National Consultant for Preparing Financial Manual for Upazila Parishad

Background

Strengthening local governance has been a key focus of not only the government of Bangladesh, but also of different development partners/ agencies. Considering the importance of the issue, UNDP has been working to strengthen the local governance system in Bangladesh more than a decade. UNDP-led support projects to the LGIs have played an important role in reforming the Union Parishad (UP) and Upazila Parishad (UZP). Since the Upazila Governance Project (UZGP) and Union Parishad Governance Projects (UPGP) were phased out in mid-2017, UNDP in collaboration with SDC and DANIDA started supporting selected UZP and UP through one project titled Efficient and Accountable Local Governance (EALG) Project. Objective of the EALG Project is to strengthen the capacities of local governments and other stakeholders to foster participatory local development service delivery for the SDGs. The Project has three components, which are ‘Inclusive and Accountable Upazila Parishad’ (IAUZP: Component-1); ‘Sustainable and Democratic Union Parishad’ (SDUP: Component-2) and ‘Policy for Effective Local Governance’ (PELG: Component-3).

The financial management/ accounting of Upazila Parishad’s own revenue income, ADP allocation, grants etc. and their expenditures are maintained by Administrative Office (AO) and Confidential Assistant (CA). They maintain this accounting system based on the system developed over the years, but there is no clear-cut accounting manual available to them that can support them to maintain this accounting system in more organized and efficient way.

Understanding with this limitation, EALG intends to fill up this gap by developing a financial management/ accounting manual complying with the act, rules, guidelines and directives of government institutions including Finance Division (FD) and Local Government Division (LGD).

 Objectives of the assignment:

The objective of this assignment is to develop a Financial Management Manual for the Upazila Parishad complying with the present system, memo, guidelines, act, rules, etc. so that the AO and/or CA can manage their accounting system with more confidence.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work:The following list reflects the main activities that the consultant is expected to carry out within the contractual period.

Key tasks include:

• Prepare an inception report incorporating detail work plan and methodology of accomplishing the assignment
• Review the existing acts, rules, regulations, circulars, guidelines and memos and other documents relevant to UZP financial management.
• Review the existing practice of the Upazila Parishad Financial Management system through field visit.
• Conduct necessary consultations and interview with the relevant stakeholders including Upazila Parishad stakeholders, Senior Government Officials of Ministry of Finance (MoF), and Local Government Division (LGD).    
• Prepare a Financial Management Manual in Bangla demonstrating examples in applicable cases, if necessary.
• Share the Financial Management Manual with government stakeholder including representative from Local Government Division (LGD) and Ministry of Finance (MoF).
• Prepare a policy brief in English and Bangla on the operationalization of the Financial Management Manual through government order.
• Submit policy brief and Financial Manual to project authority and make necessary presentation to the target audience.

 Expected Outputs and Deliverables

• Deliverable 01: Inception report with detailed work plan, field visit plan, Key Informant Interview plan and methodology.
• Deliverable 02: Submit a draft Financial Manual (in Bangla) and a draft policy brief (in Bangla and English).
• Deliverable 03: Submit a final Financial Manual and a final policy brief.

Sl #	Deliverables	Delivery Date
01	Inception report with detailed work plan, field visit plan, Key Informant Interview plan and methodology.	05 Days
02	Submit a draft Financial Manual and policy brief.	40 Days
04	Share the Manual with relevant government officials and submit a final Financial Manual and policy brief.	05 Days

 Institutional ArrangementThe consultant will report to the Project Coordinator, Efficient and Accountable Local Governance Project.

Duration of Assignment Total duration of the contract will be 50 working days over a period of 04 months tentatively starting from July 2021.

 Duty Station : Dhaka, Bangladesh

Travel : The Field visit will arrange, and the cost will be provided by the EALG project based on the agreed field visit plan.

Input from Project

The project can provide necessary project related documents, data/information, acts, rules, etc. which are available to the project and will organize workshop/ meeting etc. for the sharing of draft Financial Manual with the government counterpart.

Competencies

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Comprehensive knowledge of information system and design principle;
• Outstanding communication, project management and organizational skills;
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
• Positive, constructive attitude to work;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Minimum Master’s degree in Finance or Accounting or any other relevant field.

Experiences:

• At least 3-years of working experience in government financial management/ accounting/ budgeting issue.
• At least 5 years of working experience in designing/redesigning/ improving financial management system of development organization/ government institution/ departments/development project.
• At least 2 years of working experience with Upazila Parishad
• At least 2 working experience of working with the Local Government Division and 1 working experience of working with Finance Division.
• Experience of working with Non-Government, UN agencies and development partners on any development issue.

Language Requirement:Excellent command over Bangla and English.

Cumulative analysis

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

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

• Technical Criteria weight: 70%

• Financial Criteria weight: 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% point in technical criteria would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria

• Educational qualifications- (10 marks)
• Working experience in government financial management/ accounting/ budgeting issue (15 marks)
• Working experience in designing/redesigning/ improving financial management system of development organization/ government institution/ departments/development project (20 marks)
• Working experience with Upazila Parishad (10 marks).
• Experience of working with the Local Government Division and Finance Division (10 marks)
• Experience of working with Non-Government, UN agencies and development partners on any development issue (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.

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 number of anticipated working days).

Payment Milestone

 

Payment Schedule	Output/ Deliverable	Target date
1st installment 10% of the total contract value	Inception report with detailed work plan, field visit plan, Key Informant Interview plan and methodology.	July 2021 (5 days)
2nd installment 80% of the total contract value	Submit a draft Financial Manual and policy brief.	September 2021 (40 days)
3rd installment 10% of the total contract value	Share the Manual with relevant government officials and submit a final Financial Manual and policy brief.	October 2021 (5 days)

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

Proposal

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
• Personal CV, 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.
• 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