REPUBLIC OF KOSOVA
Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA)
Agency for Information Society (AIS).
REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST - EXTENDED DEADLINE
(CONSULTING SERVICES – FIRMS SELECTION)
COUNTRY: Kosova
NAME OF PROJECT: Strengthening Digital Governance for Service Delivery Project
CREDIT No: P178162
ASSIGNMENT TITLE: Assessment of GovNet infrastructure
REFERENCE NO. SDGSDP/QCBS-1.3.2/2024
DATE: December 27, 2024
The Ministry of Internal Affairs/Agency for Information Society has received financing from the World Bank toward the cost of the Strengthening Digital Governance for Service Delivery Project (SDGSDP), and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services.
The consulting services (“the Services”) include: identifying the business needs and prepare the functional and technical requirements and for the overhaul of GovNet. The consultancy assignment shall conduct a needs and requirements assessment, assessments of the current GovNet components, prepare a design of, and transition plan to, a modern future-proof GovNet for the GoK based on the assessment. Prepare bidding documents for the supply and installation of necessary network equipment, software, hardware, and other components (to be implemented through another contract) for the implementation of the proposed GovNet for the GoK.
The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment are attached to this request for expressions of interest.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs/Agency for Information Society 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.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE COMPANY
General qualifications:
- The Consultant firm must be a legally established and registered entity.
- The Consultant firm should demonstrate at least 10 years of relevant experience.
- Demonstrated capacity to engage with public institutions, national and local authorities;
- Demonstrated experience working with international donors;
Specific qualifications:
- The Consultant firm must have successfully completed at least three (3) network analyze and design projects for large organizations, including international projects, within the last five (5) years (as the main solution provider or main contributor in a joint venture). Successfully completed projects will be presented through a table listing the name of the relevant assignments, short scope of work, contract start and end dates, country/region, and contact reference (name, e-mail, phone number).
- Excellent project management skills, including quality assurance of work products; ability to deliver high-quality outputs in a high-pressure multicultural environment.
- Excellent command of English, with the ability to deliver high-quality report writing, presentation, and communication skills, with experience in communicating and engaging with high-level decision makers in the public sector.
THE SHORTLISTING CRITERIA ARE:
(i) General qualifications of the company to REOI (40%),
(ii) Relevant experience with similar assignments (60%)
The Consultants’ Staff CV are NOT subject to evaluation at the shortlisting stage.
The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to Section III, paragraphs, 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” July 2016 revised November 2017, August 2018, November 2020 and September 2023 (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.
Consultants may associate with other firms to enhance their qualifications, 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 Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS) method set out in the Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers (July 2016, revised November 2017, August 2018, November 2020, and September 2023
Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours 09.00 to 15.00 hour, Kosova time.
Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form to the address below by e-mail by: February 5, 2025, at 16.00h Kosova Time.
Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA)
Agency for Information Society (AIS)
Attn: Luan Asllani, Procurement Specialist
Government Building, Ex-Rilindja
10000 Prishtina, Republic of Kosova,
Ph.: +383 (38) 200 14018
E-mail: kodgov@rks-gov.net
Kosovo – Strengthening Digital Governance for Service Delivery
TERMS OF REFERENCE
for Consultancy Services to
Assessment of GovNet infrastructure
Reference No: SDGSD/QCBS-1.3.2/2024
- Background
The Government of Kosovo (GoK) recognizes digital development as a priority to enable sustained economic growth and improve public services. The enabling environment exists for opening new channels of communication and improving the transparency and accountability of public service provision, by building upon the existing foundations of countrywide ICT infrastructure, internet penetration and digital literacy. An Open Data Charter was approved in 2016 and a national portal for open data was established, in addition to the government’s State Services Portal (e-Kosova).
As a horizontal agenda supporting the National Development Strategy (NDS) 2030, the Digital Agenda 2030 lays out the cross-sectoral government horizontal agenda that defines the policy and priorities for Kosovo to support the digital transformation of the economy and the society. The digitalization of government is included as Strategic Objective #3 (SO3). With support from the e-Governance Academy of Estonia, the GoK prepared the new e-Government strategy and Action Plan, which was approved in October 2023.
Coordination on the digital governance agenda has been a particular challenge. Coordination is needed on the agenda both within Government and with development partners. There are several agencies which have the mandate for and focus on process reengineering and administrative reforms including supporting digital governance infrastructure. In the recent past, the Ministry of Public Administration (MoPA) has had the legal authority to take forward the digital governance and e-services agenda, and hosted some of the critical institutions, including the Agency for Information Society (AIS) and the State Data Center (SDC). In 2021, the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA) has been merged to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), and hence AIS has become part of MIA. The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) is directly engaged in leading the development and overseeing the implementation of the e-Government Strategy, includes engagement with the Ministry of Internal Affairs(MIA), Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade (MIET) (for business services), Ministry of Finance, Labor and Transfers (MFLT), and other key ministries and agencies that are also major stakeholders. A Digital Transformation Unit (DTU) within OPM was established in 2022 to coordinate all digital initiatives within the Government and with the development partners. The World Bank has been directly engaged as a partner supporting the GoK reforms.
Given this current context, there is significant room to support the GoK on a more holistic enabling framework and reform plan for simplifications to administrative services for citizens and businesses. The GoK and the World Bank launched a new project in March 2023, “Strengthening Digital Governance for Service Delivery (P178162)”, to improve the quality of, and user access to selected public administrative services. The project, which was ratified by the Parliament of Kosovo in May 2024, builds upon recent World Bank advisory support to digital governance and service delivery and advances in connectivity under the KODE project. Additionally, the Quality Infrastructure Investment (QII) grant with the support of the Government of Japan was awarded to Kosovo in Q4 2022. The Grant has provided advisory and analytical support to the GoK for ICT infrastructure management to underpin the digital transformation of the public sector and the digitalization of government services, which will feed into the above-mentioned upcoming project.
The Strengthening Digital Governance for Service Delivery project includes three components:
- Component 1: Digital transformation of government
- Component 2: Digital transformation of public service delivery
- Component 3: Institutional strengthening, change management, and project management
Subcomponent 1.3 aims on improving communication, collaboration, and engagement between public servants, as well as monitoring implementation of the National Development Plan 2030 and other government policies, including, among other things, functional areas related to organization and human resources, collaboration, resource management, news, workflow/case management (including links with the document management system and national electronic signature tools), e-archiving, and monitoring and performance management tools and associated capacity building and change management activities
As a part of the new project preparation activities, the World Bank commissioned two technical assessments to inform decisions on the design of new project components. The feasibility study and requirements for the temporary DRC and the preliminary plan for transition to government cloud were completed in January 2023, together with the technical assessment of the whole-of-government platform. Additionally, a consulting firm was selected for the development of requirements to implement an enhanced government shared platform to support the “Whole of Government” (WoG) approach (with multiple features such as intranet, dashboard for monitoring the implementation performance of the NDS 2030, workflow automation, and providing access to existing document management system, e-Archive, and other digital solutions).
As a part of the subcomponent 1.3 activities, the GoK will hire a consulting firm (hereinafter “The Consultant”) for the identification of business needs, the assessments of the requirements and the preparation of detailed functional and technical requirements and bidding documents for the Government networking infrastructure (“GovNet”).[1] One or more solution providers will be selected competitively for the implementation of the GovNet starting in 2024. The Consultant will not be involved in the implementation of proposed solution.
- Objectives
The objective of this consultancy assignment is to identify the business needs and prepare the functional and technical requirements and for the overhaul of GovNet. The consultancy assignment shall conduct a needs and requirements assessment, assessments of the current GovNet components, prepare a design of, and transition plan to, a modern future-proof GovNet for the GoK based on the assessment. Prepare bidding documents for the supply and installation of necessary network equipment, software, hardware, and other components (to be implemented through another contract) for the implementation of the proposed GovNet for the GoK.
- Scope of Work and Activities
During this engagement, the Consultant (Firm) is expected to carry out the following tasks:
- Conduct an “As-Is” assessment of existing GovNet network components and other network related applications, including Active Directory setup, remote access capabilities and additional WoG integration requirements to systems like Document Management and Government Gateway, delivery of Government services inside the government and to external users, based on the current and future needs and plans of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDA) in the GoK.
- Review and assess key objectives, business needs and requirements for the GovNet together with the government stakeholders.
- Review the modern international practices on the architecture and design of GovNet
- Suggest the architecture and design, including policies, standards, capacity, availability, scalability, and security considerations of the overhauled GovNet. Policies, standards and security considerations should be consistent with Government of Kosovo regulations, and preferably with the EU/ENISA references when available and applicable. The security considerations shall include publicly exposed interfaces towards consumer environments with no trust.
- Prepare a structured transition plan to the overhauled GovNet. This plan will ensure that transition for governmental stakeholders is scheduled, supported, and resources available. Transition plan must be coordinated with governmental stakeholders and approved by AIS and DTU.
- Prepare the detailed requirements for the acquisition of necessary equipment, including cost for the acquisition of energy efficient critical equipment as needed and duration estimates for the supply and installation of proposed GovNet components.
- Prepare the draft bidding documents (in line with the World Bank procurement guidelines for the purchase of network and information systems/request for bids).
- Assist the GoK during the selection of solution providers for the supply and installation of necessary equipment, and during the implementation of the proposed solutions.
- Present the findings of the above-mentioned assessments and solutions to the GoK and World Bank team.
- Perform any other tasks deemed necessary to complement the above activities for the successful accomplishment of the assignment objective.
- Timing and Inputs
This assignment is expected to start once the contract is signed by the consulting firm and be completed within a period of 20 weeks.
The Consulting firm is expected to provide minimum 7.5 person-months (p-m) of total input within this period through four (4) key experts with required qualifications to complete the activities listed above through in-country assistance, coordination, reporting and presentations of the analysis and recommendations to the GoK officials, including: KE-1: team leader and business analyst; KE-2: network analyst; and KE-3: network specialist; KE-4: network applications including Active Directory specialist; The team should work in Kosovo for a minimum of 4 person-months in total during this assignment (KE-1: 1.5 p-m; KE-2: 1 p-m; KE-3: 1 p-m; KE-4: 0.5 p-m).
- Deliverables and Reports
The Consulting firm shall prepare the following deliverables:
|
No. |
Deliverable |
Deadline* |
|
1 |
The Inception Report presenting the methodology, meeting requirements with AIS and MDA stakeholders, presenting the work plan of the assignment with clearly defined deadlines, covering the period of consulting services indicating the expected amount of work and results, acceptable for the GoK. |
Week 2 |
|
2 |
The Interim Report covering assessment existing GovNet components and review of key objectives and business needs for the GovNet together with local stakeholders, defining requirements for the bidding documents. The requirements shall be based on a solid draft design and transition plan for a coherent and futureproof GovNet for the GoK. All results documented in an informative |
Week 9 |
|
3 |
The Interim Report Presentation and Evaluation including analyze of the reasoning behind the proposed conceptual GovNet design and transition plan report, risk assessments and stakeholder concerns to be given to the GoK and the World Bank team. |
Week 11 |
|
4 |
The Final Report covering the detailed functional and technical needs and requirements of the GovNet detailed requirements for the acquisition of necessary equipment, including cost for the acquisition of energy efficient critical equipment as needed and duration estimates for the supply and installation of proposed GovNet components. Additional the bidding documents based on the detailed needs and requirements and design of the agreed GovNet. |
Week 20 |
(*) All dates are after the signature and effectiveness of the contract
- Reporting
The Project Manager shall be the Consultant’s main counterpart on key substantive matters related to this assignment. The Consultant shall work closely with the DTU and AIS staff. Interaction with related government entities, as well as the development partners providing technical assistance to the GoK for the implementation of the digital agenda may also be required.
The Project Manager will facilitate the Consultant’s access to the necessary documentary materials as well as access to the key stakeholders to the assignment. In the Consultant’s working relations with the GoK officials and other stakeholders, the Consultant will be expected to be self-sufficient and conduct himself/herself in the highest professional manner.
The reports must be submitted in English and Albanian language in electronic format.
- Resources Provided
The GoK shall be responsible for all basic logistics, staff office accommodation, and internal administration, required to perform the assignment.
The GoK will provide administrative and communications assistance (except cellular), meeting/conference logistics and space, and other such resources, required to perform the assignment. International calls will be paid by the Consultant.
- Qualifications
The Consultant firm must possess, at the minimum, the following:
General qualifications:
- The Consultant firm must be a legally established and registered entity.
- The Consultant firm should demonstrate at least 10 years of relevant experience.
- Demonstrated capacity to engage with public institutions, national and local authorities;
- Demonstrated experience working with international donors;
Specific qualifications:
- The Consultant firm must have successfully completed at least three (3) network analyze and design projects for large organizations, including international projects, within the last five (5) years (as the main solution provider or main contributor in a joint venture). Successfully completed projects will be presented through a table listing the name of the relevant assignments, short scope of work, contract start and end dates, country/region, and contact reference (name, e-mail, phone number).
- Excellent project management skills, including quality assurance of work products; ability to deliver high-quality outputs in a high-pressure multicultural environment;
- Excellent command of English, with the ability to deliver high-quality report writing, presentation, and communication skills, with experience in communicating and engaging with high-level decision makers in the public sector
The Consultants’ Staff CV are NOT subject to evaluation at the shortlisting stage.
The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to Section III, paragraphs, 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” July 2016 revised November 2017, August 2018, November 2020 and September 2023 (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.
Consultants may associate with other firms to enhance their qualifications, 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.
The Consultant firm will be selected in accordance with Quality-and Cost-Based Selection (QCBS) method set out in the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers (July 2016, revised November 2017, August 2018, November 2020 and September 2023).
The Consultant firm must ensure that the key experts who will perform the listed activities possess the following qualifications:
KE-1: Team Leader and business analyst (2.5 person-months; 1.5 p-m onsite and 1.0 p-m remote)
- At least BA/BS Degree in systems engineering, computer science, computer engineering, information technology, management information systems or equivalent.
- International expert with at least ten (10) years of relevant experience in the region or other parts of the world, preferably in countries with transitional economies.
- Certifications and continuing professional learning demonstrating subject matter expertise in network and information systems governance, information security and vulnerability and risk management
- At least three (3) relevant projects completed over the past eight (8) years.
- Minimum five (5) years of project management experience.
- At least five (5) years of work experience in business process mapping
- Technical/Team Leadership Experience.
- Personnel Development Experience (hiring, resource planning, performance feedback, etc.).
- Excellent communication skills (both written and oral).
- Strong interpersonal skills.
- Ability to be flexible and work analytically in a problem-solving environment.
- Strong organizational & multi-tasking skills.
- Ability to handle ambiguity and make decisions and recommendations with limited data.
- Solid analytical/problem-solving skills with capability to identify solutions to unusual and complex problems.
- Experience working with senior government or enterprise leadership regarding information network strategy and governance.
- Fluency in English.
KE-2: Network Analyst (2.0 person-months; 1 p-m onsite and 1 p-m remote)
- At least Bachelor’s degree in information and communication technologies or an equivalent combination of academic qualifications and work experience.
- International expert with at least eight (8) years of relevant experience in the region or other parts of the world, preferably in developing countries.
- Recognized network architect certification.
- Demonstrated experience with practical application of leading digital technologies, in particular related to network architecture and design.
- At least five (5) years of work experience in network analytics
- Experience in the design and development of requirements, bidding documents and project documentation for information and network systems in the public/private sector
- At least two (2) relevant projects completed over the past seven (7) years.
- Minimum four (4) years of technical network architecture design, evaluation, and investigation experience.
- Fluency in English.
KE-3: Network specialist (2 person-months; 1.0 p-m onsite and 1 p-m remote)
- At least Bachelor’s degree in information and network technologies or an equivalent combination of academic qualifications and work experience.
- At least eight (8) years of relevant experience in the region or other parts of the world, preferably in developing countries.
- Demonstrated knowledge on network design and implementation in large heterogenous organizations.
- Demonstrated knowledge on network design and implementation in using zero trust technologies and protecting publicly exposed networks.
- Recognized certifications on network design
- At least three (3) relevant projects completed over the past five (5) years.
- Experience in the design and development of requirements, bidding documents for the procurement of network components and project documentation for information systems in the public/private sector
- Minimum four (4) years of technical architecture design, evaluation, and investigation experience.
- Fluency in English.
KE-4: Active Directory specialist (1 person-months; 0.5 p-m onsite and 0.5 p-m remote)
- At least Bachelor’s degree in information technologies or an equivalent combination of academic qualifications and work experience.
- At least five (5) years of relevant experience in the region or other parts of the world, preferably in developing countries.
- Demonstrated knowledge on Active Directory design and implementation in large heterogeneous organizations.
- Recognized certifications on Active Directory design
- At least two (2) relevant projects completed over the past five (5) years.
- Experience in the design and development of requirements and project documentation for a in the public/private sector
- Minimum four (4) years of Active Directory design, evaluation, and investigation experience.
- Fluency in English.
[1] The government data network (GovNet) for GoK is defined as a communication infrastructure that is established and maintained by the government for the purpose of transmitting data among various government agencies, departments, and offices. It is designed to facilitate the exchange of information and to support the delivery of government services to citizens. Government data networks are typically secure, private networks that use encryption and other security measures to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access. These networks may be interconnected with other government networks, such as those used by law enforcement or intelligence agencies, to facilitate information sharing and collaboration.