Sources_Sought_Notice_NIS__11022016.pdf

Sources Sought Notice

This is a Sources Sought Notice. This is not a request for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. It is a survey to identify potential sources. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is performing this market research to determine if an adequate number of organizations are interested in and capable of implementing and managing a program to support public financial management (PFM) functions of the Government of Guatemala (GOG).

Purpose/Objective

With an estimated gross domestic product of $63.79 billion in 2015 and a population of 16 million, Guatemala is the largest economy, with the largest population, in Central America.1 The country has made considerable progress in consolidating democracy and peace following the signing of the Peace Accord in 1996 that ended its decades-old civil war. Since the accord, Guatemala has enjoyed free and fair elections with peaceful transfers of power.

However, years of peace have not led to strong government performance in servicing the citizenry. Poverty rates were 59.29 percent in 2014—an 8 percent increase over 2006.2 Secondary school enrollment increased rapidly after the Peace Accord but has been essentially flat since 2010 at around 63 percent.3 Guatemala’s income distribution remains highly unequal, with a Gini coefficient of 48.7 in 2014.4

The difficulties faced by Guatemala’s political leadership in improving the wellbeing of its citizens are due in part to weaknesses and accountability gaps throughout the state. Weak public institutions, transient political parties, small government structure hampered by low tax revenue (10.8 % of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015), and inefficient spending remain impediments to growth, security and a prosperous Guatemala.5

While many obstacles still exist, there has not been a more promising moment in Guatemala’s recent history to focus on strengthening the capacities and accountability of the country’s key state institutions. Recent corruption scandals have led to a unified demand for transparent public institutions. The mass mobilization of citizens and expanding corruption investigations by the Public Ministry and UN-backed International Commission Against Corruption in Guatemala (CICIG, by its Spanish acronym) have changed the political calculus and led to the November 2015 election of current president Jimmy Morales with a mandate for reform.

To build on the momentum, USAID/Guatemala intends to support the GOG’s efforts to create an effective PFM system that will improve its ability to meet citizen demand and address key governmental, civil society, international organization, and donor concerns. If the GOG is able

1 http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/guatemala 2 http://data.worldbank.org/country/guatemala 3 http://data.worldbank.org/country/guatemala 4 http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI?locations=GT&view=chart 5 IMF Country Reports 16/281: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2016/cr16281.pdf to increase its revenue as a percentage of GDP, improve and strengthen its PFM systems to increase spending efficiency, and increase the capacity of the civil service workforce, Guatemala’s economic growth and social development will be improved to the benefit of its poorer and more disadvantaged citizens.

Tentatively USAID will prioritize the following project areas:

1. Budget Planning: strengthening the GOG’s ability to prepare its yearly budget and to implement multi-year budget preparation;

2. Budget Execution: improving the GOG’s ability to execute funds;

3. Budget Oversight: improving the quality and quantity of audits and increasing GOG transparency and civil society oversight;

4. Revenue Generation: improving the GOG’s ability to collect taxes, address evasion, and increase revenue; and,

5. Civil Service Capacity: improving civil service capacity, retention rates, transparency, and accountability.

Project requirements:

1. Technical expertise working with national governments to improve budget planning, budget execution, budget oversight, and revenue generation capabilities, including improving coordination between executive and legislative functions.

2. Technical expertise improving public oversight of PFM systems.

3. Technical expertise in capacity building: mentorship and training to civil service officials in PFM functions, including increasing retention rates and improving transparency and accountability systems.

4. Experience coordinating with other national and international partners to avoid duplication of work and ensure complementarity of results.

Supplementary Information

Included with this notice are several relevant sources of contextual and background information with website links:

1. USAID/Guatemala’s Country Development and Cooperation Strategy:

http://www.usaid.gov/documents/1862/usaid-guatemala-cdcs

2. Guatemala: 2016 Article 4 Consultation:

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2016/cr16281.pdf

3. Institutions, Taxes, and Inequality in Guatemala:

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/instituciones-impuestos-y-desigualdad-en-guatemala http://www.usaid.gov/documents/1862/usaid-guatemala-cdcs http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2016/cr16281.pdf https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/instituciones-impuestos-y-desigualdad-en-guatemala https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/instituciones-impuestos-y-desigualdad-en-guatemala

4. GOG 2013 Informe del Desempeño de la Gestión de las Finanzas Públicas (PEFA):

https://pefa.org/sites/default/files/assements/comments/GT-Feb13-PFMPR-Public.pdf

5. Plan de Acción Nacional de Gobierno Abierto:

http://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/PAN%20_2016-2018_GUA.pdf

6. Secretaría de Planificación y Programación de la Presidencia (SEGEPLAN) website:

http://www.segeplan.gob.gt/mportal/

Anticipated Period and Place of performance

The anticipated period of performance is for five years beginning October 2017 for a total estimated amount of $40-$50 million subject to funds availability. The project will be implemented at the national level.

Submission Guidelines

Interested organizations should submit a statement addressing the following:

1. Capacity of organization to perform the work described above

2. Organization size and type (Large, small, nonprofit, commercial)

3. Past experience implementing similar project activities

4. Sample of challenges encountered and creative solutions employed to overcome those challenges

5. Experience working with other stakeholders, including implementing partners on the ground, host country government officials.

6. Feedback, if any, on the tentative prioritized project areas

Statements sent in response to this sources sought notice should not exceed five (5) single – sided pages (including attachments and charts) using a Times New Roman 12 point font size minimum.

Send the statements electronically in Microsoft word or Adobe Portable document format (pdf) by November 9, 2016 at 13:00 Local Guatemalan Time to guatemalaproposals@usaid.gov .

Disclaimer and important Notes

This notice does not obligate the USAID to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in the response, USAID reserves the right to use information provided by the respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Respondents are advised that USAID is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.

After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be https://pefa.org/sites/default/files/assements/comments/GT-Feb13-PFMPR-Public.pdf http://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/PAN%20_2016-2018_GUA.pdf mailto:guatemalaproposals@usaid.gov published on the Federal Business Opportunities website www.fbo.gov. Reponses to this notice will not be considered responses to a solicitation.

Confidentiality

No proprietary, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response.

USAID reserves the right to use any non-proprietary information in any resulting solicitation(s).

http://www.fbo.gov/