USAID/Honduras?Office of Contract Management, Unit 2927, APO AA 34022

R -- US PERSONAL SERVICE CONTRACTOR SOL RFP 99-09 DUE 012999 POC Contact Point: Karla Oviedo/Marielos Zelaya, Contracting Specialist No. (011-504)36-9320, ext. 2454, fax (011-504)38-2804, Internet [koviedo@usaid.gov] 17. The USAID Mission to Nicaragua is requesting proposals from only U.S. contractors, joint ventures or other subcontracting arrangements with experience providing financial management reform technical assistance to implement a Financial Management Reform Project in Nicaragua. The contract will be for a period of five years, 1999-2003. The objective of this project is to consolidate the financial management reform effort of the Government of Nicaragua (GON) in the areas of Accounting, Audit, Public Awareness, and Anticorruption in order to promote transparency in the conduct of government operations. A. Anti-Corruption/Transparency The anti-corruption/transparency component has three activities: National Assembly Anti-Corruption Commission activities 2. Anti-Corruption/Transparency public awareness campaign 3. Biennial Corruption Survey 1. Anti-Corruption/Transparency Public Awareness Campaign. There is a need to increase public awareness of what the government is doing, should be doing, and can be doing to prevent and punish corruption and to change public attitudes about corruption and what constitutes ethical behavior on the part of the average citizen. The Seligson survey on public attitudes about corruption revealed that average Nicaraguans do not perceive their behavior, such as giving presents to teachers so their children pass or paying someone to process birth certificates, as corrupt. So the public awareness campaign has two clients, public service employees as well as citizens. Both need to develop a clearer understanding of what constitutes ethical behavior. Through this contract, the contractor will be expected to design and implement a national transparency/anti- corruption public awareness campaign. The purpose of this campaign will be to increase public understanding of the need to promote transparency and to educate the public on ethical behavior on their part as well as on the part of public employees. In addition to launching a national campaign, the contractor should also consider including any other regional activities, such as Respondacon, as part of their proposal if they deem that these regional activities would further the objective of greater citizen awareness of transparency issues. 2. Anti-Corruption Public Opinion Survey. Under the previous contract, USAID financed corruption surveys in 1997 and 1999. This nationwide public opinion poll, which includes the Atlantic Coast, is designed to capture baseline information on public attitudes about corruption and, over time, to measure the effects of the GON's efforts to promote transparency in government operations; an effort which is supported in part, through this contract and the previous contract. 3. National Assembly Anti-Corruption Commission The activities to be promoted by the National Assembly AntiCorruption Commission will be funded apart from this contract. However, the contractor will have to coordinate closely with the National Assembly Anti- Corruption Commission in order to ensure complementarity of efforts. In addition, the contractor should be aware that the World Bank, through Economic Development Institute (EDI), has supported the creation of a National Integrity Unit in the Office of the Vice-President and that their activities will also need to be closely coordinated. B. Office of the Controller General (OCG) Previous USAID assistance to the Controller General has been instrumental in improving their capacity to conduct integrated audits, much like USAID's IG undertakes. In addition, USAID has helped the Controller General to utilize multidisciplinary teams to undertake integrated audits. The OCG has identified two areas where USAID assistance is still warranted, internal audit unit and organizational strengthening. C. SIGFA II The World Bank is programming a substantial amount of funding for the expansion of SIGFA II to other central government ministries. The World Bank expects that their program would finance procurement of all necessary equipment as well as continued technical assistance in areas they have previouslyfocused on: budget and internal Ministry audit systems. The UNCTAD (with Swiss funds) and IMF are expected to provide financing for the Treasury and Public Credit aspects, respectively, of the overall financial reform program. USAID would, for its part, provide technical assistance and training to extend the SIGFA II accounting function to other Central government ministries. D. Reconstruction and Transparency. The US Government may, at a later date, decide to amend this contract to provide additional technical assistance to assist key ministries involved in managing reconstruction activities in order to ensure the transparent and efficient use of donor funding. At this point, however, the offeror is not expected to respond to this component of this Scope of Work. The Mission anticipates awarding a Cost Plus Fixed Fee Contract for the purpose of working in the FMR Project in Nicaragua. The period of performance of this Contract will be for 5 years. RFP NO. 99-03 for this requirement will be available on or about January 12, 1999. The closing date for receiving proposals should be February 26, 1999. Interested parties shall contact Maria Lourdes Baltodano, e- mail:mariabaltodano@usaid.gov, Acquisition Specialist, at AMEMBASSY. Managua, USAID, Unit 2712, Box 9, APO AA 34021 in writing to request the RFP. Fax requests are acceptable. Please make reference to RFP 99- 03. No request for the RFP will be honored 15 days after the opening day of same. The Standard Industrial Classification Code for this procurement is 8999. The preferred method of distribution of USAID procurement information is via the Internet or by request of a solicitation on a 3.511 floppy disk (WordPerfect 5.1/5.2 format). This CIB notice can be viewed and downloaded using the Agency Web Site. The RFP, once issued, can be downloaded from the Agency Web Site. The Worldwide Web address is http://www.info.usaid.gov. Select Business and Procurement Opportunities from the home page, then "USAID Procurements." on the following screen, select "Download Available USAID Solicitations." Receipt of this RFP through INTERNET must be confirmed by written notification to the contact person noted above. It is the responsibility of the recipient of this solicitation document to ensure that it has been received from INTERNET in its entirety and USAID bears no responsibility for data errors resulting from transmission or conversion processes. Posted 01/14/99 (I-SN288224). (0014)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0067 19990119\R-0006.SOL)