DEADLINE: 26TH FEBRUARY, 2021
KANO STATE GOVERNMENT
3RD NATIONAL URBAN WATER SECTOR REFORM PROJECT IN KANO STATE
ORGANIZATIONAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE (OTA)
PROCUREMENT NO: 2020-04/KNSWB/AFD-CNG1054/CS/OTA
REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
The Kano State Government has received financing from the Agence Francaise de Developpement (“AFD”) to support the implementation of the 3rd National Urban Water Sector Reform Project in Kano State with the overarching objectives of improved access and quality of water service in Kano State Water Board’s areas of operation, improving the financial viability of Kano State Water Board (KnSWB), and enhancing the governance framework of the water sector in the state.
The project will improve the water supply infrastructure, governance and operational and maintenance capabilities of KnSWB to provide improved water supply service to the Greater Kano area. The project Implementing Agency, KnSWB, on behalf of the Kano State Government, intends to use part of the funds thereof for payments for the following services under the contract for: Organizational Technical Assistance (OTA).
KnSWB now wishes to hire an experienced and qualified Consulting firm to provide the OTA Services to assist KnSWB to work towards becoming a commercially and financially viable and customer focused operation, delivering sustainable water services to the population of Greater Kano and in accordance with the provisions of the recently enacted new Kano State Water Law.
The scope of the OTA Services shall include but not be limited to the following:
(1) Clarifying KnSWB’s organizational structure and staffing:
- Develop new organizational structure for KnSWB to focus on urban water supply only
- Establish requirements for staffing of all departments in line with new corporate objectives
- Determine requirements for staff re-positioning, retraining and hiring of new staff
- Develop a staff re-deployment program acceptable to KnSWB and Kano State Government.
(2) Develop new modern Human Resources (HR) and administration systems:
- Job descriptions and Standard Operating Procedures for various functional activities
- Compensation plans possibly with performance-based incentives
- Training requirements and training plans
- Career planning and performance review systems
- Staff recruitment procedures and systems
(3) Strengthening commercial, financial and accounting functions:
- Establish an accurate baseline of existing commercial and financial performance
- Develop 3-year Commercial and Financial Performance Improvement Plan
- Develop a financial model of the operations of the KnSWB
- Institutionalize systems for proper financial reporting
(4) Improve operation and maintenance (O&M) procedures:
- Establish baseline performance of O&M activities in all areas of KnSWB’s operations
- Develop 3-year O&M Performance Improvement Plan in line with new corporate objectives
- Develop performance monitoring system and institutionalize for proper O&M reporting
- Determine any necessary tools and equipment necessary to fulfil the O&M responsibilities
(5) Non-Revenue Water (NRW) Reduction Program:
- Develop pilot program for NRW with target of <30% NRW in the selected zone
- Develop and deliver capacity building and training to staff of KnSWB in NRW methods
- Provide support to KnSWB to initiate NRW reduction in other areas after the pilot zone
- Develop and implement systems for ongoing monitoring and reporting of system wide NRW.
(6) Consumer awareness campaign:
- Assist KnSWB to contract a local NGO/CBO to carry out awareness campaigns around the project, both internal within the KnSWB, and externally with other government MDAs and the general public
- Coordinate these activities with other consumer awareness and promotional efforts that may be ongoing at the Ministry of Water Resources under the direction of the Institutional Technical Assistance (ITA) Consultant, concerning sector-wide initiatives.
(7) Capacity Building and Training Program
- Carry out a corporate-wide staff skills and capacity assessment
- Develop a costed capacity building and training plan for all staff of the corporation.
- Implement training within the limitations of the Consultant contract and assist to procure other training courses in key areas agreed with KnSWB.
- IT Systems Improvements
- Establish an accurate baseline of IT systems and knowledge in the corporation
- Develop a 3-year costed plan for improvement of IT systems in line with corporate goals
Provide support including change management, capacity building and training for the implementation of all of the above, within the time and budget limitations of the OTA Consultancy Contract.
The OTA Consultant must be a firm with at least ten (10) years of relevant and diversified professional experience in carrying out organizational restructuring and reform of large government organizations. This shall include experience providing similar Organizational Technical Assistance services for major internationally funded sector reform projects in developing countries, preferably in Sub-Saharan Africa and preferably in the water sector or public utility sector. Also, the firm should be familiar with AFD procurement guidelines and those of other major Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), preferably those of the World Bank, and with FIDIC Conditions of Contract.
The firm should have clear knowledge, experience and understanding of best practices and international benchmarking standards in the water or utility industry and should possess internationally accepted quality assurance procedures and certifications, for example ISO or equivalent. The Organizational Technical Assistance (OTA) assignment will be a time-based contract to a budget ceiling, based on Quality and Cost Based (QCBS) selection in accordance with AFD Procurement Guidelines.
The indicative Implementation period shall be approximately 3.5 years commencing in Q2 2021.
A rough estimate of Key Experts’ time-input is: 120 person-months. Kano State Water Board hereby invites Applicants to express their interest in delivering the Services described above.
This Request for Expressions of Interest (REoI) is open to: Firms or Joint Venture of Firms.
Eligibility criteria for AFD financed projects are specified in sub-clause 1.3 of the “Procurement Guidelines for AFD-Financed Contracts in Foreign Countries”, available online on AFD’s website: http://www.afd.fr. The Applicants shall submit only one application, either in its own name or as a member of a Joint Venture (JV). If an Applicant (including any JV member) submits or participates in more than one application, those applications shall be all rejected. However, the same Subconsultant may participate in several applications.
If the Applicant is a JV, the expression of interest shall include:
- a copy of the JV Agreement entered into by all members; or
- a letter of intent to execute a JV Agreement, signed by all members.
In the absence of this document, the other members will be considered as Subconsultants.
Experiences and qualifications of Subconsultants are not taken into account in the evaluation of the applications.
Interested Applicants must provide information evidencing that they are qualified and experienced to perform the Services. For that purpose, documented evidence of recent and similar services shall be submitted. Determination of the similarity of the experiences will be based on:
- Value and size of contracts;
- The nature of the Services: provision of similar Organisation Technical Assistance services on projects funded by international development agencies (AFD, World Bank, AfDB, etc.)
- The technical area and expertise;
- Experience of working in similar geographical regions;
- The location of the project: In similar geographical regions (Sub- Saharan Africa). If in Nigeria, specify the State, or if outside Nigeria, specify client’s country and language of communication.
The firm/joint venture shall present 10 maximum completed or ongoing relevant similar assignments performed during the last 10 years only. There shall be at least 3 assignments for which the value of the organizational technical assistance services performed by the firm or a member of the JV, must be equivalent to at least USD $0.5 Million. For each similar assignment presented, the consultant shall provide a letter from the client with the name of the project, date(s) of execution, name(s) of lead and associate firms or JV partners, contract amount and financing sources.
The Client will also take into account for the evaluation of the applications the following items:
- Skills and availability of key experts, including in-house technical back-up experts;
- Evidence showing the field of specialty of the firm (“Consultants profile”/brochures);
- Evidence showing that the firm is a legal entity (certificate of registration);
- Quality assurance procedures and certifications of the Applicant: ISO 9001 or equivalent.
The EOI recommended structure is the following:
- General introduction about the leading firm and its potential partners;
- Justification of the JV: complementary capacities and key technical fields of the JV;
- Registration and certification details of the firm or each member of the JV;
- Financial capacity of the firm to take-on projects of a similar magnitude;
- List of relevant experiences and brief description of similar projects/assignments addressing the requirements described above;
- The EoI must not exceed 100 pages for each Applicant (in character 10).
At this stage, CVs of experts do not need to be provided. In the final RFP to be shared with the shortlisted Applicants, it shall be noted that the involvement of national experts as Key Experts will be one of the criteria of technical evaluation of proposals.
Due to the security risk in the areas where the Services are to be performed, the evaluation of Expressions of Interest will verify that the applications meet the following criteria:
- The Applicant has at least one experience providing services in an area with a similar security risk, for which it shall provide proof of implementation of security measures (invoice or contract with a security service provider, proof of security awareness training before departure on-site, etc.).
- The Applicant has set up internal security management procedures: it shall provide a description of its monitoring system and crisis management system.
- For services provided abroad, the Applicant has entered into an assistance and repatriation contract for its employees: it shall provide the certificate evidencing such contract.
- The Applicant shall describe its standard preparation process for departure on assignment in sensitive areas, and shall attach documents proving its implementation (service orders with related instructions, certificates of awareness-raising or training actions, etc.).
For a JV, its leader and any member that has its registered office outside the Client’s country shall fulfil each of the above criteria. The security criteria applies to both international and local firms. An application that does not meet any of these requirements will be rejected.
Among the submitted applications, Kano State Water Board will shortlist a maximum of six (6) Applicants, to whom the Request for Proposals to carry out the Services shall be sent. Kano State Water Board is not bound to shortlist any applicant.
The Expressions of Interest must be submitted to the address below not later than 12 noon on or before Friday 26th February, 2021. The submission must include a signed and unaltered “Statement of Integrity, Eligibility and Environmental and Social Responsibility” which can be found online on AFD’s website: https://www.afd.fr/en/responding-bid-invitation. The document is hereby attached.
Submissions shall include 5 hard copies (1 original and 4 copies) and an electronic copy on memory stick.
Submissions are to be sent to:
The Managing Director,
Kano State Water Board,
No. 675, Kofar Nassarawa, Kano,
Engr, Abdul’azeez Umar Office Complex,
Attn: Engr. Ibrahim Usman Dederi,
Project Coordinator,
Project Implementation Unit.
Interested Applicants may obtain further information at the address below during office hours: 9:00am to 4:00pm, or by email at the indicated address below:
Kano State Water Board,
No. 675, Kofar Nassarawa, Kano,
Engr. Abdul’azeez Umar Office Complex,
Telephone: 08036053316
E-mail: dederiiu@gmail.com ; knwaterboard@gmail.com
