The Third Financial Management and Accountability Programme (FINMAP III)
German Financial Cooperation with the Government of Uganda

Support to the Office of the Auditor General of Uganda

Implementation of an Integrated Management Information System

Invitation for Expression of Interest

for

Consulting Services and Provision of a Solution

“Implementing an Integrated Management Information System

for the Office of the Auditor General”

The Third Financial Management and Accountability Programme
Ministry of Finance, Planning & Economic Development

Plot 2/12 Apollo Kaggwa Road

Kampala P.O. Box 8147

March 2018

INVITATION for expression of interest

  1. The Third Financial Management and Accountability Programme (FINMAP III), hereby invites qualified consultancy firms to submit a prequalification document for consulting services and products required. The Office of the Auditor General of Uganda has recently secured funding from KfW, through FINMAP III, to support the establishment of a robust Management Information System (MIS) to support the Corporate Service Division. These funds have been earmarked for this project by the German bilateral Financial Cooperation, provided through KfW development bank.
  2. The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) is the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) of Uganda. The Auditor General (AG) is mandated by Article 163 of the Constitution (1995) to audit all public accounts of Uganda including the Courts, the Central and local Government Universities and Public Institutions and any other public corporations or bodies established by an act of parliament. OAG reports its findings to parliament.
    OAG´s headquarter is located at Apollo Kaggwa Road, Plot 2C, P.O. Box 7083, Kampala, Uganda.
  3. The OAG undertakes its operations through two divisions, namely, the Audit Division and the Corporate Services Division. The Corporate Services Division is split up in departments and units including Finance & Administration, Human Resources, Information Technology, Executive Support, Quality Assurance & Audit Development, Parliamentary Liaison, Legal, Communication, Procurement and Internal Audit. The two divisions undertake various business processes from which information is generated to support decision making by all stakeholders. Furthermore, in execution of its mandate, the OAG interfaces with various stakeholders who are linked to other systems necessitating the OAG to have a system of its own that can link with others for easy sharing and access to information. The OAG has ± 500 staff employed.
  4. The OAG started a project to support the establishment of a robust Integrated Management Information System (MIS) to support the Corporate Service Division. As result of a feasibility study conducted, including a survey of the current business process within OAG, gaps were identified prior to the implementation of the required MIS solution. Based on the study OAG recommended a phased implementation of the MIS project. In line with this approach, a comprehensive redesigning of business processes across all levels within OAG as far as related to the MIS have been conducted.

It is against this background that OAG is seeking the services of a consultancy firm /solution provider to deliver the required services and the integrated MIS, including required hardware, middleware and software / licences. OAG intends to implement an integrated MIS across all its corporate service functions for seamless processing and exchange of information within the organisation. It is the intention of FINMAP that the Tender will include a post-project period for maintenance and support.

  1. The MIS is envisaged to streamline processes and increase efficiency and effectiveness of services across all the functions of the OAG. The MIS is aimed to bring in transparency and sustainability of the processes. Based on this, implementation of the MIS needs to contribute to the following strategic objectives of OAG as presented in its corporate plan 2016 – 2021:
  • Independent reporting that contributes to accountability, transparency good corporate governance and value for money, supported by the following objectives:
  • Enhance the independence of OAG reporting
  • Convey information and audit results effectively
  • High performance and a model organisation, supported by the following objectives:
  • Enhance financial and operational independence
  • Be an influencing and collaborative organisation to raise the profile of the OAG through stakeholder engagement
  • Ensure the highest ethical and professional standards in all our work
  • Manage and enable staff to deliver
  • Continuously improve structures and systems to ensure better and efficient performance
  1. The integrated MIS will specifically make it possible for OAG´s staff to process and access integrated information in an efficient and effective way. The integration should reduce workload, but even more important it will improve the quality of the information on all levels of decisions making. Also, the quality of information to external stakeholders will improve in terms of quality and timeliness.
  2. The realisation of these objectives will enable OAG to uphold and enhance its track record of being the exemplary custodian and most trustworthy steward of public funds accountability; and, subsequently, to assert its mandate. It is imperative that the Office will be enabled to continue building and consolidating its leading image as the apex of public financial management accountability and the vanguard of the requisite developmental innovations and reforms.
  3. The components of the proposed Integrated MIS system are required to cover all the functional areas of core business processes within the OAG. The broad functionalities expected from the solution are given below:
  1. Human Capital Management, Payroll,
  2. Planning and Budgeting
  3. Financial and Accounting
  4. Document & Electronic Records Management
  5. Procurement and Disposal Processes
  6. Project Management
  7. Asset management
  8. Business Intelligence
  9. Governance, Risk and Compliance
  10. Fleet Management
  11. As the MIS needs to be integrated and should make use of generic functionalities the following functions, but not limited to, are part of the expected functionalities:

a) Reporting

b) Support to logistic processes within the office.

c) Furthermore, it is important to understand that although OAG is an independent institution, it is active within the Government of Uganda and therefore the MIS should be able to interface with e.g. financial systems of the Ministry of Finance and the HR-system of the Ministry of Public Services.

  1. Expected output of the Consultancy is that: The OAG has procured and implemented a functioning Integrated MIS that supports the OAG its Corporate Services, improving efficiency, effectiveness and transparency in a way it contributes to the overall performance of the Office; and OAG´s staff has been equipped with relevant skills and knowledge to successfully use, implement and maintain a MIS. To make this possible, the consultancy firm needs to work closely together with OAG´s Business Change Management team.
  2. The Consultancy firm will deliver an Integrated MIS, including the required hardware, middleware and software / licences. The firm will be responsible for the configuration, customisation and installation of the MIS. It is OAG´s intention to acquire a MIS, which is capable to support the processes in scope for over 90% by configuration instead of customisation. It is expected that the Consultancy firm offers an Integrated MIS solution, based on software available in the market. Tailor-made solutions are considered as not fitting on OAG´s IT-strategy. Both an Enterprise Resource Planning solution (ERP) or a suite of Best of Breed (BoB), or a hybrid between both, are acceptable, as long the integration issues are minimised.
  3. In addition to the Integrated MIS, the Consultancy firm will offer technical assistance to the project team and ensure that the comprehensive MIS is implemented across all critical areas in OAG. The consultant will specifically:
  1. Familiarise himself with the OAG organisation (policies, process and culture).
  2. Further define implementation methodology and the plan which can be used to advocate and create business impact. The approach should be based on a phased iterative implementation according international best practices.
  3. Conduct an initiation phase, which is assumed to cover a readiness assessment and all other required activities prior to the implementation of the MIS. This initiation phase is assumed to make use of the outcome of feasibility study and the business process re-engineering. The report related to this phase should give an insight on existing gaps in the organisation (basic skills in the IT-department, sponsorships, attitude, the infrastructure, interfaces to internal and external IT-systems etc). Furthermore, it should describe in detail the way how the consultancy firm will cooperate with OAG´s Business Change Management team. This cooperation will be part of the project plan, including the dependencies.
  4. Support OAG in detailed requirement gathering for the MIS project, to make it possible that the corporate service processes will be supported based on configuration instead of customisation.
  5. Work with OAG to define the interfaces to external parties will be modelled, so they can be realised in an effective and efficient way.
  6. Conduct specialised training for the IT technical team on the MIS.
  7. Conduct training for super users on the MIS so they can train the end users based on the train the trainer concept.
  8. Will be responsible for the phased installation and support to implementation of the solution.
  9. Will work with the business change manager to ensure that the transformation results in a change which makes it possible to realise the desired benefits by OAG.
  10. Effective skills transfer through working alongside the MIS project team.
  11. Conduct a needs assessment for the technical skills required to successfully implement and sustain the MIS solution.
  12. Organise trainings for the OAG´s management about conceptual use of the MIS in the corporate services of the OAG. This training will enable the team to understand the impact of integration between the different functional areas.
  13. To help the OAG to determine roles and responsibilities during the phase of operations and maintenance of the MIS. This will include managing the relations between end users, business owner of the MIS, stakeholders and IT division of OAG.
  1. Services can be provided by a consultancy firm, international or local. If they will be made use of sub-contractors and/or licences of third parties, this should be made explicit in the EOI. These firms, staff and products will be evaluated against the same criteria as the consultancy firm. International consultants are encouraged to partner with local firms.
  2. Consultancy firms are free to associate themselves with other firms or individuals to ensure that all required products, know-how and experiences are available to them. However, firms or individuals can only be part of one associations or consortium.
  1. The Expression of Interest, in English language, shall have the following structure and content presented in the same sequence as shown below:

(i) Covering Letter, comprising consulting firm’s name, address, contact person, telephone, fax and email if applicable mention the association for this project.

(ii) Presentations of the consulting firm(s) (maximum 6 pages), inclusive clear statements of type, of business and organisation and key task of the association, if applicable. In particular, they must include a binding description of their competences, fields of work, and the format the cooperation will take. Furthermore, it is important to pay brief attention how the governance and back-up support to projects are structured (continuity measures, quality assurance, internal knowledge sharing etc.).

(iii) Statements and Declarations:

a) Declaration of submitting a proposal in case of being short-listed;

b) Statement on affiliations of any kind with other firms which may present a conflict of interest in providing the envisaged services. The statement needs be made by each firm, part of a proposed association.

c) In case of an association, the intended contractual arrangement with international and local firms, nominating the lead consultant and including signed letters of intent of participating firms.

d) Declaration to observe the highest standard of ethics during execution of the contract. Applicants should be aware that any fraudulent or corrupt activities disqualify them immediately from participation in the selection process and will be subject to further legal investigation. The said declaration shall be submitted and duly signed according the form in Annex 1. In case of an association, each partner needs to sign its own declaration. The reasons for exclusion or conflicts of interest are presented in Annex 2.

e) Certified statement of financial capacity of the lead consultant and all associated partners showing the necessary turnover of more than US$ 2,000,000 per year (Should be approved by Balance sheet, statement of turnover or annual tax statement or profit and loss account of the last three years).

(iv) List of project references done by the nominated consultant carry out as Annex 3 (EU-Format) covering the past 5 years and strictly related to the envisaged services (Minimum 5- maximum 15 references). OAG reserves the right to verify information provided with project references without informing the Bidders and without getting in contact with the bidders.

(v) List of products (Hardware, Middleware and Software /Licences) for which the consultancy firm or the association of firms is authorised to supply the envisaged products, referring to the projects as listed in Annex 3. The list of products needs to be presented in section 5) of Annex 3.

(vi) List of available personnel structure for the envisaged services with information about education, professional experience, regional experience, years with firm, specific project-related experience and experience in similar posts. This list shall allow a profound judgement on the consultants’ general ability to provide the required personnel having the specific experience for the project in case of an offer. Personnel not belonging to the permanent staff of the firm or showing only a limited time of cooperation (<3 years) get less points It is OAG´s assumption that at least the following roles will be part of consultancy firms´ project team:

1) Project Manager

2) Solution Architect

3) Technical Architect (MIS)

4) Technical Architect (Infrastructure)

5) Technical Leads for Business Analysis, Design and Development and configuration

6) Functional Leads in the areas as presented under section 8

Please do not insert any CV

It is expected that the project team members have adequate training skills in relation to MIS. This can be part of the skill set of the staff as mentioned above or by a specific trainer.

Interested consultancy firms are requested to submit concise and clear, but substantial documents and to adhere to the above structure. Non-compliance with this invitation or faulty information shall lead to non-qualification. Any surplus of information not specific to the material requested will be penalised.

The prequalification proposal shall be submitted in one original, one electronic version on a flash and three copies to the Project-Executing Agency on the address below:

The Programme Coordinator

The Third Financial Management and Accountability Programme (FINMAPIII)

Ministry of Finance, Planning & Economic Development

Finance Building; 3rd Floor, Room 3.4

Plot 2/12 Apollo Kaggwa Road

P.O. Box 8147 Kampala - Uganda

E-Mail:

Latest by the date and time as indicated in paragraph 24.

  1. The Expression of Interest needs to be presented in the following way:

The EoI should be submitted in a sealed package containing the documents as listed under section 14. All documents need to be duly signed by the legal representative of the consultancy firm(s).

The package shall display the following information:

  • the name of the institution and the address where the Expressions of Interest must be sent to.
  • the title of the Invitation for Expression of Interest such as indicated in the invitation letter.
  • the name of the interested consultancy firm, in case of an association, the name of the proposed lead firm.
  • the following words clearly visible: „Call for Expression of Interest – Not to be opened by the Postal Service“.
  1. OAG shall not host site visits for obtaining extra information, however extra information can be requested through sending an email to FINMAP. At any time, FINMAP either at its own initiative or in response to clarifications requested by an interested consultancy firm may clarify this invitation. Such information shall be sent in writing by e-mail to all parties, which have informed FINMAP about their participation.
  2. It is planned to establish a short-list of not more than five prequalified consultants not later than four weeks after the submission date and to invite technical and financial proposals from these consultants.
  3. The evaluation procedure for the prequalification process will follow the latest version of the “Guidelines for Assignment of Consultants in Financial Co-operation Projects” (

Only financially capable firms which have submitted the necessary statements (see paragraph 14 iii) satisfying the set conditions will be evaluated. Specific evaluation criteria and their individual weight are presented in the next table:

Criteria / Maximum Score
1. Evidence of relevant experience gained by consultancy firm(s) during the past five years (experience of the firm or association of firms) / 30
1.1 Experience in handling MIS projects within a public or financial institution. / 10
1.2 Experience in handling MIS projects within a Supreme Audit Institution. / 5
1.3 Experience under various working-conditions in developing countries in the Sub-Saharan, Middle-east and Asia. / 15
2. Suitability products for this specific project. / 10
2.1 Assessment of the products the consultancy firm or group of firms is authorised to supply on market conformity. For evaluation purpose, use will be made of Gartner´s “Magic Quadrant” in relation to MIS. / 10
3. Suitability staff for this specific project (experience of the available experts and products). / 52
3.1 Assessment of project management skills. / 10
3.2 Assessment of available MIS related technical expertise specific to this project. / 37
3.3 Assessment of training skills in relation to MIS. / 5
4. Generic / 8
4.1 Form of the application documents: Are they complete, concise and related to the project? / 8
  1. After having completed the evaluation of the prequalification documents, a short-list consisting of five highest ranked Consultancy firms or associations or less, scoring a minimum of 70 points will be established. Short-listed firms will be invited to submit a technical and financial proposal; firms not pre-qualified will be informed accordingly.
  2. FINMAP is not bound to select any consultant.
  3. The preparation and the submission of the prequalification document is the responsibility of the applicant and no relief or consideration can be given for errors and omissions.
  4. After opening the prequalification documents until preparation of the short-list of the qualified consultants, no communication of any type shall be entertained unless called for by FINMAP.
  5. Time schedule EOI:

Activity / Date
Notice Publication / 12 April 2018
Submission deadline / 11 May 2018:13:00 Hrs(GMT), 16:00Hrs (EAT)
Evaluation process / 14 – 18 May 2018
Display of Shortlist / 8 June 2018

ANNEX 1