ADDENDUM NR.1
TO THE REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
Nr.ARAA/SYRIMAO/2019/002

• The deadline for submission of the expressions of interest initially scheduled for December 04, 2019 is postponed to December 20, 2019.
• All other terms remain unchanged.

The Commission of Economic Communitity Of West African States (“ECOWAS”) has received a financing from Agence Française de Développement (“AFD”), and intends to use part of the funds thereof for payments under the following project “Innovative Regional Fruit Flies Control System in West Africa - SyRIMAO”.

The Services of the consultant shall consist of the administrative and financial management of the project. The Services are described in Annex 1 of attached document.

The ECOWAS hereby invites Applicants to show their interest in delivering the Services described above.

This Request for Expressions of Interest is open to Individual consultants.

Eligibility criteria to AFD financing are specified in sub-clause 1.3 of the "Procurement Guidelines for AFD Financed Contracts in Foreign Countries", available online on AFD’s website: http://www.afd.fr.

The Applicant shall submit only one application.

Interested Applicants must provide information evidencing that they are qualified and experienced to perform those Services. For that purpose, documented evidence of recent and similar services shall be submitted.

Among the submitted applications, ECOWAS will shortlist a maximum of five (5) Applicants, to whom the Request for Proposals to carry out the Services shall be sent.

The interested bidders must send their expression of interest at the latest on December 4, 2019, via email to ecowas.dadr.proc@gmail.com, and under the reference “AMI SyRIMAO EAF”.

Interested Applicants may obtain further information at the same address mentioned above.

The expression of interest file must compulsory contain the following documents:

• Letter of expression of interest (according to the model given in Annex 2)
• Form of Consultant’s skills and experiences to be provided to the project (according to the model given in Annex 3)
• Statement of Integrity, Eligibility and Environmental and Social Responsibility (Annex 4)
• Registration certificate from Trade Registry
• Shall not exceed 9 pages; and
• Will be constituted of a single PDF document of less than 5 MBs

Any incomplete file, and / or including more documents than those requested, and / or not respecting one or both the points B or C, and / or arriving after the fixed date will be automatically rejected

Mission

Presentation of re mission

The project Coordination will be done from Lomé, Togo. The Project Unit (PU) will be composed of four consultants. The Regional Coordinator and the Expert “Administration and Finances” will stand in Lomé within the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAF) that is the ECOWAS projects implementing agency. The technical experts (SVA and RAD) will be based in Abuja (Nigeria) within the ECOWAS Directorate for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Under the responsibility and supervision of the project coordinator, the AFE will be in charge of the administrative and financial management of the project. He/she will work closely with National Committee Accountants to ensure an overall budget view of the project. He/she will also support the RAAF's support services (accounting, procurement, etc.) in carrying out their missions.

The AFE will be responsible for managing all administrative aspects of the project's procurement process (from launching to closure of the contracts). He/she will be responsible for the respect of the procedures and for the writing of administrative and financial reports.

The AFE will be in charge of:

• Ensure the administrative and financial management of the project:
  • participate in the design / improvement of management tools, including the project manual and the accounting tool for National Committees;
  • autonomously manage the project bank account and the project petty-cash,
  • prepare the payments: enter the expenses in the financial follow-up, follow the payments and archive the documents,
  • consolidate the financial report (consolidation of at least 17 different accounting files), monitor the budget consumption and ensure the compliance of commitments,
  • ensure internal and external financial and accounting reporting,
  • participate in the definition of financial forecasts,
  • make the annual financial and accounting closings of the project,
  • establish and maintain the list of project assets,
  • ensure / supervise the archiving of the accounting and administrative documents of the project,
  • organize the functioning of the project office: inventory management and provision of project office equipment and supplies, etc.
  • organize and assist the project audit missions,
  • ensure the verification and the conformity of the expenses of the subsidies granted to the National Committees,
  • ensure the contractual monitoring of grants to the 15 National Committees,
  • assist the 15 National Committees in their payment requests,
  • ensure the budgetary follow-up of the 15 National Committees.
• Participate in the procurement and monitor the followup of contracts:
  • draft and monitor the procurement plan,
  • draft the administrative part of the bidding documents (the technical part will be elaborated by the coordinator and / or the technical experts),
  • follow the bid publications in accordance with the procedure,
  • be involved in the selection process of service providers and in the contracts award ,
  • draft the minutes of the various tender evaluation and contract award committees (role and list of members) and organize them in a timely manner,
  • establish contracts between the project and the selected providers or experts,
  • monitor the contractual performance of signed contracts.
• Participate in the logistical organization of missions and regional workshops and trainings:
  • participate in the identification of logistical needs related to events organized within the project (housing, transportation, room, snack, etc.),
  • ensure the purchasing process according to the procedures,
  • monitor the preparation of events in collaboration with RAAF and PU staff,
  • organize the logistics of field missions (memo, mission orders, perdiem, flight tickets, etc.).

In terms of planning and reporting, the AFE will be required to contribute in the drafting of at least the following action plans and reports:

• the quarterly monitoring and evaluation report of RAAF;
• semiannual report for ECOWAS and financial partners;
• annual report for ECOWAS and financial partners;
• project annual action plans and their possible amendments.

Other plans, annual work programs and budgets, and / or reports may however be requested by ECOWAS and / or financial partners. The Administrative and Financial Expert will then be required to contribute in their drafting.

Consultant profile

The consultant should have a project accounting and financial expertise, and also expertise in procurement process and grants monitoring. He/she must have at least 7 years of professional experience in relevant areas to the Project (financial management, accounting, budget monitoring, procurement, etc.).

• He/she will have at least one confirmed experience in budget and accounting consolidation of multiple data from multiple structures.
• He/she will have at least one confirmed experience in procurement and contract monitoring.
• He/she will have abilities to work fluently in French and English (bilingual confirmed, knowledge of Portuguese is appreciated), and confirmed skills in writing, synthesis and communication.
• He/she will have at least one work experience in a regional or multi-countries project.
• He/she will have at least one confirmed experience in the private sector. He/she could have some knowledge of the private sector and will be able to support / advise the coordinator in the definition of the public-private partnerships to be put in place within the framework of the project.
• He/she will have good knowledge / experiences of ECOWAS, EU and AFD procedures.
• He/she will be available for many trips in the sub region.

The interested bidders must send their expression of interest at the latest on December 20, 2019, via email to ecowas.dadr.proc@gmail.com, and under the reference “AMI SyRIMAO EAF”.