Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation
Federal Ministry of Finance
Requests for Expression of Interest
Consultancy Services
Economic Reform and Governance Project
Credit No.: 4011
Project ID No: ERGP/Consultancy/01-05/2011
The Federal Government of Nigeria has received financing from the World Bank towards the cost of the Economic Reform and Governance Project (ERGP) and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consultancy services. Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIF MIS) is a component of ERGP.
The overall objective of GIFMIS is to implement a computerized financial management information system for the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), which is efficient, effective, and user friendly and which:
- Increases the ability of FGN to undertake central control and monitoring of expenditure and receipts in the MDAs.
- Increases the ability to access information on financial and operational performance.
- Increases internal controls to prevent and detect potential and actual fraud.
- Increases the ability to access information on Government’s cash position and economic performance.
- Improves medium term planning through a Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF)
- Provides the ability to understand the costs of groups of activities and tasks
- Increases the ability to demonstrate accountability and transparency to the public and cooperating partners.
The individual consultancy services are categorized as follows: –
1. One Change Management Consultant:-
The responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:-
i. Support the GIFMIS Project Manager and the Chairperson of the Steering
Committee to ensure that Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS) is in line with the FGN strategic objectives
ii. Ensure the implementation strategy appropriately addresses the organizational culture inside the FGN before implementation to prepare employees for the GIFMIS Go Live phase
iii. Ensure that all Stakeholders in the pilot sites have a clear understanding of what the IFMS comprises of before and during implementation
iv. Facilitate communication between the GIFMIS Project Management Team and the Pilot sites and ensure adequacy before and during implementation
v. Ensure the design of appropriate changes in the organizational structure, job profiles and human resource policies for the entire cadre involved in financial management,
vi. Design strategies to ensure that users at the pilot sites do not experience too much stress and difficulty in making the system work,
vii. Support Project and site staff to succeeded in mitigating the stress in the pilot areas
viii. Support the training team to ensure that work culture, ethic and attitudes are addressed while imparting skills for implementing the GIFMS
Qualifications and Experience
i. Relevant post graduate qualification in, Organizational Development, Social sciences, Public Administration, or Mass Communication or from a recognized university,
ii. At least 10 years experience in the of Change management, including experience with PFM reform processes at a senior level either with Government or large international organizations.
iii. Prior work experience in Africa is highly desirable; experience of working in Nigeria would be a distinct advantage
iv. Excellent fluency in English is a must
2. One Communication Consultant:
The consultant will have the following responsibilities:
i. Responsible for communicating the ERGP reforms which includes Government Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), Public Finance Management (PFM) reforms and the day to day activities of the project.
ii. Assist in conducting communications based audit and assessment to inform review of both upstream and downstream Communication Strategy.
iii. Implement internal, external and operational communications strategy for attitude and behavioural change for the project using available baseline studies on public perception to enhance stakeholder adoption of new ideas and practices contained in the reform project.
iv. Prepare yearly Communication work plans, timelines and budgets.
v. Liaise with the relevant channels for press releases, press conferences, interviews, coverage and documentaries.
vi. Production of relevant multi-media kits and communication tools such as workshops, meetings, flyers, bulletins, newsletters, workshops, press releases, audio and video(for TV and radio) etc for targeted audience.
vii. Assist in the maintenance of a website for the project.
viii. Assist in organization and coordination of enlightenment workshops and seminars for key stakeholders such as Federal Executive Council, National Assembly, Vote Controllers, MDA End Users, Government suppliers, Commercial Banks, Media, non-state actors active in Governance and Anti-corruption (GAC) as well as the public
ix. Monitor and evaluate the success of the communications programs to ensure the effectiveness and success of the reforms.
x. Partner/collaborate with Information Officers or Press Secretaries in Activity Executing Agencies in designing and implementing communication programs for the project.
xi. Dissemination of documented Programme activities for Federal, state,
LGC and participating communities through print, Audio, Video and Web media to stakeholders and members of the public.
xii. Develop talking points for Chair person of Steering Committee for effective outreach messaging public and media focused events.
xiii. Undertake any other responsibilities assigned by the Project Manager
xiv. Develop feedback mechanisms
Qualifications and Experience:
i. A first degree in Journalism or Mass Communication, sociology psychology or any of the Arts and Social sciences.
ii. At least 7 year’s post-qualification experience in the print or electronic media, social mobilization, public relations or advertising.
iii. Good writing and oral communication skills as well as ability to organize events and functions.
iv. Demonstrated ability for teamwork and learning.
v. Must to be computer literate and knowledgeable in relevant ICT areas.
vi. Ability to communicate in the major local languages within the Programme area.
vii. Pro-activeness and ability to work without supervision
viii. A masters degree and experience in development communication and governance issues is an added advantage
3. 12 GIFMIS IT Support Officers
The Systems Officer will assist the development and implementation of the PFM systems and will be assigned to a variety of tasks that could include:
i. Participate in data conversion and migration from ATRRS and other legacy
Systems to GIFMIS as part of the implementation process.
ii. Liaise/interface with WAN service providers in resolving wan issues.
iii. Participate in carrying out updates and upgrades of Operating Systems,
Databases and the application in use by the MDAs
iv. Monitoring the security of all the installation including the network, servers and the physical security.
v. Execution of regular back-ups at the date centre, the disaster recovery centre and at the FPO sites as may be appropriate.
vi. Manning the Help desk, Monitoring and troubleshoot the GIFMS wide area network (WAN) and the servers.
vii. Provide application support to users at different sites.
viii. Provide Support to system set up, testing and monitoring.
ix. Support system administration for the Storage, applications and Microsoft, Cisco and other products supporting GIFMIS.
x. Act as database administrators in the absence of a substantive database administrators.
Qualifications and Experience-
Bachelor’s degree in an IT related discipline such as Computer Science, Statistic
Mathematics, Physics, and Business Administration.
She/he should, amongst others, have the following attributes:
i. Strong inter-personal, communication skills, and the ability to work as part of a team, which are critical in carrying out this assignment will be highly valued.
ii. A sound, operating knowledge of Information Technology (IT) systems with at least 3 years experience.
iii. Not exceeding 35 years of age.
4. 12 GIFMIS Support Accountants:-
All Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) will have dedicated support teams comprised of Financial Management Specialists and System Accountants. Each implementation site will be supported on a continuous basis by System accountants supported and supervised by a Financial Management Specialist. Deployment of support accountants will help to ensure timely resolution of issues and facilitate the transition from the legacy to the GIFMIS. Specifically, the GIFMIS Support Accountants will undertake the following:
i. Assist in data collection and migration during the implementation phase.
ii. Participate in User Acceptance Testing for the system
iii. Provide onsite support to resolve all the issues that will emerge in the course of implementation and escalate all unresolved issues to the Financial Management Specialists before they are logged with the solution provider.
iv. Support change management efforts at individual implementation sites to ensure that all the users gain confidence in the use of the system and minimize.
v. Provide onsite end user training and build the requisite skills to sustain the system after Project closure.
Qualifications and Experience
i. Relevant graduate qualification in public finance, business or economics from a recognized university,
ii. Membership to a professional accountancy body which is a full member of IFAC is an added advantage,
iii. At least 3 year experience in the area of public financial management including use or implementation of accounting packages,
iv. Excellent fluency in English is a must
v. Not exceeding 35 years of age,
5. 2 GIFMIS Financial Management Specialist
The individuals to be recruited will work on a full time basis as part of the PFM reform team under the direct supervision of the GIFMIS Project Manager. The objective of this role is to provide technical support to the implementation of financial management reforms under the ERGP with specific focus on the expansion and consolidation of public financial management systems across the Government. The GIFMIS FMS will be part of the dedicated team members and provide technical support as a team to facilitate continuous improvements in PFM.
The GIFMIS FMS, working in support of FGN, will be expected to achieve the following objectives:
- Enable MDAs that will computerize their financial management systems under the ERGP to work with and use the GIFMIS sustainably, independent of Project support both in terms of institutional capacity and maintenance costs.
- Enable the overall achievement of quality delivery of PFM policies, procedures and systems matching targets and international best practice for public sector financial management.
- Facilitate FGN to build capacity in the sustainable use and management of PFM systems so that there sustainability of PFM improvements after ERGP.
Scope of the Services
1. Ensuring site readiness: the FMS within the Dedicated Team will assess readiness for implementation of the GIFMS in terms of institutional structures and leadership, staff availability, capacity and skills, state of financial data, financial management processes and systems (manual or otherwise) and controls, site infrastructure and power, implementation risks and make very specific recommendations to address gaps. Any weaknesses identified and recommendations made shall be discussed between the MDA Accounting Officer and the Accountant General of the Federation.
2. Project Planning: Continuously review and update the GIFMS Project and task Plans to ensure inclusions of any agreed recommendations in (2) above.
3. Business Process Alignment: Provide technical support to review the processes and FGN business requirements to determine any necessary validation or alignment.
4. GIFMIS Implementation: Continuously review and actively influence the GIFMS Project Plan, the training content/materials and training plan, and the Change Management plan to ensure that the weaknesses and recommendations in (2) above, in the original or modified form, are carried and implemented.
5. Quality Assurance: Carry out quality review and assurance to PFM systems implementation phases including but not limited to the following:
- Data collection and conversion
- Equipment and solution deployment
- Site and infrastructure preparation
- Testing scripts and User Acceptance testing
- Training (including training materials) and change management
- Handling of implementation issues
- Participation in implementation teams
6. Monitoring: the FMS will draw-up a monitoring mechanism and periodically monitor and assess the state of implementation particularly focusing on qualitative improvements; the FMS will review improvements in institutional capacity and training, overall adaptation and use of the GIFMS, improvements in financial management processes and systems controls and reporting, and improvements in all aspects of PFM necessary to meet the overall objectives. Resulting from this process, the FMS will:
- Determine areas that may lag or new areas that require attention and make recommendations for improvements
- Raise issues (technical or otherwise) that may impede progress.
- Discuss findings of the assessment with the Accounting Officer, and the GIFMS Project Manager.
7. Post GIFMS Implementation: the FMS will develop an exit plan and monitor implementation by the respective Accounting Officer. This is a plan by which the MDA will gradually take over full support and the ERGP will withdraw its GIFMIS resources. This should reduce the MDA dependency increase ownership and allow the AGF to manage within its resources. This plan shall be discussed with the MDA and approved by AGF for implementation in drawing up this plan, the FMS will among others:
- Assess the state of readiness of the site to take over in terms of staff capacity, process weakness among others
- Develop actions and time required to cover the gaps for example in terms of training, staff recruitment.
- Develop work plans and milestones to implement these actions. The work plan shall include monitoring meeting with the Accounting Officer
- Discuss proposed actions and work plans above with the MDA Accounting Officer
- Present proposals to PM/GIFMS, for clearance and share approved work plan with the MDA Accounting Officer
- The FMS shall assist in the resolution of outstanding issues to ensure timely delivery.
8. Establish professional working relationships with key personnel in the MDA to ensure knowledge transfer and assist in training and capacity development as considered necessary
9. Perform such other duties as may be assigned from time to time within the context of the PFM reform program
Specific assignments and deliverables will be agreed at the beginning of each month based on the above framework/scope of services which will form a basis of monitoring the performance.
Outputs
i. GIFMS Site Readiness Strategy and its adoption in the Project plan, Training Plan and Materials and Change Management Plans
ii. Quality Assessment Reports for each stage in implementation
iii. Quarterly Periodic monitoring reports and their implementation
iv. Site Exit Plan
v. Appropriate PFM training, skills/knowledge transfer and capacity development for financial management staff.
vi. Technical coherence and harmony of the PFM program under the AGPs office.
vii. Program Risk Management and Sustainability plans implemented
viii. Timely and Quality Policies formulated
Qualifications and Experience
i. Relevant post graduate qualification in public finance, business or economics from a recognized university,
ii. Membership to a professional accountancy body which is a full member of
IFAC,
iii. At least 5 years experience in the area of public financial management, including experience with PFM reform processes at a senior level either with
Government or large international organizations,
iv. A proven track record of successful management of application build, testing, implementation and quality assurance activities of large-scale
ERP/GIFMIS systems in developing countries will be an added advantage.
Public sector experience in this area will be highly regarded,
v. Excellent fluency in English is a must
Submission of Expression of Interest (EGIs)
The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation now invites eligible individual consultant to indicate their interest in providing the services.
Individual will be selected in accordance with the procedures set out in the World Bank Guidelines for consultancy May, 2004 revised in August, 2006. Applicants should clearly specify which position they are applying for.
Interested individuals may obtain further information at the address below during office hours ( 10.00 am to 4.00 p.m.) Monday through Friday (except public holidays)
Only shortlisted consultants will be contacted.
The Expression of Interest should be delivered on or before 4.00 p.m., on 20th May, 2011 at the address shown below:
OAGF ERGP Project Office,
Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation,
Treasury House,
5th Floor, Wing B, Room 5 B 08
Ladoke Akintola Boulevard, Garki Abuja
Tel: 234-805-9606020
