ICAI launches procurement exercise for review of DFID contractors
14 Sep 2012
What will we look at?
In this study, we want to assess to what extent DFID is achieving impact, value for money and sustainability in its use of contractors to deliver programmes. The review will involve a literature review and interviews with DFID staff, experts and UK stakeholders, with the potential to supplement this with a survey of DFID staff and other stakeholders.
We will also use a sample of case studies to assess how DFID determines the need to use contractors, selects them, negotiates terms and oversees their work. We will determine what added value contractors bring that DFID cannot itself provide and whether and, if so, how this contributes to wider development outcomes and to sustainability through the build-up of local expertise. One of the case studies will involve a visit to the country where the contracted work is being carried out.
Terms of reference
Further details on the scope of this study can be found in the terms of reference here.
Conflict of interest
Given that we are investigating DFID’s use of contractors, a conflict of interest would arise if a consultancy firm that has provided services to DFID were to carry out the review. This would be the case for three members of our consortium (KPMG, Agulhas Applied Knowledge and the Swedish Institute for Public Administration) and the fourth member, the Center for Effective Global Action, does not carry out this type of work. We are, therefore, looking for another provider to carry out this study.
Bids
If you would like to submit a bid, please set out the experience that you would bring to this project, as well as demonstrate that you do not have a conflict of interest (including showing that you have not been in receipt of UK Official Development Assistance for at least the past five years). In your proposal for carrying out this work please also include indications of cost, the number of days, team members and planned approach.
There is no template for the bid document but we would welcome concise and clear submissions.
Timing
We envisage that this work will be carried out by a small team during the autumn, with the final report published in the first quarter of 2013.
The deadline for submitting bids is Friday 5th October. After that, we will examine bids and carry out any necessary interviews in the week commencing 15th October.
Contact
Please send all bids and any questions about this procurement exercise to Alexandra Cran-McGreehin, ICAI Programme Manager (a-cran-mcgreehin@icai.independent.gov.uk; 020 7270 6716).