The Institute for Development and Social Initiatives (IDIS) Viitorul and the Partnership for Transparency (PTF) extends the period on submitting the proposal for a Digital Platform on public procurement in Moldova, under the “Increasing Integrity in Public Procurement” project.

The extended deadline for submitting the file is 9 July 2023, at 18.00 Moldova time. Proposals are to be submitted via email using the subject: "Submission application RFP Digital Platform" to the following addresses: mihai.turcanu@viitorul.org and ungureanu.carolina@gmail.com.

About

The overall goal of the “Increasing Integrity in Public Procurement” project is to increase public procurement transparency through citizen monitoring and reporting in Moldova to hold stakeholders involved in public procurement processes accountable, inducing them to operate with integrity to perform their duties more effectively.

The objective of the Digital Platform is to be a single source of information and a tool to enable information sharing by the grantees and other potential monitors and provide essential resources for effective procurement monitoring and information on procurement processes, including by providing relevant functionalities and online tools. The Digital Platform will also include information targeted at Economic Operators (EOs) and Contracting Authorities (CAs) and any other interested stakeholders. The beneficiaries of this assignment are the civil society, investigative journalists, individuals interested in procurement monitoring, CAs, EOs, and policy makers (Ministry of Finance/ MoF, Public Procurement Authority/ PPA), CSOs conducting monitoring activities, organizations, and individuals will use the Digital Platform.

Scope of services

The service will encompass the development, design, initial operation, maintenance, and updating of the Digital Platform. The contractor will ensure proper functioning of the Digital Platform until the end of the project on June 30, 2025. This includes implementing regular updates, as well as performing regular maintenance as required.

The Digital Platform will serve as a central and reliable source of information and advocacy tool to enable coordination and cooperation of stakeholders conducting procurement monitoring activities. It will serve as a tool to facilitate monitoring activities and community building primarily in two ways: 1. Facilitation of communication and cooperation, sharing good practices; 2. Provision of analytical information, tools, and guidance.

Target audience and intended use

The Digital Platform is intended to serve as a “one-stop-shop” for anyone interested in monitoring public procurement in the Republic of Moldova. The stakeholders benefitting from the resources offered by the platform will be however, besides CSOs focused on public procurement monitoring, also economic operators interested, for instance, in the history of a certain procedure or of a Contracting Authority, supervision and control agencies who might want to consult results of a certain monitoring activity for their own purposes, and also Contracting Authorities wishing to learn from the procurement best practices depicted on the website and use the tool it offers.

Content of the Digital Platform

The selected contractor will develop the Digital Platform, using open-source software, and customize such platform to suit the needs of the legal and institutional public procurement framework in Moldova. Providing an open-source solution is essential in order to be able to integrate data and visualization elements other technology teams are developing — as relates to public procurement across Moldova.  

The Digital Platform will be in Romanian and include, as a minimum, the following sections:

1. News
2. „Procurement analysis” dashboard with real-time data on public procurement (PP)
3. Procurement in figures (information and data presented in a way accessible for the general public)
4. Library (reports, studies, guides, etc. with search filters)
5. Organizations, investigative journalists, and procurement experts Listing of all organizations monitoring procurement, investigative journalistic media institutions and procurement experts name, contact details, webpage, as well as procurement experts to link them for monitoring purposes, areas of procurement monitoring, national/local level, CAs monitored, social media page: Facebook ) – using an interactive map for visualization.
6. Legal and institutional framework
7. Monitoring instruments
8. Results and good monitoring practices
9. Sustainable procurement
10. FAQ (most frequently asked questions and answers for monitors and journalists)
11. Calendar of PP-related events, including training sessions (on the front page)
12. Other - General information

How to apply

The offer must include the following components (please describe it in the Application Form):

1. Company profile: Information about the company, management, experience relevant to this RFP object, contact details, as well as the motivation
2. Technical Proposal - Deliverables: Description of how the Deliverables described in the ToR will be produced - Team: CVs of the persons who will be directly involved in the project, their proposed role, and their working time allocation (working days) by deliverable.
3. Financial Proposal: Price of services in USD, broken down by Deliverable and Team Members allocated times. If applicable, VAT should be quoted separately from the cost of the services.

The examination of tenders will be carried out by the Evaluation Committee based on the following evaluation criteria: Company: Experience and Track Record; Team Members: Technical expertise and qualification; Price and timing.

Communication of results

The award decision, comprising the selected company, will be published on the IDIS website www.viitorul.org no later than 31 July 2023.

The entire Request for Proposals can be read here: Request for Proposals: Establishment of a Digital Platform within the Increasing the Integrity of Public Procurement project

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The project "Increasing the Integrity of Public Procurement" is implemented by the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives (IDIS) "Viitorul", in partnership with the Partnership for Transparency Fund (USA). The project aims to support public procurement reforms in Moldova that will increase transparency and fairness in public procurement by empowering citizens to hold relevant institutions accountable.

IDIS "Viitorul" is an independent think tank established in 1993 that combines social, political and economic research with strong advocacy components. The institution conducts applied monitoring research on several areas: economics, social policy, EU policies, regional development, but also security and foreign policy risks.

The Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) is based in Washington DC and its mission is to promote innovative civil society-led approaches to improve governance, increase transparency, promote the rule of law and reduce corruption in developing and emerging countries. Since 2000, PTF has supported over 250 projects aimed at promoting NGO involvement in decisions, processes and laws that enforce transparency and accountability in public procurement.