CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (REOI)

 

Country: Government of Somaliland

Name of the Project: Civil Service Strengthening Projects II- (CSSP II)

Assignment Title: Consultancy Services to undertake Requirements Analysis and Design of the Pension Management Information System for the Somaliland Public Service Pension Fund

Project ID: (P174875)

Deadline Date: September 21, 2022

Ref No. SO-CSC-312430-CS-CQS

 

Government of Somaliland has received financing from the World Bank towards the cost of Civil Service Strengthening Projects II-(CSSP II ) being implemented by the Civil Service Commission and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services. The project development objective is to strengthen basic functions for payroll, human resources and policy management in selected central government agencies and line ministries, and to establish a pension system for civil servants. 

 

The Consulting Services (the Services) include analyzing the business and technical requirements of the Pension Fund arising from implementing the Law; identifying the functions and workflows required within the new pension system; designing the Pension Fund’s business operations model that is required to implement the Law; assessing the human, technical, and logistical requirements to administer the proposed business operations model; undertaking a detailed design of the PMIS; and developing the Bid Documents for Phase 2 of the PMIS development project.  The Consultant will undertake all the specific tasks detailed out in the Terms of Reference (TOR).

 

The total duration of the project shall be 6 calendar months.

 

 

The detailed Terms of Reference (ToR) for the assignment can be found at the following website:  https://csc.govsomaliland.org/ or can be provided upon submission of application in person or by e-mail. The e-mail address is provided below.

 

The Civil Service Commission now invites eligible consulting firms (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services (brochures, description of similar assignments, experience in similar conditions, availability of appropriate skills among staff etc.). The shortlisting criteria are as follows:

 

  1. Core business of the firm and at least 10 years in business (proven experience of undertaking complex projects in public sector management and ICT development).
  2. Specific experience in successfully implementing similar assignments (At least ten years proven experience of business systems analysis, proven experience of social security benefits administration systems design, medium-large ICT systems design, public sector organization development and proven experience of ICT projects development and management).
  3. Experience of relevant services in an environment similar to that of Somaliland; and
  4. Technical and managerial organization of the firm (provide only the structure of the organization). . Do not provide CVs of key staff. Key experts will not be evaluated at the shortlisting stage.

 

Attention of interested Consultants is drawn to section III, para 3.14,3.16 & 3.17 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers: Procurement in Investment Projects Financing Goods, Works, Non -Consulting and Consulting Services, July 2016, revised November 2017, August 2018 and November 2020 (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.

 

 

Consultants may associate with other firms to enhance their qualification but should indicate clearly whether the association is in the form of a joint venture and/or a sub-consultancy. In the case of a joint venture, all the partners in the joint venture shall be jointly and severally liable for the entire contract, if selected.

 

A Consulting Firm will be selected in accordance with the Consultants Qualification Selection method set out in the Procurement Regulations.

 

Interested eligible firms may obtain further information from Civil Service Commission/Civil Service Strengthening Project (CSSP)’ Project Coordination Unit (PCU) at cssp.pcu@gmail.com. Further information can be obtained from the procurement Mr. Abdisalan Muse Guled, Project Procurement Specialist; cssp.pcu@gmail.com  / Cabdisalaan2050@hotmail.com  from Saturday to Thursday during office hours 8.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m. local time except on public holidays at the address given below.

 

Expressions of interest should be delivered in a written form to the address below (in person, or by mail, or by e-mail) by September 21, 2022, at 4.00 p.m. local Time.

 

Attention

Khalid Jama Qodax

Chairman of Civil Service Commission (CSC)

 

Abdi Aden Derie

Program Manager

Civil Service Strengthening Projects II (CSSP II)

Hargeisa, Somaliland

 

Email Address: cssp.pcu@gmail.com

CC: abdistar02@gmail.com

CC: cabdisalaan2050@hotmail.com



 

 

Terms of Reference

Somaliland: Civil Service Strengthening Project II

 

Consultancy Services to undertake Requirements Analysis and Design of the Pension Management Information System for the Somaliland Public Service Pension Fund

 

 

1.         The Somaliland Public Service Pension Fund

 

The Somaliland Public Service Pension Act (Law) establishes a pensions system for Civil Servants of the Somaliland Government, and those employed in State institutions covered by the Law.  The new pensions system will be funded by payroll contributions by civil servants (deducted from salary), and by the Government (as overall employer).  The law requires that individual records of contributions be maintained.  The benefits payable under the new pensions system will be based on contributions and years of service, and include retirement pension, disability pension, survivors (next-of-kin) pensions, and gratuity (once-off) payments.

The Somaliland Public Service Pension Fund (Pension Fund) institution is being established to implement that Law.  The new pensions system requires a functioning electronic Pension Management Information System (PMIS) to support the administration of the pensions system.  The PMIS will be designed, developed, and implemented in 2 distinct phases.  Phase 1 will involve the analysis of specific requirements and the detailed design of the PMIS.  Phase 2 will involve the development and implementation of the PMIS.  This document applies to Phase 1 - analysis and design.

2.         The Pension Management Information System

The Pension Management Information System (PMIS) will be an ICT system with a relational database at its core.  It will incorporate the functionality to record contributors, manage contribution collection, and manage benefit award/payment.  The PMIS system will, inter alia, manage the: registration of individual contributors; collection and recording of payroll data and contribution payments; and processing and payment of benefits.  The PMIS will be the main administrative tool to enable the Pension Fund to fulfil its mandate.  The PMIS will hold data on:

  1. Public Institutions (employers) that are required to deduct and pay over pension contributions in respect of Civil and Public Servants (employees)
  2. Civil and Public Servants (employees) from whose Basic Salary pension contributions must be deducted
  3. Financial accounts – detailing receipts, refunds, and liabilities in respect of pension contributions - for each Public Institution and Civil/Public Servant covered by the Law and registered within the PMIS
  4. Pension accounts – detailing pensionable employment history, salary history, contribution payment history, personal data, and related data - for each Civil Servant covered by the Law and registered within PMIS
  5. Pensioners and Survivors who are (or were) in receipt of pensions payable under the Law by the Pension Fund
  6. Agents of Pensioners and Survivors – in defined cases where a Pensioner or Survivor is unable to collect their benefits due to a permitted reason (e.g., disability, being a minor)
  7. Payments made to Pensioners and/or their Survivors.
  8. Medical examination results and medical condition of persons who apply for a disability pension
  9. Other data that will be identified during course of PMIS system analysis and design

 

The new Pensions Management Information System (PMIS) should be designed according to the framework of a standard pension system, whose functionality will include client registration; contribution revenue collection; data collection; pension eligibility determination, record-keeping (at aggregate and individual-person level); and pension award rules as specified in the Law and Regulations.  The choice of technology to develop the PMIS will be guided by factors including local environment, availability of suitable technology, requirements for data security and integrity, volume of data to be processed, future scalability requirements, complexity of eligibility rules, cost of development, and local technology skills/capacity.

B.        Objectives and Scope

 

3.         Objectives and Scope of Tender and Project

The objective of the Tender is to enable the Government of Somaliland (Government) to procure the services of an experienced and skilled Consultant to analyze the requirements for, and design in detail, an electronic Pensions Management Information System (PMIS) to enable the Pension Fund (PF) to manage:

(i)        registration of contributors

(ii)       collection and recording of pension contributions, contributor data, and employment related data

(iii)      assessment of benefit applications, against eligibility criteria

(iv)      processing and payment of benefits to qualified persons

(v)       processing appeals against Pension Fund benefit-related decisions

 

The scope of the project involves: analyzing the business and technical requirements of the Pension Fund arising from implementing the Law; identifying the functions and workflows required within the new pension system; designing the Pension Fund’s business operations model that is required to implement the Law; assessing the human, technical, and logistical requirements to administer the proposed business operations model; undertaking a detailed design of the PMIS; and developing the Bid Documents for Phase 2 of the PMIS development project. 

This document sets out the main component functions of the required PMIS system and its’ scope of operations.  This is not an exhaustive list as the Consultant shall use this information as a start-point for a more detailed design of the new PMIS.  The PMIS design shall specify all the business functions that need to be encompassed by the PMIS and shall provide a detailed design of all the processes within those functions, together with a detailed mapping of all workflows.  The business forms and their content, required within these processes, shall also be defined.  The Consultant shall develop standard operating procedures for each function and process within the PMIS.  The Consultant’s Deliverables shall also include a draft Terms of Reference that can be used to contract a team of experts to develop and install the PMIS.  

The outputs for this assignment will feed to the next phase of the PMIS development and deployment, installation of the PMIS, change management, training for PMIS and ICT personnel, PMIS test, and post installation maintenance to be contracted under separate engagement. The Consultant will be required to provide detailed methodology of its technical implementation proposal for this project.

Note:   It is important for the Consultant to take account of the local environment and the constraints it imposes.  In this context the Consultant shall design a system that can be implemented with realism, is cost-effective, and that is sustainable.  This will also require the Consultant to propose technologies that are suited to local circumstances, are scalable, are affordable, and are implementable.

 

C.        Services Required

 

4.         Services Required

The Somaliland Government, with the support from CSSP, seeks to hire a qualified firm (Consultant) to undertake Phase 1 of the PMIS project - analysis and design of the PMIS.  The Consultant will work with all key institutions involved in the new pensions system, including the Pension Fund, the Civil Service Commission, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Finance, Office of the Accountant General, Ministry of Telecommunication and Technology, and various other bodies.

D.        Deliverables

 

5.         PMIS Specific Deliverables

The Consultant will undertake a detailed analysis of the policy and legislation governing the pensions system.  The Consultant will produce detailed business and technical specifications for the development of the PMIS.  This will include the following Deliverables, and any other Deliverable necessary to fulfil the aforementioned requirements:

  • Analysis of requirements and confirmation of the functional scope of the PMIS
  • Analysis of requirements and confirmation of all business processes within the scope of the PMIS
  • Detailed design and description of all business processes and workflows within the PMIS
  • Detailed data flow diagrams of all workflows within each PMIS function and process
  • Analysis and design of all automated inter-connectivity requirements between PMIS and HRMIS, IFMIS, and any other system involved in linkage with PMIS
  • Detailed design of all of ancillary technical processes (e.g., system back-up, user foot-printing, data tracking, performance management, business rules and parameter management, system security etc.) within the PMIS
  • Detailed design (including key content) of all reports (business, management, technical, and operational) to be produced within the PMIS
  • Detailed standard operating procedures (user manuals) for each PMIS function and process
  • Design and detailed content of all business forms to be used by or generated by the PMIS
  • Detailed advice, including costing, of viable and suitable technology options (including relational database system) for development of PMIS
  • Recommend (with cost estimate for licenses etc.) at least two (of each) database and software application technologies (e.g., SQL Server, MySQL, C, C++, Java) suitable for the local environment
  • Specifications and description of the logical and physical data model for the PMIS database system
  • Detailed description of the recommended configuration of computer hardware, system software, RDBMS, network
  • A description (with illustration) of the proposed architectural structure of the PMIS application, showing the deployment environment
  • A description (with illustration) of the proposed architectural structure of the PMIS network, showing the deployment environment
  • A gap analysis of the Pension Fund’s existing ICT and network environment vis-à-vis the recommended solution
  • A gap analysis of the Pension Fund’s existing Disaster Recovery system - with detailed recommendations for future DR system
  • A schedule (with costs) of hardware and network equipment required to implement the PMIS
  • An examination of the most suitable platform solutions for deploying the PMIS (server, cloud etc), with a SWOT analysis of each possibility
  • A gap analysis of the existing administrative and technical capacity of Pension Fund staff to meet the requirements of administering and operating the PMIS
  • Analysis of requirements to establish (or strengthen) Pension Fund’s ICT unit - with a description of structure, staffing, skills, and training requirements
  • Prepare a draft Terms of Reference for the development and installation of the PMIS (Phase 2)
  • Submit a cost estimate for PMIS development (Phase 2)

The Consultant’s proposed PMIS solution must be capable of deployment on local servers, or be accessible direct from the cloud, and be capable of a hybrid (cloud-server) configuration.

The Consultant shall be responsible for securing stakeholders’ agreement on the detailed design of the PMIS.

6.         Project Management - Deliverables

The Consultant shall produce the following Project Management Deliverables:

A.        Inception Report and Project Work Plan

This will be the description of the Consultant’s approach to the project and detailed map of all project tasks together with an associated timeline.  The Plan will also show the critical path, interdependencies, and milestones for each Deliverable.

 

B.        Analysis Report about current Pension Administration

The Consultant shall assess the current pension administration system, identify gaps and strengths in administration.   The Consultant shall discuss and validate the findings of the analysis with Pension Fund management, and key stakeholder institutions.  The Consultant shall record the responses, and update the Analysis Report.

This task will include gap analysis of the Pension Fund’s existing ICT system (hardware/software/equipment/network) environment and a gap analysis of the existing administrative and technical capacity of Pension Fund staff.

 

C.        Detailed specification of system requirements and detailed design of PMIS

The Consultant will submit the elaborate system requirements to drive software requirements and come up with a final list of in-scope requirements.

The Consultant will deliver a description of the agreed target model of the future ICT system, including system architecture (hardware, software), topography, and deployment map.

 

D.        Technical Requirements and Documentation

The Consultant will prepare future ICT infrastructure and technical specifications documents.

 

E.        Final Validation Report with Implementation Roadmap.

The Consultant will provide a final Validation Report demonstrating how the specific Deliverables listed above in Section 5 have been met, including an indexed library of project documentation.

The Consultant will also provide a Roadmap for the steps required in Phase 2, the PMIS development, procurement, and implementation, including a high-level description of each step and a timeline for implementation.

All Deliverables shall be submitted in electronic format (and in popular format e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF). All Deliverables shall be submitted in English.

The Consultant shall keep constant contact with the Government and their advisors and shall submit all Deliverables as draft documents for Government’s review and approval before submitting final versions.  The Consultant shall make all adjustments considered necessary by the Government and shall not charge any extra costs for making such adjustments.

7.         Terms of Payment

10% of the total amount payable upon submission of the detailed Inception Report with Work Plan

20% of total amount payable upon submission of Analysis Report about current pension administration

30% of total amount payable upon submission of detailed specification of pensions system requirements, new pensions system model, and detailed design of PMIS

20% of total amount payable upon submission of Technical Requirements and Documentation

20% of total amount payable upon submission of Final Validation report with Implementation Roadmap.

8.         Required Experience of the Consultant (Consultancy Firm)

The Consultant must have a verifiable record of successfully undertaking similar projects and in a similar context.  The Consultant’s team should comprise of persons that can demonstrate they have the necessary skills and qualifications (international and local) to cover the various tasks in this project.  Specifically, the Consultant must have:

  • At least ten years proven experience of undertaking complex projects in public sector management and ICT development
  • At least ten years proven experience of business systems analysis
  • At least ten years proven experience of social security benefits administration systems design
  • At least ten years of medium-large ICT systems (with relational database) design, preferably in the social security sector
  • At least ten (10) years proven experience in public sector organizational development
  • At least ten (10) years proven experience of ICT projects’ development and management
  • Relevant experience in public procurement processing and management
  • Experience and capability of working in Somaliland
  • Proof of accreditation with international standards body(ies) – relevant to the scope of work within this project

9.         Consultant’s Key Personnel

 

The Consultant shall deploy an experienced technical team during all phases of the project. It is expected that the Consultant will maintain all necessary resources on-site during stages of the project that require close interaction with the Government.

The Consultant team’s experience and skill set will reflect the complex nature of the project.  In this context it is expected that the Contractor will deploy a highly qualified team that conforms to the minimum criteria in terms of qualifications, skills and experience set out below.

The following key personnel with the required minimum qualifications and skills must be made available by the Consultant:

  • Project Manager
  • Business systems analysis expert
  • Business systems design expert
  • ICT systems design expert
  • Local business and ICT experts (two)

Project Manager

  • At least ten (10) years project management experience at senior level
  • Proven experience of successfully project managing large-scale business transformation projects, preferably in the public sector, using IT as the critical strategic change tool
  • Skilled in use of proprietary project management software
  • Previous responsibility for decision-making at senior level in projects and organizations
  • Proven risk management expertise
  • Proven ability to manage multi-national teams of business analysts and systems designers
  • Proven expertise in ICT systems design or development
  • Knowledge of the local context of Somaliland is highly desirable
  • University qualification at least Masters level – preferably in IT, engineering, science, business administration
  • Proficiency in English is mandatory
  • Proficiency in Somali is a plus

Business Systems Analysis Expert

  • At least 7 years in experience of business systems and ICT systems analysis, preferably in the social security sector
  • Proven experience in analyzing > legislation, institutional structures, institutional practices, documents, and work processes in service-oriented public sector organizations
  • Proven experience in documenting business processes and workflows
  • Proven experience of change management in the public sector

Business Systems Design Expert

  • Proven experience of designing business systems with complex work processes and procedures, preferably in the social security sector
  • Proven experience of using business system design tools
  • Knowledge of the local context of Somaliland is highly desirable
  • University qualification at least Bachelor level – preferably in management, business, economics
  • Proficiency in English language is mandatory
  • Proficiency in Somali is a plus

ICT Systems Design Expert

  • At least 10 years’ experience of ICT systems design, development, and management
  • In-depth knowledge of business systems analysis
  • Proven knowledge and experience of ICT applications design
  • Proven experience of developing data models for relational databases
  • Proven experience of database development standards
  • Proven knowledge and experience of CASE tools
  • Proven knowledge and experience of relational database technologies
  • Proven knowledge and experience of applications software development technologies compatible with relational databases
  • Proven experience of database administration experience
  • Proven knowledge and experience of ICT systems performance, security, and reliability
  • Proven knowledge of ICT network design or management
  • Knowledge of the local context of Somaliland is highly desirable
  • University or technical qualification at least Bachelor level – in ICT, or engineering, or mathematics
  • Proficiency in English language is mandatory
  • Proficiency in Somali is a plus

Local ICT Specialist(s)

  • Minimum 5 years’ experience in ICT systems function
  • Proven experience of relational database and applications development
  • Proven database administration experience with proprietary databases
  • Proven experience with using CASE tools
  • Proven knowledge of ICT network management
  • University or equivalent qualification – preferably in IT, engineering, mathematics, science or business
  • Proficiency in English and Somali is mandatory

D.  Project Commencement, Duration, and Terms

 

10.       Commencement of Assignment

(Insert approximate date – Month/Year)

11.       Duration of the assignment

The total duration of the project shall be 6 months in lapsed time.

 

13.       Logistics (to be confirmed and finalized)

The Firm will be responsible for its own logistics for the assignment including hotel accommodation, security, and local transportation and air tickets. The Government of Somaliland will provide all needed information/data to facilitate the timely completion of the project. The Government team will provide oversight and direction to ensure the Consultant has the logistics and information needed to successfully complete the project.

14.       Reporting (to be confirmed and finalized)

The Consultant will report directly to the (CSC Chairman).  The Consultant will be also regularly coordinating with the Project Coordination Unit (PCU) at the office of CSC and with the World Bank Project Task Team Leader.

 

 

 

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