LIUPCP will work in up to 35 cities, in twelve cities during a first phase (2016-2018), and then between twenty-three and thirty-three further cities in a second phase (2018 to 2021). These towns and cities range in size and location, from tertiary and secondary cities, to the large city corporations, and are spread all over the country. As such LIUPCP will be touching the lives of people in different urban poverty contexts, all throughout Bangladesh.

Developing the Tax Revenue Strategies of 8 LIUPCP/NUPRP Towns

The cities and towns are heavily dependent on their internal tax revenues to keep the cities and town functioning properly. Providing the basic services and utility facilities to the citizens of all class living within the municipal jurisdiction are core responsibilities of a functional local government. The more services with quality the local government provide, the more economic growth of the municipality is ensured, and the more reduction of urban poverty is achieved.

Dealing with the urban poverty is one of the major responsibilities of the local government which includes ensuring adequate utility facilities, basic services and infrastructures (like roads, drains, streetlights and so on) for the poor communities. However, in the context of Bangladesh, it is seen that the municipal services are less and of poorer quality in the poor settlements than that of other parts of the municipality. In many cases there are no services at all in the poor settlements. However, there are reasons as well why poor settlements are receiving less attention from the local government and getting the poorer quality service or no service at all. On the other hand, poor people in the most cases are found willing to pay the taxes for the utility and basic services to the municipal authority. But, since they don’t have legal holding number, municipality authority does not give them the legal connection of water and other services. However, in one or other way, these poor people are using some of the municipal services and making payment for the services to some third parties like muscle men, local mastan etc. which is much higher than the municipal rate. Here the middle men are taking all the benefits, poor are paying much higher than the normal but local government is not receiving that money, which ultimately results in significant loss of the municipal revenue.

While talking about addressing the urban poverty, most of the local government brings about the issue of legitimacy of the poor and the financial capacity of the local government, although many other reasons are out there. With the limited financial resources that the local government generate from their own revenue and aid received from central government (through annual development program - ADP) as well as from donor funded projects, the municipality authority gets very little to invest in the poor communities. Dealing with poverty in an adequate manner requires additional revenue to be generated by the local government which will enable the local government to invest more resources for poverty reduction.

LIUPCP aims to help the local government to develop the localized tax revenue strategy which will promote increased revenue collection from the existing sources as well as identify the new sources for more revenue collection. The ultimate purpose is that each municipality will have their own tax revenue strategy which is tax-payer friendly, motivates the people to pay taxes and municipal authority is well conversant with the strategies to apply.

Objectives:

The overall objective of developing the local tax revenue strategy is to enable local government to invest more resources for poverty reduction of the municipality from the additional revenue generate through applying the strategies developed for the local government.

The specific objectives of the assignment are as follows:

• To explore the existing local tax strategy of the municipalities, if any
• To review and analyze the existing conditions revenue generation
• To develop the local tax revenue strategy for the local government which is realistic, agreed upon and validated by the local government

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work:

Collecting and review necessary relevant documents

• Collect and review the existing relevant documents from different sources. It will include but not limited to different acts and laws related to the local government and revenue generation, different related survey reports, existing strategy and planning documents.
• Share the collected materials (either soft or hard copy) with LIUPCP as the reference materials.
• LIUPCP, where applicable, will provide the Consultant with different assessment reports and other materials generated by the project (like Institutional and Financial Capacity Assessment Report, Localized Poverty Reduction Strategy documents, and so on) that might be helpful while developing the strategies for individual towns.
• Consult with the LIUPCP and review work plan and prepare the Inception Report with finalized work plan.
• Submit the Inception Report with finalized work plan to the LIUPCP.

Visit pilot municipality and develop draft Local Tax Revenue Strategy

• Prepare templates for data collection through different mechanisms like KII, FGD, field visits, secondary sources etc. and share with LIUPCP and obtain feedback accordingly to finalize the template.
• Prepare a field visit plan of the Consultant for the pilot municipality and share the field visit plan with the Local Government and LIUPCP town team.
• Meet the Mayor, Councilors and some other members of the TLCC, concerned municipal officials, LIUPCP town team as per plan and collect necessary information as required. The Consultant needs to meet the concerned people in 3 to 4 groups to fruitfully discuss the specific agendas and get the authentic data and information. During the meeting with these people, the consultant needs to discuss the probable strategies with the meeting participants to get their initial feedback and a deeper view of them on the probable strategies. The Consultant should ensure that few quality photos are taken during these meetings, interviews and site visits.
• Develop the draft local tax revenue strategy document of the pilot municipality based on the data and information collected through meeting, interviews, focus group discussions, site visits, and the analysis and review of the different reports and documents. Each of the strategy should contain but not limited to the (i) statement of the strategy, (ii) local contexts pertaining to the strategy, (iii) suggested inputs and activities to apply the strategy with identifying the responsible persons and the? , (iv) guidelines to apply the strategy etc. that will help the local government to get the clear pathway on how the strategies will be applied in a more realistic way.
• Share the draft strategy document with LIUPCP and obtain feedback.
• Arrange a sharing meeting with the local stakeholders and share the draft strategies and get their feedback. In this sharing meeting the participants will be the TLCC, concerned municipality officials, selected LIUPCP community leaders and the LIUPCP town team. Approximate number of participants should be 70. The meeting duration shall be around three hours. In the meeting the background, goal and objectives of developing the local tax revenue strategies and then explain each of the strategies before the participants. At this point the Consultant needs to take note of the feedback from the participants for each of the strategies. In addition, the Consultant should ensure that few quality photos of the workshop are taken. Since it is the municipality-level last gathering at large, it is advised that before arranging this meeting, Consultant should share the draft strategy document with the local government especially with Mayor and concerned municipality officials and the LIUPCP town team to get their feedback. Which then should be incorporated before arranging the sharing the meeting.

Finalize the Local Tax Revenue Strategy of the pilot municipality and submit to LIUPCP

• Review and incorporate the feedbacks received from sharing meeting and the LIUPCP team and finalize the Local Tax Revenue Strategy document.
• Translate the Strategy Document from English to Bangla and share the Bangla version (as draft) with the LIUPCP HQ and obtain feedback accordingly. Based on the feedback, finalize the Bangla version of the strategy.
• Submit the Final Strategy Document both Bangla and English version (hard copy - 5 sets and soft copy in DVD) to the LIUPCP. Softcopy should incorporate the original photos and other materials associated and used during this process of developing the local tax revenue strategy.

Prepare the Local Tax Revenue Strategy for other 7 cities

• Follow the same steps of the pilot municipality to prepare the local Tax Revenue Strategy of other seven municipalities.
• Submit both Bangla and English versions of the reports (hard copy - 5 sets for each municipality and soft copy in 1 DVD for each municipality) to the LIUPCP HQ as outlined in the Expected Outputs and Deliverables Table given in the later section of this ToR. Softcopy should incorporate the original photos and other materials associated and used during this process of developing the local tax revenue strategy.

Prepare a national level assessment report on the Local Tax Revenue Strategies of the municipalities

• Draft a framework and layout of the national level report on the local tax revenue strategies of the municipalities of Bangladesh considering the data collected from this 8 municipalities and strategies developed and share the layout of the report with the LIUPCP HQ.
• Prepare the draft national level report on the local tax revenue strategies of the municipalities of Bangladesh the following the template developed. Share with the draft report with the LIUPCP. Based on the contents and quality of the report, the Consultant may need to share multiple drafts with the Project. While preparing the report the Consultant will require to use data from other primary and secondary sources as needed. The National Level report on the Local Tax Revenue Strategies of the municipalities of Bangladesh shall include but not limited to the following contents:

1. Background
2. Contextual overview of the secondary cities and municipalities in Bangladesh in terms of overall financial conditions, local governance situations, planning and management conditions, human resources capacity etc.
3. Existing conditions of the local tax revenue collections, capacity gaps and the challenges and how it is affecting the municipality’s economy and more especially how it affects the municipal authority serving the urban poor.
4. What are some ways of increasing the local tax revenue and how it can be beneficial for the municipality authority to serve the poor more efficiently
5. How can the central government play more effective role to promote application of the localized tax revenue strategies in the municipalities.

• Finalize the national level report (only English version) and submit to LIUPCP HQ. Submission should be both in hard copy (5 copies) and soft copy in DVD. Softcopy should contain all the materials consulted and used to prepare the national level report. During this submission in the DVD, also put the all the soft copy and the relevant materials of the local Tax Revenue Strategy of 8 municipalities in well-organized folders.

List of 8 Municipalities under the assignment:

1. Chandpur Municipality
2. Faridpur Municipality
3. Kushtia Municipality
4. Patuakhali Municipality
5. Cox's Bazar Municipality
6. Gopalganj Municipality
7. Noakhali Municipality
8. Saidpur Municipality

Note that the sequence of the municipalities may change based on the local context of the towns for starting work in the specific towns and submission of the deliverables to LIUPCP HQ.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The main expected results of this consultancy are preparation of the local tax revenue strategies of 8 LIUPCP municipalities and sharing the same with the municipal stakeholders to build the consensus understanding on the strategies developed and preparation of a national level report on the local tax revenue strategies highlighting the existing conditions, challenges and ways forward.

The key deliverables of the assignment are:

1. Inception Report with detailed Work Plan (English only)
2. Eight Local Tax Revenue Strategy documents (English and Bangla)
3. One National Level Report on the Local Tax Revenue Strategies of the municipalities of Bangladesh (English only)

5 (Five) printed copies for each of the Strategy Documents and the national level report will have to be submitted to LIUPCP. Softcopies will also have to be delivered in good quality DVD.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables
Deliverables/Outputs	Estimated Duration to Complete (Business Days)	Target Due Dates
Inception Report with detailed Work Plan (English only)	3	6 Oct 2019
One Local Tax Revenue Strategy document of the pilot municipality (municipality 1) (Bangla and English)	15	3 Nov 2019
Two Local Tax Revenue Strategy document of municipalities 2 & 3 (Bangla and English)	20	8 Dec 2019
Two Local Tax Revenue Strategy document of two municipalities 4 & 5 (Bangla and English)	20	12 Jan 2020
Three Local Tax Revenue Strategy document of three municipalities 6, 7 & 8 (Bangla and English)	30	1 Mar 2020
One National Level Report on the Local Tax Revenue Strategies of the municipalities of Bangladesh (English only)	20	12 Apr 2020
Total	108 days

?Final Products

The assignment should result in one Inception Report with detailed Work Plan (English only), Eight Local Tax Revenue Strategy documents (English and Bangla), and One National Level Report on the Local Tax Revenue Strategies of the municipalities of Bangladesh (English only).

All the strategy documents and report should be formatted to A4 size paper and be in a condition that can be published without any need for further work. A set of hard copies and original soft copies of all strategy documents and reports shall be submitted in the prescribed languages

Institutional Arrangement

The consultancy will be overseen by the International Technical Advisor (ITA) of LIUPCP. Contractual oversight will be provided by UNDP Operations Manager and program related oversight will be provided by the Urban Planning and Governance Coordinator.

Duration of the Work

This assignment will take place for 108 working days spread over a period of 7 months. The expected start date is October 2019.

Duty Station

The consultancy will be home-based. But it will require field visit in the LIUPCP towns. Meetings between LIUPCP Dhaka Office and the Consultant will take place at the LIUPCP office in Dhaka.

?Methodology

The Consultancy will undertake the following tasks to achieve the objective of this assignment:

• Collect and review relevant materials: Consultant needs to collect different materials associated with the local government (municipalities) and the municipal tax and other revenue generation and revenue utilization by his/her own and will review them. LIUPCP will share the relevant report produced by the Project with the Consultant.
• Field visit to understand the context and share the strategies with the municipal stakeholders: While developing the local tax revenue strategies, the Consultant should visit the specific municipalities and few sites in the municipalities. S/he will meet the different relevant stakeholders and will collect the required information. The Consultant will spell out the details in the proposal how s/he is going to collect the required information i.e. KII, FGD or meeting and who will be the participants in different forms of data collection and information gathering procedure.
• Developing the Strategy Documents with multiple drafts: During development of the local tax revenue strategy documents for the municipalities and preparation of the national report the Consultant will have to keep continuous communication with the LIUPCP HQ, LIUPCP Town Team and the Local Government and multiple drafts might be needed to submit electronically to receive comments and feedback on the documents and finalize the Strategy documents accordingly.

Travel and DSA

All the travel and daily subsistence allowance should be built in consultant’s financial proposal. No additional payment will be made to the Consultant which is out of the financial proposal.

Tentative payment schedule:

• 1st payment: 15% of the total contract value will be paid after submission of Inception Report with detailed Work Plan and accepted by the contract administrator
• 2nd payment: 15% of the total contract value will be paid after submission of One Local Tax Revenue Strategy document of the pilot municipality, municipality 1 (Bangla and English) and acceptance by the contract administrator
• 3rd payment: 15% of the total contract value will be paid after submission of Two Local Tax Revenue Strategy document of municipalities 2 & 3 (Bangla and English) and acceptance by the contract administrator
• 4th payment: 15% of the total contract value will be paid after submission of Two Local Tax Revenue Strategy document of two municipalities 4 & 5 (Bangla and English) and acceptance by the contract administrator
• 5th payment: 20% of the total contract value will be paid after submission of Three Local Tax Revenue Strategy document of three municipalities 6, 7 & 8 (Bangla and English) and acceptance by the contract administrator
• Final payment: 20% of the total contract value will be paid after submission of One National Level Report on the Local Tax Revenue Strategies of the municipalities of Bangladesh (English only) and acceptance by the contract administrator

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards (human rights, peace, understanding between peoples and nations, tolerance, integrity, respect, and impartiality)
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

• Demonstrates openness to change, flexibility, and ability to manage complexities;
• Proven strong written, analytical and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

At least Master’s degree in Finance / Economics / Public Finance/ Governance and Public Policy or in a closely related field

Experience:

• Minimum 15 years of working experience and at least 10 years of?working experience in municipal finance and development of financial strategies, local revenue strategies etc.
• Should have better understanding on the Acts associated with the local government and the tax revenues.
• Previous experience working with UNDP / other UN Agencies / INGOs in Bangladesh at various development projects/Programme.
• At least two sample examples from previous works of the Consultant will have to be submitted along with the application

Language:

Excellent English and Bangla communication.

Lump sum contracts:

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 installments 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 (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

In-country travel (if required) will be met by UNDP and DSA will be paid as per UNDP policy. If unforeseen travel outside the Duty Station not required by the Terms of Reference, is requested by UNDP, and upon prior written agreement, such travel be at the UNDP’s expense and the Individual Contractor shall receive a per diem not to exceed United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in such other location(s).

Evaluation of the Candidates:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis-

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/evaluation 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 candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 marks in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks):

• Master’s degree in Finance / Economics / Public Finance/ Governance and Public Policy or in a closely related field- 10 marks
• At least 10 years of working experience in municipal finance and development of financial strategies, local revenue strategies etc.- 25 marks
• Previous experience working with UNDP / UNDP / other UN organs / INGOs in Bangladesh- 5 marks
• Proposed approach, qualitative tools, analysis and framework; and timeline- 25 marks
• Relevant Sample Examples provided- 5 marks

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks)

All technical qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below.

The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula:

p = y (µ/z)

Where:

• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
• y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents will not be considered for further evaluation.

• Personal CV indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (date of birth, gender, email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
• Technical Proposal - a brief description of the assignment, detail break-down of the Work Plan and Methodology to carry out and complete the assignment.
• Financial Proposal: Financial Proposal has to be submitted through a standard interest and availability template which can be downloaded from the link below: http://www.bd.undp.org/content/dam/bangladesh/docs/Jobs/Interest%20and%20Submission%20of%20Financial%20Proposal-Template%20for%20Confirmation.docx

No	Item	Unit name	# Units	Unit Cost (BDT)	Item cost (BDT)
A	B	C	D	E	F = (D x E)
1	Consultant's Fee	Business day	108
2	Travel Cost	Lump-sum	1
3	Daily subsistence allowance (DSA) for field visit	Person-day
4	Town level meeting and workshops	Meeting / workshop	1
5	Printing	Lump-sum	1
6	Communication (internet, phone, etc)	Lump-sum	1
7	Other (please specify), if any	please specify
	Total
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