Consultancy services to engage a Procurement Auditor for Integrated Small Towns Water Supply & Sanitation Program (ISTWSSP)

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) or Banque Africaine de Développement (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution. The AfDB was founded in 1964 and comprises three entities: The African Development Bank, the African Development Fund and the Nigeria Trust Fund. The AfDB’s mission is to fight poverty and improve living conditions on the continent through promoting the investment of public and private capital in projects and programs that are likely to contribute to the economic and social development of the region. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies investing in the regional member countries (RMC).

Request for Expressions of Interest

The Government of the Republic of Zambia has received funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund, Middle Income Trust Funds and Africa Growth Together Fund, in various currencies towards the cost of the Integrated Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Program in Four Provinces namely Luapula, Northern, Muchinga and Western Provinces. It is intended that part of the proceeds of this financing will be applied to eligible payments under the contract for provision of consultancy services – Procurement Audit under Integrated Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Program Integrated Small Towns Water Supply & Sanitation Program from May 2019 to December, 2020.

The objective of the required consultancy services is to conduct a procurement performance audit of the ISTWSSP for contracts executed under the Borrower Procurement System to (i) verify the adequacy of the country/borrower procurement system used by the Client that was agreed for the implementation of the program; (ii) review procurement, contracting, and implementation processes which have been followed for contracts in the project to confirm consistency with the country procurement system and the Financing Agreement (FA); and (iii) examine MWDSEP’s procurement capacity to fulfil its fiduciary mandate.

The MWDSEP now invites eligible consultants to indicate their interest in providing these services. Interested consultants must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services. The consultant shall tackle the fundamental aspects of the transactions made under the program and financed by the Bank, with respect to the provisions of the Zambia’s Public Procurement Laws and Regulations. It will mainly involve the following:

1. Verifying the Compliance of the procurement process, tendering and the evaluation with the provisions of the Financing Agreement and the procurement plans, the auditor will assess:
   • compliance with the legal, institutional mandates, regulations, policies, procedures and contracts;
   • the consistency between procurement plans and actual implementation progress; and
   • effectiveness of due internal controls covering procurement planning, related solicitation methods and procedures, and execution processes including authorization, approval processes, and contract management procedures;
2. Verifying conformity of technical quality and quantities delivered in accordance with the contract’s conditions while ensuring reliability and integrity of financial and operational information as these relate to those deliveries, including:
   • Reasonableness of unit prices of contracts;
   • Conformity of the final contract with the approved solicitation documents, in particular with regard to the validity of Addenda, Change Orders, and any other Amendments made to the original contract during its execution; and
   • The eligibility of expenditures.
3. The risks regarding the respect of the principles of procurement, control, competences and the management capacity of the Ministry of Water Development Sanitation and Environmental Protection staff, and more generally those related to the national system