Attachment J.1 KPRM Statement of Objective.docx

Attachment J.1—STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES (SOO)

J.1 Purpose of Statement of Objectives (SOO)

The purpose of this activity is to implement a multi-year financial reform activity, KPRM Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Revenue Mobilization (KPRM), to provide for the Improved Domestic Revenue Mobilization of GoKP. This will be achieved by improving the Government of Khyber-Pakthunkwa’s (GoKP) revenue mobilization capacity, delivery systems, and processes; thereby optimizing the provincial local revenue base, leading to an increase in its Own Source Revenue (OSR).

The Contractor will propose innovative and cost-effective tasks, standards, and deliverables to achieve the KRPM activity objectives. This SOO will not become part of the final contract, but will be replaced by the final negotiated Performance Work Statement (PWS) submitted by the successful Contractor.

J.2 Scope

KPRM will contribute to USAID/Pakistan’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) Development Objective 1: Expanded Writ of Government Along the AF/PAK Border. The activity will provide critical support to the Government of KP (GoKP) as it implements the 25th Amendment, merging the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) (now known as the Newly Merged Districts [NMDs]) into provincial governance structures.

Specifically, KPRM activity will support the following Intermediate Results (IRs) under DO 1:

· IR1.1: FATA reforms supported Sub-IR: 1.1.3 Capacity to implement reforms strengthened Sub-IR: 1.1.2 GOP and FATA systems integrated

· IR 1.2: Trust in government enhanced Sub-IR 1.2.3: Civic engagement increased

KPRM will build the capacity of the KP Revenue Provincial Authority (KPRA), the KP Finance Ministry, and other relevant taxation departments to increase tax revenue in KP province. Additionally, the activity will focus on building awareness about the importance of paying taxes among people living in the province with specific focus on citizens living in the NMDs.

Specifically, KPRM will:

1) Increase Voluntary Compliance with General Sales Tax on Services

a) Improve Systems for General Sales Tax on Services

b) Increase Awareness of GST on Services

2) Improve Efficiency of KPRA in Revenue Management

a) Improve Capacity of KPRA Staff

3) Improve Coordination Frameworks Within and Across Taxation Systems

KPRM activity will be based in Peshawar, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and will provide technical assistance, capacity building, and other support as required to the GoKP and relevant departments highlighted in the SOO.

J.3 Period of Performance

The period of performance is anticipated to be a two-year activity with the possibility of two one-year extensions in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

J.4 Background

In 2010, the GoP passed the 18th Amendment to the Pakistani constitution which, among other sweeping changes, empowered provincial governments to administer sales tax on services and other provincial levies. While these reforms were highly anticipated, provincial governments, like the GoKP, lacked the capacity to effectively collect and manage the revenue sources devolved to the province. Moreover, the lack of coordination and integration between taxation authorities has further strained the GoKP’s ability to raise and manage public spending in areas like basic service provisions and law enforcement without undermining fiscal sustainability. According to the GoKP’s Budget Strategy Paper for 2019-20, 80 percent of the province’s budget is estimated to be used for recurring expenditures.

The KP province remains heavily dependent on fiscal transfers from the federal government. In fiscal year 2016-17, transfers from the federal government accounted for 95 percent of the provincial revenue, according to a financial statement of the GoKP. A 2018 analysis by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) of the General Sales Tax on Services indicated that by improving tax compliance from an estimated 23 percent of eligible taxpayers to 75 percent of taxpayers, KP could triple its tax revenue and reduce its dependency on federal transfers.

To address fiscal constraints, the Public Financial Management (PFM) Reform Strategy for 2017-2020 provides the strategic underpinning for the GoKP’s objective of strengthening the province’s capacity to mobilize revenue in the short- to medium-term. This strategy covers the whole PFM cycle at the provincial and local government levels. It also prioritizes increasing the province’s OSR and improving the allocation of existing resources to finance investments in infrastructure and public services, especially in education, health, and water supply and sanitation. The KPRM activity will support the GoKP in the implementation of one of the six key policy objectives outlined in the PFM: Enabling resource mobilization and enhancing provincial OSR. Ultimately, strengthening the GoKP’s ability to mobilize resources in pursuit of its development objectives will contribute to its journey to self-reliance by increasing its capacity to assume a larger share of its development expenditures.

An improved security situation in Pakistan has provided space for movement on additional reforms. In 2018, the semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) was officially merged with the KP, which created new challenges for tax administration in the KP province. Historically, FATA was one of the poorest regions in Pakistan and was also exempt from taxation, thus leaving the area largely without basic infrastructure, access to government-provided goods and services, or a tax collection system. While the NMDs have been given a five-year tax exemption period, KP’s recurring costs and development expenditures are already extended to the former FATA. Given that FATA is one of the poorest regions of Pakistan, the merger will affect KP’s fiscal independence and increase the need for development financing. In the interim, KP must improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its revenue mobilization, while also preparing to gradually extend its systems to the NMDs following the tax exemption period.

J.5 Problem

The KPRM activity will increase revenue without imposing new taxes or raising tax rates. Instead, it will focus on building the capacity of the GoKP in increasing compliance and improving efficiency in the collection of existing taxes. The activity will also increase voluntary taxpayer compliance by making it more convenient for individual taxpayers and businesses to discharge their legal tax obligations, and it will increase public awareness and support for tax compliance and enforcement.

A critical element of an efficient revenue mobilization system is sustainably increasing tax compliance in a way that does not erode public trust. This requires implementation of an effective communications strategy to ensure that citizens understand the rationale, purpose, and outcome of their taxes. This activity will build the public communications capacity of the GoKP to effectively message and monitor both public support and compliance with its tax policies.

A more transparent and efficient tax collection system combined with greater awareness and understanding of taxpayers to comply with their legal obligations while holding public servants accountable will increase the GoKP’s self-reliance in the short- and long-term as it plans for extending the tax system to the NMDs in the post-tax exemption period.

Limited Tax Compliance:

A 2018 analysis[footnoteRef:1] conducted by the KPRA on the General Sales Tax on Services found that only 23 percent of eligible taxpayers are in compliance with existing tax laws. There are a number of circumstances contributing to these low levels of tax compliance. The current tax payment system is tedious and neither cost-effective nor convenient for taxpayers. And, there is a general lack of awareness about how to assess and make tax payments. Additionally, there is a lack of transparency about how taxpayer money is spent by the government, which further contributes to the low compliance rate. On the tax administration side, the representative bodies from unorganized market sectors are not connected to the public sector at large which creates a gap in formulating effective policies. Moreover, there doesn’t exist a feedback mechanism to measure public perception about tax payments, which makes it difficult for the GoKP to ensure effective actions are taken to improve taxpayers’ compliance with existing laws and institute changes to improve the system. [1: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority Annual Report, 2016-2017. Retrieved from: http://kpra.gov.pk/kpra-downloads/kpra-annual-report-2016-17/index.php]

Limited Deployment of IT Solutions:

Due to the complexity of the tax legislation, demand for taxpayer services is high, and yet the level of taxpayer services in KP is low. Harnessing information technology for business process modernization has not yet been realized within the various tax administration bodies. Furthermore, KPRA lacks the ability to connect to other IT systems, like Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL), in order to generate data reports to improve policy administration and enforcement.

In the interim, KPRA business processes and documentation remain paper-based, which comes with its own set of risks and contributes to low levels of tax compliance. The paper-based system stymies communications between the Revenue Authority and taxpayers, and makes it difficult to store and retrieve data efficiently. Moreover, the taxpayers, who find the paper-based system for submitting tax documents cumbersome and tedious, are discouraged from submitting their documents and tax payments. Furthermore, inappropriate storage of security data often results in permanently lost or damaged tax records. Finally, the paper-based system severely constrains data sharing between different tax entities, and other provincial and Federal revenue authorities.

Poor Organizational Structure and Limited GoKP Staff Capacity:

The KPRA is a relatively new organization created to collect specific revenues devolved to the province, a wholly new function for the provincial governments before its devolution in 2010. During its inception phase, the organization was not developed in a manner that optimized efficiencies, customer service, or transparency of its processes. At the time of its creation, no study on the requirements and quantum of work involved was completed. Further, the business processes of the organization were not fully developed and therefore it was difficult to assess and determine workloads and required skill sets for new staff. As such, the KPRA lacks the organizational and management capacity to move towards an automated environment in tax payment and processing.

The KPRA is also severely understaffed, and there is a disproportionately small number of tax auditors, tax collectors, and staff performing routine functions, like return processing and desk audits, which are neither automated nor centralized. As a result, the KPRA staff lacks the time, capacity, and training specific to specialized tax-related disciplines and e-tax governance.

Inefficient Application of Tax Policy/Audit Systems:

The KPRA lacks the capacity and organizational independence to carry out targeted risk-based audits, which is complicated by a growing stock of tax arrears due to litigations, non-documentation, and the lack of tax culture. The current system of appeals is neither independent nor transparent since it is under the direct control of KPRA and staff conducting audits who also oversee the appeals process. To make improvements, the KPRA will need to establish a legal framework that will govern arrears management and enforcement. Although the World Bank is providing long-term contractors working in specialised departments, like audit and appeals, under their Governance and Policy Program, there is limited opportunity for KPRA staff capacity building, which further risks exacerbating the situation.

Relatedly, the GoKP Finance Department lacks the capacity to execute quality tax policy analysis, forecasting, and policy formulation which further limits the ability of KPRA to properly structure and staff its organization in order to improve its tax collection and tax services capacity. While it has undertaken new efforts to reform itself and many of the governing regulations under the Finance Act of 2013, there is still much left to be addressed to establish a modern tax and audit system.

J.6 Contract Objectives/Results

GOAL: Increased Domestic Revenue Mobilization

· Change in amount (PKR) collected as GST on services

· Percent of target population reporting simplified and harmonized business processes for tax administration

Objective 1: Increased Voluntary Compliance with General Sales Tax on Services

· Increased percentage of tax declarations filed

IR 1.1: Improved Systems for General Sales Tax on Services

· Online systems on GST registration developed

· Decreased hours spent by taxpayers to meet revenue obligation

IR 1.2: Increased Awareness of GST on Services

· Percent change in taxpayer awareness of KPRA services

· Percent change in awareness of voluntary tax compliance

Objective 2: Improved Efficiency of KPRA in Revenue Management

· Change in score on Institutional Development Index

IR 2.1: Improved Capacity of KPRA Staff

· Number of people trained on internal control and audit systems

· Number of people demonstrating enhanced capacity on policy analyses

· Number of people trained on tax audit

Objective 3: Improved Coordination Frameworks Within and Across Taxation Systems

· Feasibility study for extension of GST on services to NMDs conducted

· Framework for extension of tax net in NMDs developed

· Strategy for integration amongst taxation authorities developed

J.7 Performance Work Statement Results and Indicators

The Performance Work Statement (PWS) must incorporate interventions that:

(a) Fully address the problems laid out above;

(b) Meet all of the specific objectives and provide a realistic, yet ambitious, plan for hitting the proposed performance targets;

(c) Provide a clear strategy for meeting the overarching goal in a manner that will sustain results beyond the life of the activity.

The PWS must provide a variety of innovative solutions to address the challenges of Resource Mobilization as discussed above. The PWS must demonstrate an understanding of USAID/Pakistan’s priorities and strategy, as described in the Country Development and Cooperation Strategy (CDCS). The PWS should include specific, achievable targets over the five year implementation period. The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plan must include at least the following indicators to measure program results. The Offeror may propose additional indicators as stated in Section L:

Required Indicators:

The Contractor will be responsible for reporting against the below Development Objective 1 Country Development Cooperation Strategy indicators:

1. Number of government officials with improved capacity as a result of USG assistance.

2. Change in amount (PKR) collected as GST on services.

3. Percent of taxpayers reporting that business processes for tax administration simplified and harmonized

Other key performance indicators: Baseline values for these indicators will have to be determined by the Contractor (some data may be available with KPRA), and the indicators will be monitored annually.

· Change in amount (PKR) collected as GST on services

· Change in score on Institutional Development Index

· Number of people using online GST system

· Improved efficiency measured by administrative cost of collection;

· Increased percentage of declarations filed electronically;

· Number of declarations processed electronically;

· Taxpayers perception of services provided.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

The Offeror must submit an adaptive Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan to improve performance and effectiveness for this activity, as well as to provide feedback to inform adaptive planning and management decisions to refine activity approaches. The Contractor will design and implement the MEL Plan based on the theory of change that permits the efficient and timely measurement of progress toward activity results at output and outcome levels and provide other data as agreed between USAID/Pakistan and the Contractor. The Contractor will regularly monitor implementation processes, intermediate and final outcomes as well as context through conducting performance monitoring, special studies, and/or internal evaluation.

The Contractor must collect data on all applicable Foreign Assistance Standard Indicators and the custom indicators of the Mission’s Performance Management Plan (PMP). All participant indicators must be disaggregated by sex and geographic area and nature of assistance as agreed with USAID. The Contractor must collect baseline data (where applicable) against agreed upon MEL plan indicators and systematically assess performance results over time.

Collaborating, Learning, and Adaptation: Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) is a set of practices that help improve development effectiveness. The Contractor must incorporate a collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) approach that: a) generates, captures, shares, and applies information and knowledge to support and improve development outcomes; b) promotes collaborative learning and exchanges with relevant institutions, stakeholders, and development partners; and c) uses information to improve the cost-effectiveness of interventions over the life of the activity. USAID expects the Contractor to periodically review activity assumptions and adapt approaches and the theory of change as new evidence emerges. The Contractor should submit plan to reflect, identify, and adapt to windows of opportunity, challenges, or emergent evidence.

J.8. Key Guiding Principles For Implementation

Local Systems

The Contractor will engage with local systems to facilitate system interactions without assuming responsibility for performing them directly. The Contractor must recognize that the strength of local systems and its prospects for sustainability depends on its ability to operate unaided, and that intervening too heavily robs local actors of opportunities to craft a true local solution. Local people understand their situations far better than external actors. The Contractor will be expected to regularly seek out local perspectives, paying particular attention to the voices of marginalized populations and apply those lessons in a practical way to maximize results. The Contractor will build on the understanding of a system’s contours elicited during the mapping phase, and incorporate discrete interventions that will strengthen local systems and produce sustainable results. The Contractor must partner with local institutions and advisors to the greatest extent possible. Building the capacity of the KPRA as well as other authorities involved in improving the Revenue Mobilization will depend on increasing the capacity of the departments as well as the awareness of the taxpayers. The Contractor is expected to undertake a series of mutually reinforcing initiatives which engage key stakeholders (female and male youth, members of academia, businesses and policy makers) to create socially constructive attitudes and increase awareness about the civic duty by making tax compliance easier and more cost-effective.

For the KPRA capacity building in the result areas, the Contractor will ensure that it delivers all training through existing training institutions, and other revenue authorities and the existing business/finance schools in Pakistan, except where no acceptable partners in specific technical areas are present. The Contractor is expected to identify and support partner institutions in developing training plans to ensure their institutional sustainability and expand their ability to conduct outreach to youth and women, enabling them to access trainings given local cultural constraints. Thus, at the conclusion of the contract, the Contractor must have developed the capacity of the institutions so that they have become easily accessible to youth and women, and deliver better services.

Sustainability

It is USAID policy that each country must lead its own development journey but we can help partners by prioritizing programs that foster stability, incentivize reform and innovation, strengthen in-country capacity, and mobilize domestic resources, including private capital.[footnoteRef:2], There are two pillars of self-reliance and sustainability, 1) commitment and 2) capacity. Commitment represents how well a country’s laws, policies, actions, and informal governance mechanisms —such as cultures and norms —support progress towards self-reliance. Capacity addresses how far the country has come in its journey across the dimensions of political, social, and economic development, including the ability to work across these sectors. The Contractor will effectively and accurately assess both the commitment and capacity of counterparts in the NMDs to work in relevant political, social, and economic sectors including its overall ability to work across these sectors. The finding of this assessment will be expected to inform the choice of interventions the contractor will implement to promote self-reliance while advancing the goal of KPRM. [2: For more about USAID’s integration of self-reliance into programming, please visit https://www.usaid.gov/selfreliance.]

The Contractor must ensure that the benefits of the project continue to accrue after the end of the contract through promoting sustainability and leverage to enhance impact. This will entail the consideration of the following approaches:

· Partnerships and scale. The Contractor must nurture and facilitate partnerships necessary to create and sustain the built capacity of different tax authorities, promoting leveraging measures to help assure long-term sustainability, including the ability to generate revenues. The Contractor must seek to link and scale up existing resources, fostering results-oriented partnerships between the public and private sectors, among NGOs, community associations, training firms, businesses, and academia.

· The GoKP and KPRA are forthcoming in using their own existing resources to the extent possible. There is no construction involved in the activity and hence USAID is only looking at the existing resources of KPRA in terms of space utilization. The Contractor must carefully coordinate with the GoKP and KPRA as well as other international donors to avoid duplicating similar interventions. The World Bank (WB) KP Revenue Mobilization and Public Resource Management Project is a $100+ million Programming for Results (PforR) mechanism which intends to support the GoKP’s Public Financial Management strategy. The project will also provide limited Technical Assistance (TA) in the form of embedded consultants to amend and redraft regulations related to revenue generation, but will not support capacity building or other needed management or systems reforms. While the WB program is providing some TA, it is not sufficient for the GoKP to achieve all the agreed to benchmarks. As a result, the GoKP has requested TA from USAID and other donors.

· Leverage existing USAID mechanisms. The Contractor will work with the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) to explore utilizing USAID partnership and financing tools that may strengthen the capacity of the taxation system.

Environmental Compliance Considerations

Compliance with USAID’s Environmental Regulations is a legal requirement as well as Agency policy. The Contractor shall be responsible for ensuring that all environmental mitigation measures, either proposed in the Initial Environment Examination (IEE)/Request for Categorical Exclusion (RCE) or developed as a result of environmental screening of activities during implementation, are adhered to and that grants and subcontracts comply with the Negative Determination and with the conditions portion of the IEE. The Contractor will collaborate with the program staff for compliance and guidance on any CFR 216 issues. A compliance plan will be developed by the Contractor and approved by USAID prior to launch of each activity having a potential adverse impact on physical and natural environment.

According to the IEE/RCE, most of the activities qualify for a Categorical Exclusion (as they do not have any impact on the environment) and/or a Negative Determination with Conditions (having minor to moderate adverse impact on the natural and physical environment). For any activity implemented under an IEE that has a Positive Determination or a Negative Determination with Conditions, Contractors and grantees must develop Environmental Monitoring and Mitigation Plan (EMMP) to implement these conditions. For project activities that are known in advance, the EMMP shall be included in the work plan and/or submitted with the work plan at the onset of the project. The Contractor shall also take into account the provincial and country compliance and USAID requirements as shown in the IEE/RCE.

Gender Considerations

The Contractor is responsible for complying with USAID’s policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment (GEFE) and integrating gender into all relevant aspects of design and implementation. Advancing gender equality between females and males, and empowering women and girls to participate fully in and benefit from the development of their societies is vital to achieving USAID’s development objectives. As per USAID’s GEFE and ADS Chapter 205: Integrating Gender Equality and Female Empowerment in USAID’s Program Cycle, it is important that the awardees of this contract work with USAID/Pakistan, its implementers, and the GoP to ensure the needs of women and girls are met, and that women and men are provided equal opportunities to prosper.

As noted in the Gender Analysis, a key component under this Activity is to undertake an analysis of the impact of GST on Services on women generally and women entrepreneurs specifically to enable evidence-based, gender-responsive policymaking. The activity is expected to focus on raising awareness and educating women on taxpayers’ responsibilities and the link between increased tax collections and improved government services. As part of their technical proposal, the Contractor is expected to conduct a detailed Gender Analysis for this activity and prepare an evidence-based Gender Action Plan to reduce the gender inequalities both at the institutional and programmatic levels.

Flexibility of Scale and Adaptability

The Contractor will identify, implement, and build local partner capacity for evidence-based programming that meets current global standards. The contract will operate regionally and the Contractor must maintain corporate flexibility to meet the specific conditions, markets, and needs in the operations. This SOO allows for significant variability across the districts, including focusing on youth cohorts and implementation approaches in working with communities and local partners.

The Contractor must orient activities implemented in the districts towards effective and adaptive service delivery and institutional capacity building, while the centralized dimensions of the contract will focus on the following: guiding and consolidating learning, monitoring and evaluation, knowledge sharing, capacity-building, quality control, cost-effectiveness, and reporting increases in provincial domestic resources.

Transparency and Accountability

Fostering transparency and accountability is an important focus area for the U.S. Mission in Pakistan. The Contractor is expected to consider how to contribute to improved transparency and accountability within the scope of the activity. This can range from small-scale activities, such as sharing of monitoring data with local participants, to much larger-scale programs that focus on policy-level changes. The Contractor should describe how the activity is expected to contribute to improved transparency and accountability in this section.

Local Participation, Collaboration, and Ownership

This activity requires the Contractor to undertake close collaboration with host governments, other donors, and other counterparts. The Contractor will work with local partners, not to perform their duties, but to support their improved sustainability and self-reliance. The Contractor will leverage their resources, such as their penetration in the community, their networks for messaging, and their local knowledge to better understand the context and constraints. The Contractor will seek opportunities to collaborate with other donors working in the same geographic area to create synergies and complementarity. Similarly, the Contractor will work with relevant USG activities with which this activity will need to work in tandem.

The Contractor will engage local partners that possess the capacity, expertise, and commitment to perform the necessary work. Further, the Contractor must support existing institutions rather than expend resources creating new ones. However, due to the dearth of institutions that provide high-quality services for taxation and related disciplines, the Contractor may develop the capacity and promote the appropriate expansion of existing institutions. Thus, the Contractor will develop partnerships with leading institutions in the country.

Science Technology Innovation and Partnerships (STIP)

STIP related efforts often focus on making investments more cost-effective, reaching many more beneficiaries at little or no additional cost, accelerating the timeline for obtaining results, and/or bringing ground-breaking innovations to scale. The Contractor is expected to leverage resources from stakeholders (especially the private sector) and development partners to use STIP approaches for improving tax compliance, taxpayer services, and other areas as outlined in the above Objective section.

J.9 Other Contract Requirements/Guiding Principles

Use of Internet and Communications Technologies

The Contractor will also explore innovative solutions, such as mobile and ICT-based solutions, to expand the outreach via technology, improve the delivery of up-to-date content and reduce costs.

Best Practices

The Contractor should use the best practices from other revenue authorities within the country or outside with similar context to tackle the problem of changing the attitudes of people as it relates to paying taxes as a form of civic duty, and also building awareness about the process and the procedure. The Contractor should implement best practices, such as involving agents of change, like youth, women, social influencers, and entrepreneurs, throughout the development of an effective communication campaign, as well as the monitoring and accountability of the government.

USAID has prepared State of the Field Report on the available evidence on youth programming and a review of recommended measurement tools for gauging progress in youth development.[footnoteRef:3] The Contractor should adapt and use existing frameworks and tools to conduct analysis as and when required. [3: For the full State of the Field report, please visit https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/education/educating-children-and-youth-crisis-and-conflict-situations/state-field-reports.]

Cultural Norms

Upon start-up, the Contractor must conduct a conflict analysis to get a thorough understanding of the conflict context in the target geographic areas. To ensure all forms of citizen engagement are safe, productive, and do not exacerbate existing tensions or conflict, the Contractor will use the findings of the conflict analysis to mainstream conflict sensitivity into all interventions. The Contractor will include a robust Do No Harm analysis that demonstrates an understanding of the nuanced context of the conflict in each proposed targeted area and thoughtful consideration of any risks associated with the proposed assistance program. Conflict-sensitivity and DNH must be reflected in the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) plan and ongoing analyses must be incorporated to inform how interventions will adapt to the changing context.

The Contractor must remain culturally sensitive during the implementation of this project and attend to both change and resistance to shifting gender norms. This approach aims to garner broad-based support for the contract’s various components; thereby, decreasing social or cultural resistance to participation, while also increasing the likelihood of longer-term sustainability of contract interventions.

Branding and Marking

In this activity, the Contractor must ensure compliance with USAID’s ADS 320 Branding and Marking as well as USAID’s Graphic Standard Manual.

USG Public Diplomacy

The USG is committed to a long term partnership with Pakistan that is built on a foundation of mutual interest, respect, and trust. Communications and outreach are essential elements of the USG public diplomacy strategy to ensure the Pakistani public is well-informed about USG civilian assistance programs in Pakistan. The Contractor’s communication activities will be consistent with the public diplomacy strategy as implemented by the U.S. Embassy Islamabad.

J.9.6 Language and Translation

Appropriate translation into Pashtu or local languages, is critical to the success of KPRM. The vast majority of the activities under the contract will not be in English; these will be dictated by the target audiences. The Offeror must have access to the necessary resources to ensure timely and quality translation; all translations need to be thoroughly vetted by the Offeror prior to submission to USAID/Pakistan.

The offeror is required to put their illustrative activities in a tabular form to indicate what their performance standards will be for the proposed activity and how they propose to monitor the results contributing to the objective as well as the overall goal of the project. Offeror should feel free to add any more required services to achieve the objective and fill the corresponding details in the table accordingly.

Overall Project Goal: Increased Domestic Revenue Mobilization The results will be measured by the following illustrative indicators:

· Change in amount (PKR) collected as GST on services

· Percent of target population reporting simplified and harmonized business processes for tax administration

OBJECTIVE 1: Increased Voluntary Compliance The results will be measured by the following illustrative indicators

· Increased percentage of tax declarations filed

1.1 : Improved Systems for General Sales Tax on Services

1.2 : Increased Awareness of GST on Services

Objective 2: Improved Efficiency of KPRA in Revenue Management The results will be measured by the following illustrative indicators

· Change in score on Institutional Development Index

2.1 : Improved Capacity of KPRA Staff

Objective 3: Improved Coordination Frameworks Within and Across Taxation Systems

3.1: framework for the integration of the taxation systems