81306518-Development of instruments for the improvement of transparency, integrity and public services in Ecuador

Kurze Beschreibung

Sincero II Program - Good Governance for an Ecuador with Transparency and Integrity

CONTEXT
Building citizen trust in the decisions made by public and private entities is crucial for reinforcing good governance, fostering social cohesion, and advancing democracy within nations. Data collected from the Latinobarometer 2021 and Corruption Barometer 2022 reveals that the Ecuadorian population is lacking confidence in its institutions, both public and private, thereby impacting the governance of the country. On the other hand, in a world where social dynamics need to adapt to the rapid growth of data and technological innovations, governments must create new tools or update existing ones in order to provide greater transparency and efficiency in public actions for the benefit of citizens. At the same time, there is a focus on promoting increased equity and participation to better connect with people's needs. The new governance models aim to place citizens at the core of politics and public administration, ensuring that public decision-making is attentive to meeting their expectations and requirements.

FOCUS
SinCero II addresses key issues such as: strengthening public services, improving regulatory quality and management processes, citizen participation and promoting public awareness of key concepts such as public and private integrity, transparency, accountability and Open State.

OBJECTIVE
The SinCero II Program - Good Governance for an Ecuador with Transparency and Integrity aims to improve governance in terms of transparency, integrity and citizen participation.

TERRITORIAL SCOPE
SinCero II is a national program, however, it has a territorial focus and therefore will prioritize work in 8 different territories in the country.

ACTORS
SinCero II provides technical assistance to counterparts and partners from the public and private sectors, academia and civil society organizations.

LINES OF ACTION
1. Strengthening and improvement of public services - The aim is to enhance the quality of selected public services with high citizen demand and impact on the business climate, in order to improve their efficiency, transparency and integrity. Likewise, tools are proposed to improve the measurement of service quality so that public actors can make policy decisions based on reliable information constructed with active citizen participation.
2. Public and private integrity mechanisms - The intention here is to develop instruments that contribute to the implementation of public integrity tools that actively strengthen risk management, transparency, management efficiency, public accountability, among others. Support will be provided especially to state entities that develop integrity and anti-corruption strategies, as well as to business organizations that seek to improve their compliance, due diligence and private integrity mechanisms to contribute to achieve optimal levels of reputation in the sector.
3. Open State, Accountability and Citizen Participation - The generation of instruments that promote transparency and access to information, accountability, citizen participation and facilitate the implementation of an integrity system in Ecuador is at the center of this component. It also seeks to implement innovative digital solutions that strengthen transparency and participation, and thus aim to contribute to Ecuador's digital transformation agenda.
4. Capacity building - The aim of this component is to promote capacity building of counterparts and partners based on the experience of the previous program: Ecuador SinCero. The capacity building measures have played a crucial role in fostering a clearer grasp of essential concepts in Ecuador. Within SinCero II, there will be an emphasis on the topic of public services, and an in-depth exploration of the conceptual framework surrounding public and private integrity, Open State, transparency, citizen participation, accountability, and innovation.

Beschreibung der Beschaffung

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED

The contractor shares partial responsibility for assisting in the fulfilment of all program objectives and indicators of the program Ecuador SinCero II, whose objective is to enhance governance regarding transparency, integrity, and citizen participation. The services that should be provided are:

1. Work package 1:
The activities to be done by the contractor contribute to the achievement of output indicators through the provision of advisory services regarding the following fields of expertise: administrative simplification, regulatory improvement, proposals of automatization of procedures, as well as other topics related to the public service environment.

Activities to be performed by the contractor include:
- Assessment of current state of the respective public services
- Needs assessment with involved stakeholders.
- Development of conceptual designs for the improvement of the respective processes
- Facilitation of multi-stakeholder dialogues to validate conceptual design for the improvement of public service processes.
- Support with the implementation of the proposed concepts.
- Evaluation of improvement of selected public services

Milestones to be performed by the contractor include:
- 2 Proposals for a conceptual design for regulatory improvement and automatization of procedures
- 1 Comparative analysis of best practices about public services index
- 1 Methodological proposal for the improvement of a public services index


2. Work package 2:
The activities to be done by the contractor contribute to the achievement of output indicators through the development of instruments that contribute to the implementation of public integrity tools to strengthen risk management, transparency, management efficiency, public accountability, among others.

Activities to be performed by the contractor include:
- Carrying out of needs assessment with involved stakeholders
- Development of conceptual designs for enhancing public and private integrity instruments
- Designing proposals for cooperation mechanisms between the public and private sectors for the facilitation of multi-stakeholder dialogues to validate the conceptual design of proposed public and private integrity instruments.
- Support the implementation of the proposed concepts.

Milestones to be performed by the contractor include:
- 2 Conceptual design proposals or integrity instruments (e.g.: lobbying regulation mechanism, regulation of conflicts of interest, internal control, among others)
- 1 Design of cooperation mechanism between public and private sectors

3. Work package 3:
The activities to be done by the contractor contribute to the achievement of output indicators through the development of generate instruments that promote transparency and access to information, accountability, citizen participation and facilitate the implementation of an integrity system in Ecuador.

Activities to be performed by the contractor include:
- Needs assessment with involved stakeholders.
- Development of conceptual designs for open government instruments based on joint analysis with respective stakeholders.
- Facilitation of multi-stakeholder dialogues in order to validate the conceptual design of proposed instruments.

Milestones to be performed by the contractor include:
- 1 Analysis of an existing open government system of one public counterpart (to be defined)
- 2 Conceptual design proposals for open government instruments


4. Work package 4:
The activities to be done by the contractor contribute to the achievement of output indicators through the develop the capacities of counterparts and partners in the thematic areas of the 3 work packages outlined above (public services, integrity, and transparency), by conducting training courses, workshops or conferences.

Activities to be performed by the contractor include:
- Needs assessment with involved stakeholders.
- Development of training modules on public services, integrity, and open government, that include an andragogical methodology for the virtualization of thematic contents, design of andragogical materials, the setting up of the virtual learning environment selected in accordance with the respective counterpart.
- Implementation of the training modules about public services, integrity, and open government in the selected virtual learning environment.

Milestones to be performed by the contractor include:
- 3 Training modules about public services, integrity, and open government (Face-to-face learning, B-Learning or virtual; approximately 40 hours of dedication to the course)
- Development of 3 respective virtual learning environments about public services, integrity, and open government

Requirements
- The contractor is responsible for selecting, preparing, training, and steering the experts assigned to carry out the advisory services and assuring fluid cooperation between the experts and GIZ.
- The contractor plays an active role in the results-based monitoring of the project. Regular monitoring activities must be covered.
- The contractor reports to GIZ regularly in accordance with the version of the General Terms and Conditions of Contract.
- The contractor provides support in implementing a project evaluation with special emphasis on ensuring the effectiveness of the knowledge management process.

Liste und kurze Beschreibung der Auswahlkriterien

Wirtschaftliche und finanzielle Leistungsfähigkeit: 1. Average annual turnover for the last three years (last-but-four financial year can be included in case of tenders held within 6 months of end of last financial year), at least: 500,000.00 EUR
2. Average number of employees and managers in the last three calendar years, at least 25 persons

Liste und kurze Beschreibung der Bedingungen

Eignung zur Berufsausübung: 1. Self-declaration: name of company and address, tax ID, registration and commercial register number or equivalent register in accordance with the legal provisions of the country of origin.
2. No grounds for exclusion pursuant to § 123, § 124 GWB, § 22 LkSG
3. Declaration of bidding consortium and/or declaration of subcontractors (if applicable)

Liste und kurze Beschreibung der Auswahlkriterien

Technische und berufliche Leistungsfähigkeit: 1. The technical assessment is only based on reference projects with a minimum commission value of 150,000.00 EUR.
2. At least 2 reference projects in the technical field "Good governance (e.g.: transparency, accountability, citizen participation, among others)" and at least 2 reference projects in Ecuador in the last 3 years

Genaue Informationen über Fristen für Überprüfungsverfahren

According to Article 160, Section 3 of the German Act Against Restraint of Competition (GWB), application for review is not permissible insofar as
1. the applicant has identified the claimed infringement of the procurement rules before submitting the application for review and has not submitted a complaint to the contracting authority within a period of 10 calendar days; the expiry of the period pursuant to Article 134, Section 2 remains unaffected,
2. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that are evident in the tender notice are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for the application or by the deadline for the submission of bids, specified in the tender notice.
3. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that first become evident in the tender documents are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for application or by the deadline for the submission of bids,
4. more than 15 calendar days have expired since receipt of notification from the contracting authority that it is unwilling to redress the complaint.
Sentence 1 does not apply in the case of an application to determine the invalidity of the contract in accordance with Article 135, Section 1 (2). Article 134, Section 1, Sentence 2 remains unaffected.