Republic of Somaliland
Ministry of Information and Communication Technology
Request for Proposals (RFP)

SUBJECT: PILOT E-GOVERNANCE PLATFORM FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN SOMALILAND IN AN EFFORT TO DIGITALIZE MUNICIPAL FUNCTIONS AND SERVICES.
 

The UN Joint Programme on Local Governance and Decentralized Service Delivery in Somaliland (UN JPLG) is a five-year joint programme comprising of ILO, UNCDF, UNDP, UN-HABITAT and UNICEF. The Programme’s overall goal is “creating an enabling environment for improved service delivery and greater stability, through improved legal, policy and system frameworks – building the knowledge of those working in and with local governments.” JPLG commenced in April 2008 and has now entered its third phase (2018- 2023).

From the government front, in 2018, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MoICT) carried out government e-readiness assessment covering 43 public institutions.

The survey revealed that 98% of surveyed government institutions believe that internet is crucial for their work, as it is both reliable and connects efficiently to the public.

To capitalize the potential of the ICT in government, the Ministry is committed to digitize public service delivery and thus, introduced e-governance strategy 2020-2024. The strategy entails transforming public service delivery process from traditional way of doing it to a more efficient, faster and paperless systems guided by ICT.

The strategy also outlines phased action plan to digitize selected public services, of which many of them fall within the domain of local governments. These include, but not limited to marriage, death, divorce, birth, land registry, health, education, police, taxes.

Within the framework of JPLG, MoICT in partnership with UN-Habitat aims to advance e-government to local government levels – the level that’s closest to the communities, and to build on earlier success in automating tax administration systems. This will also capitalize the existing ICT infrastructure, expertise and various legal and regulatory frameworks introduced by MoICT. This support significantly transforms public service delivery of the local government and makes their services’ modern and tech oriented.

The MICT is selecting a solution/service provider for a pilot e-governance platform for selected local governments in Somaliland in an effort to digitalize municipal functions and services. Our objective is to select the vendor who most fully meets the requirements identified in this Request for Proposal (RFP). MICT may elect to award a contract pursuant to the RFP. Companies are invited to take part in this process and provide a proposal that satisfies MICT requirements.

The Firm will be working in close collaboration with Somaliland Ministry of ICT. They would be responsible for planning, analyzing, designing, implementing and testing for the  project which will include among others:

1. Property and Business Registration
2. Building Permits
3. Taxes (Property Residential taxes, Small Business and Land Taxes)
4. Waste Management
5. Payment Online, Mobile OTP API Integration
6. Mobile App iOS and Android to be linked to GovSomaliland.org for downloads.

The scope of the project will be within the selected five districts of Hargeisa, Burao, Borama, Berbera and Gabiley. The overall objective of this exercise is to modernize priority services of the local governments in Somaliland to deliver services equitably and efficiently. This exercise is also meant to enhance transparency and accountability within the service delivery process and foster confidence and trust between the public and the local governments. on top of delivering services more efficiently, the move will further strengthen own source revenue generation at the district level.

Vendors are requested to consider the following instructions when preparing their responses: 

• Vendor responses must be valid for the period specified in the advert.
• Vendors must be commercially bound to their response.
• Any statements made about the performance and specifications of the proposed solution will be considered to be true and will be incorporated into the final purchase contract. 
• Vendors must address all items specified in this RFP.  

All responses to this proposal must follow the structure given below:

1. Executive Summary
2. Company Profile (Describe your organization’s core businesses, products, services, markets, awards, etc.)
3. Similar Experience & Customer References
4. Requirements Understanding / Scope of Work (Please illustrate that you have understood our requirements.)
5. Vendor Eligibility Criteria (as per Part F of RFP)
6. Proposed Solution Description
7. Implementation Approach / Deliverables / Training Details
8. Post Implementation Support / SLA
9. Project Plan / Timelines
10. Project Management Approach (Please illustrate your project management approach in terms of proposed team structure, communication plan, escalation management, quality plan and any other relevant information)
11. Pricing Details (as per format in Part G of the RFP)

• Vendor is defined as an independent company registered in 'country name' or a consortium of partnership between a local 'country name' registered company and local or global services partner.

We encourage Somaliland owned companies to apply for the project or an international company.

Please provide the following details:

• • Legal Name:
  • Parent Company:
  • Corporate Headquarter Address:
  • Internet Address:
  • Vendor should have a valid registration license.
  • Vendor should have a valid tax clearance.
  • Vendor must submit his financial statement for the last 3 years.
  • In what business area has your company engaged?
  • How many years has your company been in business under its present name?
  • If you are a corporation or limited liability corporation, show state and date of incorporation.
  • Is there, or has there been in the last three years, any litigation or governmental or regulatory action pending or threatened against your organization that might affect your ability to provide stated products and services? State the status of any current or pending lawsuits.
     
• The business enterprise must currently be incorporated, or registered as a company (corporation, limited, partnership) and be able to demonstrate that it has been offering goods/services under the business name for a period not less than 5 years. Sole Proprietors/Independent Contractors must be able to demonstrate that they have been engaged in their business activity for not less than 5 years.
• Minimum amount of yearly turnover of the company/vendor during the last three years i.e., for 2020-11, 2021-12, 2022-13 should be at least $150,000.
•  The vendor should have the experience of providing hybrid of cloud & on premise-based solutions/services for at least 5 years.
• Vendor must have the experience of integrating the proposed e-government Platforms tools with other third-party applications such as QuickBooks, MS Project, PeopleSoft, SAP etc. for unidirectional / bidirectional communication as per requirement to automate the entire process. Please provide details with customer references to substantiate.
• Vendor providing remotely hosted / SaaS based offerings should host the solution in a Tier 4 data center and maintain a separate disaster recovery site, please provide details.

All prices quoted by the vendor must be fully itemized, in USD / $, and inclusive of all taxes and all expenses. MICT expects to contract with the vendor on a Fixed Price basis for all components of the supply. We expect the vendor to quote a fixed price for:

• Product
• Implementation services
• Customizations
• All software licenses for the vendor’s products
• All software licenses for third party products supplied by the Vendor
• Support fees for one (1) year commencing from date of go-live
   

The title of the email must indicate “Project Title”, please send your completed RFP response documents to the email
Procurement.mict@Sldgov.org
Soft copy by 8^th June, 2023, 3:30 PM (Somaliland Time).

Late RFP responses shall be rejected and no liability will be accepted for loss, late delivery or non-delivery, whatsoever.