Introduction

The USAID Enterprise Competitiveness Project (ECP or “project”) is a five-year initiative that increases the income levels of Kyrgyzstani households through the creation of jobs and livelihood opportunities among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By accelerating inclusive, market-led growth, the project increases the competitiveness of Kyrgyzstani SMEs, facilitates their access to markets, catalyzes investments, builds opportunities for women and youth, and improves the business environment.

To improve the business enabling environment, ECP facilitates a dialogue between agencies of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic and the private sector, including business associations, sectoral representatives, and other institutions. Strengthening the enabling environment for private sector development can lead to a more robust formal economy, greater access to capital, increased business innovation and advances through technology, investment, and innovations, and increased trade with regional and international markets.

Purpose of The Assignment

On 29 January 2021, the President of the Kyrgyz Republic signed the Decree “On Reforming the Mining Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic”. One of the key issues of the Decree is ensuring transparency of licensing and permitting operations in the mining sphere, ensuring digitalization of all such processes and incorporation them into the public information system “Tunduk”.

The main purpose of the technical assistance to the Ministry of Energy and Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic (former State Committee of Industry, Energy and Mining) is to create an information system which will include all necessary publicly available information on mining related issues: database on mining companies, licenses areas, existing and nullified licenses, expertise to such licenses, reports of mining companies on conducted activities, etc.  Moreover, the information system will include all necessary information on regulation and normative legal acts related to mining activities.

The expert(s) will work on already existing processes practiced in the mining sphere by relevant state body. This would ensure that the newly created information system will not contradict to the existing legislation and will not create any additional obstacles to both state bodies and private entities.

The new system should be implemented as part of the following functional subsystems:

• NSI management subsystem – designed for centralized management of reference dictionaries and classifiers necessary to ensure the implementation of automated functions.
• Licensing subsystem – designed to automate the process of working with licenses for the right to use subsoil.
• Financial subsystem – designed to carry out financial accounting of transactions with respect to settlements and posting of payments.
• Subsystem “Subsoil User Web Portal” – is intended to provide the functions of a “personal account” for the subsoil user to automate the process of interaction with the SCIES.
• Subsystem “Open Data Web Portal” – is intended for publication of open data as defined in Appendix I. to the Terms of Reference document.
• The subsystem of analysis and reporting – designed to build reports, analyze the data available in the System and provide analysis results in the necessary for making management decisions.
• Integration subsystem – provides information exchange with external information systems (information systems of government agencies) to ensure the implementation of automated functions.
• Tuning and configuration subsystem – provides structure modification and creation of new sections, addition of new fields and attributes in documents, screen forms and reports.

Specific Tasks

The solicited expert(s) will be hired to work with representatives of the Ministry of Energy and Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic on creating the information system based on the mining legislation. The system should correspond to the minimum standards set in the detailed ToR.

Under this technical assistance, the expert group is expected of following:

• Coordinate and cooperate with relevant representatives of the Ministry of Energy and Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic to collect necessary information and data to be used while developing the information system.
• Create an information system which include all existing and other required / requested information on mining related activities and issues: mining companies, licenses areas, existing and nullified licenses, expertise to such licenses, reports of mining companies on conducted activities, other requirements prescribed by the mining legislation, etc. prescribed by the ToR.
• Ensure the information system is developed in accordance with the technical requirements of the Government. It is to ensure the technical viability of the information system and its coordination / data exchange with systems of other state bodies.
• Transfer to the Ministry of Energy and Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic the information system fully workable with all necessary tools and technical equipment / soft, including the capacity building of the staff on using the system.
• USAID has the right to suspend the work of the expert(s) based on the availability of funds and appearance of reputational risks.

Deliverables

The project implementation is split into 5 phases for planning purposes:

The whole work is divided into the following stages with the following deliverables for each:

Stage I (preparational):

1. Inception Report consisting of:
   1. Narrative report on process of finalization of ToR.
   2. Finalized ToR with description of business processes and other reporting templates ensuring the viability of the information system.

Stage II (developing the information system – Phase I):

1. Progress Report #1 including:
   1. Information on the Database Structure.
   2. Information system Description.
   3. Functional web platform with information system as per TOR requirements
   4. Instructions book on how to use the information system

Stage III (piloting and testing of the information system – Phase II):

1. Progress Report #2 including:
   1. Information on the Pilot system implementation.
   2. Manuals on working with the information system (for administrator, for user).

Stage IV (final stage):

2. Final report including:
3. Full system production roll-out.
4. Information System Documentation Development.
5. Users and IT personnel training module.

All deliverables must be submitted with both Russian, web platform in Russian-Kyrgyz mode, and high-quality English translations. All translation costs for reports must be built into the total fixed cost of the contract.

Reports must first be approved by the client before payment and reimbursement of expenses.

Reporting

Selected STTA will report directly to designated ECP Rep. All the step in the work should be concurred with ECP prior any actions.

Timing

This assignment will take place from May 2021-January 2023.

Required Qualifications:

Requirements for organizations. The years of experience listed below are qualifications as a firm, not by individuals within the company:

• Experience in the development and implementation of government information systems – at least 10 years.
• Experience in fulfilling at least 5 contracts with a similar cost for the development and implementation of government information systems over the past 5 years.
• The presence in the project team of the project manager for the implementation of similar projects with at least 10 years of experience.
• The presence in the team of at least 2 business analysts with experience of at least 5 years in similar projects.
• A team of at least 4 software developers with at least 5 years of experience in similar projects.
• Experience in developing web applications.

ACDI/VOCA anticipates issuing a fixed price contract for an estimated period May 01, 2021 – December 31, 2021/January 31, 2022 to an Offeror. Offeror will provide 12 months technical maintenance after adoption the system.

To apply for tender, please fill out attached RFP forms in English and Russian and submit to the email: hr.ecpkg@gmail.com,  with the subject line “STTA Information system NEDRA”.  The deadline for applications of technical Proposals is April 22, 2021. No phone call please.