81292283-Support to Local Revenue Generation and Digital Financial Management in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab

Kurze Beschreibung

The module "Participatory Local Governance" aims at improving the performance of the Pakistani state in terms of service delivery and citizen participation. The module objective is defined as: Service delivery capacities of local authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab regions meet local needs and priorities. The participatory local governance (PLG) programme supports partners in three interrelated areas:

- Output 1 supports the improvement of the capacity of state and elected representatives to provide local services, taking into account the needs of vulnerable groups.

- Output 2 provides support to the human resource capacity development of local governments for local revenue generation and digital financial management

- Output 3 aims to ensure that local authorities take into account citizens' needs and priorities for service delivery through the use of participatory, digital and SDG-oriented decision-making processes.

Background: Fundamental deficiencies in Pakistan's public administration contribute to the shortages in local service delivery. There is a political consensus on raising local revenues. However, since there is no historical experience of a correlation between local government revenue raising and public service improvement, the low level of confidence in the performance of public institutions among broad sections of the population means that necessary steps to increase government revenues are being met with great resistance. Pakistan has a very low tax-to-GDP ratio - in fiscal year 2019/20, the ratio of taxes to GDP was 11.4% compared to an OECD average of 34.3%. In this regard, there is untapped potential for revenue generation at the local and provincial levels. There is a political commitment to the digitalization of administration and services.

Output 2 aims to improve the human resource capacity of KP province and local governments for local revenue generation and digital financial management. The impact hypothesis is that the improved human resource capacity, which includes the use of a digital financial data information management systems, will lead to an increase in local government revenues in the medium term. The increased financial leeway will be used by local governments to improve and expand local service delivery, thereby benefiting vulnerable groups (module objective). The assumption is that Pakistan's macroeconomic situation will remain stable, allowing for an increase in public revenues.

Tasks by the contractor:

PLG plans to hire a contractor to provide technical advisory services under Output 2 to partners and to carry out two work packages in close coordination with the project. The services to be tendered out concern the intervention area of strengthening local public revenue generation and administration as one key ingredient of improving local governance.

1: Expert Advice regarding Revenue Mobilisation for Local Governance

The work package comprises of expert advice in the area of revenue and good financial governance geared to support the local administration and its reforms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. A current focus of the advisory services is own source revenue on tehsil level (sub-district) and property taxation on provincial level.

2: Expert Advice regarding Digitalisation of Local Administration

The work package comprises expert advice regarding the digitalisation of local administration in order to support the digital transformation reform processes with a focus on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A current emphasis of the advisory services is the digitalisation of internal processes (e. g. Financial Records and Information Management System).