The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) received a grant from the World Bank towards the implementation of the Regional Infrastructure Finance Facility project and intends to apply a portion of the proceeds of this grant to eligible payments under the contract  for the procurement of  a planning  and budgeting system.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is a regional grouping of 21 African States which have agreed to promote regional integration through trade development and transport facilitation. COMESA’s objectives include sustainable economic development through economic and social progress in all Member States through increased co-operation and integration in all fields of development particularly in Trade, Customs and Monetary Affairs, Transport, Communication and Information Technology, Industry and Agriculture, Energy, Environment and Natural Resources including Gender and Social Development. The Secretariat is based in Lusaka, Zambia.

COMESA Secretariat prepares and submits an annual work programme and budget for consideration and approval of the COMESA Council of Ministers. The annual budget incorporates the approved Member States contributions and grants for implementation of the annual work programme and is analyzed based on various cost centers. The work programme incorporates the activities, budget, expected results and timeline for a particular focus area. Each division and unit are required to prepare and submit a costed work programme in line with its mandate, following which the work programmes and budget proposals are consolidated.

The current Planning and Budgeting process at COMESA is manual. Ms-Excel templates are provided to programme and budget holders to capture planning and budgeting information, which are then submitted to Budget and Finance Division for rationalization and consolidation.

The COMESA wish to procure a digital Planning and Budgeting system to digitize the current      manual preparation and consolidation of the work programme and budget by various Units and Divisions of the Secretariat

It is expected that a digital Planning and Budgeting system at COMESA  Secretariat  will resolve the following:

1. Processes: Manual processes should be automated to achieve effectiveness and efficiency
2. Accessibility: Staff should be able to access the planning and budgeting system anytime and from anywhere.

• Integration: The application should be able to fully integrate with current and future relevant application systems.

1. Data Integrity and Security: Data Integrity and Security should be enhanced through proper access controls and other electronic means. The manual system does not adequately protect information assets.
2. Scalability: All applications/systems at COMESA should be able to accommodate new features/modules to meet the changing organization needs
3. Currency: the system shall support multi-currency budgeting and reporting. It should be able to provide consolidated reports in the base currency.

vii         Reports: Current manual system does not address all stakeholders reporting needs.

The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment are attached to this request for Expressions of Interest (EOI).

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa now invites eligible consultants (firms) to indicate their interest in providing these services. Interested consultants must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services (brochures, description of similar assignments, core business and not less than 10 years in business, experience in similar conditions, relevant experience, technical and managerial capability of the firm, etc). Consultants may constitute joint ventures to enhance their chances of qualification.  In the case of a joint venture, all the partners in the joint venture shall be jointly and severally liable for the entire contract, if selected.

The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to Section III, paragraphs, 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers”  November  2020 setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.