Institutional Capacity Building Project

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
(CONSULTING SERVICES – FIRMS SELECTION)

 

Uzbekistan

Institutional Capacity Building Project

Credit No.: IDA 6431-UZ

Assignment Title: Improving Public Investment Management System in the Republic of Uzbekistan

 

Reference No.: MEF-PIM-QCBS

 

The Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan has received financing from the World Bank toward the cost of the Institutional Capacity Building Project and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting firms to improve Public Investment Management System in the Republic of Uzbekistan. (“Services”) for the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic Uzbekistan.

The objective of this assignment is to support the authorities to strengthen the public investment management framework, including streamlining investment management processes, making the investment project selection more consistent with fiscal policy targets and with the budgeting process specifically, strengthening capacities of relevant institutions in charge of identification, pre-screening economic analyses, selection, assessment (appraisal), budgeting of investment projects and monitoring their execution. Introducing a framework for infrastructure project prioritization and development centralized pipeline/database of all appraised investment projects will considerably facilitate the transformation of selected investment projects into the budget projections.

The Ministry of Economy and finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan 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 submitting directly to the piu_mof@mail.ru.

The qualification requirements for the Consultants are:

• At least 7 years of experience in public administration and/or public finance and investment management in transition economies. 

• At least 7 years of experience in conducting or supporting governments in the development of public finance and investment management reform strategies and/or sectoral strategic plans. 

• At least 5 years of experience in conducting or supporting governments in integrating climate aspects and environmental standards into investment processes, including the development of sectoral strategic plans. 

• At least 5 years of experience in post-investment monitoring and developing maintenance and operational budgets for completed investment (infrastructure) projects. 

• At least 5 years of experience in capacity-building activities (training) for civil servants engaged in public finance reforms and/or public investment management. 

• Successful participation in at least three projects involving pilot implementation of public investment management (PIM) initiatives and providing high-level expert recommendations to governments and international organizations in the field of public investment management.

 

The proposed team will have both the skills and experience necessary to undertake the range of tasks set out in these Terms of Reference. The Key experts will be not evaluation during review the EOI.

The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to Section III of the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” dated July 2016, revised in November 2017 and August 2018 (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.  In addition, please refer to the following specific information on conflict of interest related to this assignment: Consultants shall not be hired for any assignment that would be in conflict with their prior or current obligations to other clients, or that may place them in a position of being unable to carry out the assignment in the best interests of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS) method set out in the Procurement Regulations.

Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours from 9:00 a.m. to 18:00 p.m. Tashkent time.

Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form in English, Russian or Uzbek languages to the address below (in person, or by mail, or by e-mail) until 6:00 p.m. Tashkent time on February 5, 2025.

 

Project Implementation Unit under the
Ministry of Economy and finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Attn: Sirojiddin Imanov, Manager of the Project

Uzbekistan, 100017, Tashkent city, 29, Istiklol St.

Tel: +998712035050

E-mail: piu_mof@mail.ru

 

 

 

 

As part of the EOI, the consultant should include the following information:

• Consulting Firm Information

 

Date:	Country of Incorporation:
Consultant Name:	Acronym:
EOI Submission Authorized by:	Position

 

• Associations (Joint Venture or Sub-consultancy)

 

Consultant	Acronym	Country of Incorporation	Joint Venture (JV) or Sub-consultant	EOI Submission Authorized By	Position

 

Present the rationale for and benefits of working in association (JV or Sub-consultant) with others rather than undertaking the assignment independently (as appropriate). Describe the proposed management and coordination approach of the association and the role of each firm.

 

• Technical competence

Project References - highlight the technical qualifications of your entity/consortium in undertaking similar assignments. Provide details of past experiences working with similar project authorities

 

• Geographical experience

 

Project References, present experiences in similar geographic areas.

 

• Management Competence

• Describe standard policies, procedures, and practices that your entity has to assure quality interaction with clients and outputs. Please state if your company is ISO certified.
• How your firm/consortium handles complaints concerning the performance of experts or quality of the reports submitted for previous and future assignments? What internal controls are in place to address and resolve complaints.
• How you ensure the quality of your firm’s/consortium’s performance over the life of assignments.

• Projects references

 

 

 

N	Project	Project start date (year, month, mandatory)	Project end date (year, month, mandatory)	Client	Country	Firm	Participated lawyers in the project among the recommended personnel (full name)
1
2
…
…
…
10

 

• Summary for the Projects listed above

 

Project Title
Country / Region
Start Date
Completion Date
Continuous / Intermittent
Client
Participated lawyers in the project among the recommended personnel (full name)
Funding Source
Project description
The role of the consulting firm	(indicate your role and contribution in terms of men-months)

 

• Eligibility

 

We, the undersigned, certify to the best of our knowledge and belief:

 

• We have read the advertisement, including the terms of reference (TOR), for this assignment (YES/NO)

 

• Neither the consulting firm nor its JV member or sub-consultant or any of its experts prepared the TOR for this activity (YES/NO)

 

• We confirm that the project references submitted as part of this EOI accurately reflect the experience of the specified firm/consortium. (YES/NO)

 

• Ensuing assignment resulting from our work product under this assignment, our firm, JV member or sub-consultant, and the expert(s) will be disqualified from short-listing and participation in the assignment.

 

• The lead entity and JV member or sub-consultant are NOT currently sanctioned by or other MDBs. Neither the consulting firm nor the JV member or sub-consultant has ever been convicted of an integrity-related offense or crime related to theft, corruption, fraud, collusion or coercion.

 

 

 

TERMS OF REFERENCE

IMPROVING PUBLIC INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN

Background

Uzbekistan is emerging from a system, typical of many post-Soviet societies that combine a command-and-control planning system with sectoral production focus. Currently, the economy of Uzbekistan is dominated by the public sector in the form of line ministries, sub-national governments and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which also undertake the bulk of investment in the country. This poses a challenge to public expenditure management system in Uzbekistan as it moves towards a greater role for the private sector, better value for money from investments and increased transparency and accountability.

The World Bank's 2018 assessment of public expenditure and financial accountability (PEFA), along with the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) assessment of the public investment management system in 2020-2021, identified key weaknesses in public financial management in Uzbekistan. Among other aspects, the reports highlighted the importance of taking steps toward improving and refining the Public Investment Management (PIM) system, noting that the current PIM system does not sufficiently reflect widely accepted best practices.

According to the results of the World Bank's 2024 PEFA assessment and the technical assistance provided by the IMF in January 2024, progress has been made in public investment management. In particular, during 2022-2024, a number of documents were adopted aimed at establishing procedures for the formulation, implementation, and monitoring of infrastructure projects. These include procedures for project selection and evaluation, the introduction of digital technologies, as well as post-investment project monitoring.

As part of the continued enhancement of the public investment management system, another assessment by the IMF, including the C-PIMA evaluation, is planned for February 2025.

To address these challenges, the Government of Uzbekistan with the support of the World Bank and other development institutions initiated deep and comprehensive reform in the field of Public Finance Management (PFM), with a key focus on maintaining aggregate fiscal discipline, effectively allocating resources in accordance with government priority, promoting efficiency in delivery of services and ensuring budget transparency. Introducing and developing effective Public Investment Management framework is going to be one of the main dimensions of PFM reforms, which will support Government to have effective tools for identifying, developing, assessing, allocating resources for infrastructure projects and for their monitoring.

Problem Statement

Investment expenditures and obligations related to capital investments in the public sector present a challenge in Uzbekistan both in terms of accessibility, distributional efficiency, and operational efficiency / cost-effectiveness.

From the affordability perspective, the linkage between fiscal policy targets /rules, including expenditure controls, with the overall public investment project portfolio planning is weak. The national development strategy also fails to effectively guide public investment decisions, because it is not constrained with the resource envelope for capital expenditures. Moreover, the national development strategy and individual strategy documents prepared by sectors (or sub-sectors) are not synchronized. On the other hand, the existing sectoral strategies have no comprehensive costings (PEFA PI-16). Altogether this leads to misalignment of strategic plans and medium-term budgets.

The capacity of the line ministries on pre-screening, appraisal, costing, selection, budgeting and monitoring public investment projects remain weak.

Under Component 1 of TA Project on “Uzbekistan Institutional Capacity Building” (P168180), the WB shall support the authorities to improve the aforementioned areas of PIM and increase relevant capacities of the institutions.

Objective of the Assignment

The objective of this assignment is to support the authorities to strengthen the public investment management framework, including streamlining investment management processes, making the investment project selection more consistent with fiscal policy targets and with the budgeting process specifically, strengthening capacities of relevant institutions in charge of identification, pre-screening economic analyses, selection, assessment (appraisal), budgeting of investment projects and monitoring their execution. Introducing a framework for infrastructure project prioritization and development centralized pipeline/database of all appraised investment projects will considerably facilitate the transformation of selected investment projects into the budget projections.

Scope of Work

Within the “Sustainable fiscal policy, results-oriented budgeting and effective public investment initiative”, the Government of Uzbekistan intends to hire an experienced consulting company (hereinafter the “Consultant”), which will support to develop effective and workable public investment management framework.

The scope of the assignment includes the following activities split into Tasks:

Task 1 (3 months)

Diagnostics of consistency between macro-fiscal and PIM frameworks.

Diagnostics of current PPP framework using the WBG PPP Diagnostic or other relevant tool. 

• Review and present the experiences of at least 3 countries with advanced PIM practices, including policy framework for evaluating, prioritizing, allocating resources, implementing and monitoring investments projects, identifying the roles of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and line ministries.
• Diagnostics of the macro-fiscal framework, including the fiscal rules and targets, used to define the broad expenditure ceilings in the budget and the breakdown of expenditures by current and capital,
• Analyze capital expenditures on investment projects carried out by state agencies to be financed from budget and extra-budgetary funds by each line ministry
• Analysis of the institutional framework and the roles of various participants in budget preparation, budget approval, monitoring, and reporting on investment projects (capital expenditures) across 6 sectors, including healthcare, water resource management (irrigation), drinking water supply and sanitation, district heating systems, road construction, and education.
• Analysis of the public procurement management process in the construction sector.
• Conduct gap analysis to identify short-term and long-term solutions for introducing consistent public investment management framework and formulate policy recommendations thereof.
• Conduct assessment of the current PPP framework, identify gaps and present time bound action plan for setting workable framework in line with international best practice.
• Acquaintance of specialists from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, as well as the Ministry of Investments, Industry, and Trade, with the best international practices in public investment management, including a visit to one of the European and/or Asian countries.
• Develop recommendations for the successful implementation of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mechanisms in the delivery of investment (infrastructure) projects, with examples including the provision of drinking water and heating services, the construction, reconstruction, and operation of irrigation infrastructure, as well as the construction of public sector facilities

Task 2 (4 months)

Develop public investment management framework for inter-sectoral and intra-sectoral resource allocation and monitoring.

Inter-sectoral resource allocation and monitoring.

• Review the national development, sectoral strategies and programs guiding the sectoral public investment plans, including the guidelines, analytical systems and criteria used for preparing the pipeline of potential investment projects.
• Determination of key (basic) and sectoral (education, healthcare, utilities, irrigation, melioration) criteria for selecting infrastructure projects.
• In consultation with the Government, develop the parameters (impact including climate (mitigation and adaptation), source of financing, i.e. debt or local resources, objective of investment, sector weights stemming from strategic goals or programs of the government, costing, execution rate of ongoing investment projects, etc.) to be used in PIM framework for project prioritization and ranking across sectors.
• Develop a framework for assessing, selecting and prioritizing investment projects, including the institutional setup identifying the role of leading ministry and other line ministries for preparing the portfolio of investment projects to be reflected in the annual budget and MTEF.
• Develop a monitoring system for investment projects, with feedback information opportunities linked to the new selection process, to ensure continuity of selected investment project in the medium term.
• Development of a methodology or principles (mechanisms) for determining priority areas (areas) for the use of centralized investments in conjunction with macroeconomic indicators, demography, economic development of industries and regions.
• Defining approaches to the development of the project results matrix
• Determination of mechanisms and methods for calculating the formation and approval of financial requirements for the maintenance and upkeep of planned and completed projects, as well as assets on the balance sheet of the operating organization, based on best practices implemented in European and Asian countries.

Intra sectoral resource allocation and monitoring

• Review the analytical systems and criteria for identifying, developing, analyzing and presenting investment projects within individual areas, sectors or line ministries;
• Develop a system for the consolidation of all investment expenses, including those financed from extra-budgetary funds of line ministries and agencies (recipients of budgetary funds) in the State budget
• Develop sector specific parameters (impact, linkages to sector strategic goals, objective of investment, costing, execution rate of ongoing investment projects, etc.) to be used in PIM framework for project prioritization and ranking within a sector;
• Definition of the key roles of the Ministry Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade in:

• - public investment management system. Areas of activity and responsibility of these ministries;
• - initiating, setting priorities, determining sources of financing for investment projects proposed for implementation as part of attracting IFI loans or using the PPP mechanism.

• Study the relationship between state-owned enterprises (Uzbekistan Railways, NGMK, AGMK, Uztransgaz, etc.) and banks (NBU, Promstroybank, Asaka Bank, etc.) with the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and the Ministry of Investments, Industry, and Trade (MIIT) through the lens of Public Investment Management (PIM) mechanisms, followed by determining the role and significance of state-owned enterprises in the public investment management system.
• Develop a framework (including criteria and indicators) for assessing, selecting and prioritizing sector specific investment projects, with special focus on projects in the sectors of education, healthcare, water management (water supply and irrigation) and road construction, for preparing the pipeline of investment projects to be reflected in annual budget and MTEF (developed criteria and indicators should also cover climate related aspects);
• Develop a methodological recommendation for decision making on investment projects (or capital expenditure) either to be financed by allocation of budget funds or involve in public-private partnerships.
• Develop a monitoring system for sector specific investment projects, with a set of qualitative and quantitative monitoring indicators and performance based information feedback opportunities linked to the new selection process during budget cycle, to ensure continuity of selected investment project in the medium term.
• Development of methodological recommendations for calculating the need for maintenance and maintenance of fixed assets.

Task 3 (10-12 months)

Piloting and capacity building exercise:

•  Develop PIM templates and guidelines for inter sector resource allocation and assess current project pipeline in terms of preparedness, quality, impact, cost and other criteria utilized in the new PIM framework. 
• Development and pilot application of detailed guidelines for the identification, development, evaluation, selection and monitoring of projects, as well as maintenance and upkeep in 6 sectors, i.e. education, health, water resources management (irrigation), drinking water and sewerage management, heating systems and road construction;
• Development and application of templates for feasibility studies and project concepts in education, health, water management (water supply and irrigation) and road construction
• Conducting simultaneous scoping and advocacy training for senior officials of the pilot public investment management agencies, the Ministry of Economy and Finance staff, and other stakeholders.
• Technical support and on-the-job coaching for pilot application in selected government bodies with respect to screening and identifying, developing, prioritizing, selecting, budgeting and monitoring projects.
• In consultation with the authorities, suggest the scope of updates in legal and institutional frameworks with a view to create/strengthen the grounds for integrating the investment planning process into the budget cycle.

Task 4 (4 months)

Preparing for rolling-out the PIM.

• Analyze the piloting process during the first year and develop recommendations on next steps.
• Prepare a guidance for an information system that will enable automation of prioritizing, selecting, allocating of resource and monitoring processes relating to investment projects according to final procedures and forms. The document shall define the scope of information system, required modules and business processes. It will serve as a basis for development of software requirements document after completion of this project.
• Prepare the Final Report for the Project, including specific recommendations on short and mid-term activities for the Ministry of Economy and Finance and other stakeholders to roll-out the PIM horizontally (across other sectors and budget programs) and vertically (enhancing the scope and toolkit of PIM application).

Outputs or Deliverables:

• Deliverable 1 (15 % of the Contract price): An initial report providing an overview of international best practices and a diagnosis of the current PIM structure, identifying weaknesses or gaps in the system to establish an effective public investment management framework, accompanied by appendices outlining the recommended work plan, technical specifications, and templates for pilot implementation and training;
• Deliverable 2 (15% of the Contract price): Inception Report with diagnosis of the existing PPP framework and identifying the weakness or missing systems for setting effective PPP framework, with annexes on recommended action plan and timetable
• Deliverable 3 (15% of the Contract price) The guidelines for setting a framework of inter-sectoral investment project prioritization, selection (including decision making on type of funding - PPP or budget sources) budgeting and monitoring completed.
• Deliverable 4 (15% of the Contract price) The guidelines for setting a framework of intra-sectoral investment project identification, development, prioritization, selection, budgeting and monitoring completed.
• Deliverable 5 (5% of the Contract price): training of at least 60 employees responsible for organizing and operating the Public Investment Management (PIM) system from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Investments, Industry, and Trade, 13 sectoral ministries and agencies, and 14 local khokimiyats in PIM methodologies and requirements (conducting at least two seminars and/or training sessions).
• Deliverable 6 (15% of the Contract price): Interim report on PIM reforms piloting exercise with recommendations on the next steps.
• Deliverable 7 (10% of the Contract price):  Report on description of information system (other than detailed software requirement specification) that will enable automation of PIM processes where possible, according to final procedures and forms.
•  Deliverable 8 (10% of the Contract price): Final Report with a set of recommendations on rolling-out the PIM Framework in Uzbekistan.

 

Reporting

Upon completion of each Task the Consultant shall submit the Report (Inception, Interim and Final Report) to the Client.

Requirements to the Consulting Company

The Consulting Company shall be expected to meet the following requirements:

• At least 7 years of experience in public administration and/or public finance and investment management in transition economies. 

• At least 7 years of experience in conducting or supporting governments in the development of public finance and investment management reform strategies and/or sectoral strategic plans. 

• At least 5 years of experience in conducting or supporting governments in integrating climate aspects and environmental standards into investment processes, including the development of sectoral strategic plans. 

• At least 5 years of experience in post-investment monitoring and developing maintenance and operational budgets for completed investment (infrastructure) projects. 

• At least 5 years of experience in capacity-building activities (training) for civil servants engaged in public finance reforms and/or public investment management. 

• Successful participation in at least three projects involving pilot implementation of public investment management (PIM) initiatives and providing high-level expert recommendations to governments and international organizations in the field of public investment management.

 

Expertise of the company / organization submitting the proposal and their key staff

The team shall consist of minimum five highly-qualified international experts with good knowledge and experience in Public Finance/Public Investment Management and an IT specialist. The team shall be comprised of:

• At least 2 key members (Team Leader and Senior Specialist) with minimum ten years of relevant working experience in Public Finance/Public Investment Management and in-depth knowledge of public policies, strategies and programs. Experience in the Ministry of Finance or Ministry of Economy shall be considered as a strong asset.
• One member with at least seven years of experience in public finance/public investment management and knowledge of public policies, strategies, programs. Work experience in the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Economy will be considered a privilege
• One member with minimum seven years of work experience in elaborating PPP frameworks, assessing PPP projects or providing advice to the countries thereon.  
• One IT specialist with knowledge and experience in developing software or automating public administration processes. Experience in developing GFMIS or sub components will be an asset.
• All the members shall have an advance post-graduate (Master's, equivalent or higher) degree in the field of economics or public finance (except IT specialist);
• All the members shall be fluent in verbal and written communication in English. At least 3 key team members are required to be fluent in both English and Russian.
• At least 3 members (including the Team Leader) shall have experience of work with high level officials and international agencies.
• At least 2 members shall have experience in developing and conducting trainings, developing manuals and guidelines.
• Previous institutional experience of team members with the World Bank shall be considered an asset.
• Experience in the Central Asian region shall be considered a strong asset.

Organizational issues

The Client is Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as the “Project Implementation Unit” (PIU) under the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The Ministry of Economy and Finance shall be responsible for acceptance of works performed by the Consultant under this assignment, as well as for signing the Act of Acceptance of works. 

The “Project implementation Unit” (PIU) of the RoU Ministry of Economy and Finance shall be responsible for effecting payments on basis of the Act of Acceptance of works signed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Uzbekistan and the Consultant’s original Request for Payment.

All the costs, including local and international taxes shall be covered by the Consulting Company.