EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS – CONSULTANCY ANNOUNCEMENT FOR PROVIDING FISCAL AND CREDIT CAPACITIES ASSESSMENT SUPPORT SERVICES TO SELECTED LOCAL SELF- GOVERNMENT UNITS

USAID’s Strengthening Resource Mobilization Activity

Consultant’s Terms of Reference

for providing Fiscal and Credit Capacities Assessment Support Services

to selected Local Self- Government Units

1. Project Background

North Macedonia aspires to be prosperous, self-reliant, and inclusive democratic society, whereas USAID Strengthening Resource Mobilization Activity (here and after Project) will assist Macedonia’s government institutions to raise and independently manage the resources necessary to fund services demanded by its citizens and private sector. The USAID’s Project provides technical assistance (TA) focusing on measurably increasing local governments’ own-source revenues, securing external funding, improving budget execution rates (in compliance with the Government of North Macedonia’s budgeting and reporting requirements), fostering private sector involvement, and enhancing transparency and accountability.

While working directly with Projects partner municipalities, the USAID’s Project enhances municipal capacities by helping them to understand and strategically plan their fiscal or credit capacities as crucial elements in developing feasible project ideas for securing external fundings in various forms, including grants, loans, PPP, etc. This support empowers municipalities to fund and finance capital projects while maintaining strong fiscal discipline and ensuring long-term financial sustainability.

The consultant’s technical assistance should provide support to the second cohort partner LSGUs as per the Work Plan under the Objective 2: Grater external funding accessed by the municipalities and should be aligned with the tailor-made technical assistance packages provided to the 24 second cohort partner LSGUs.

2. Objective and Scope of Engagement

The Project is seeking a consultant to provide short term technical assistance with the assignment of enhancing the capacities of the second cohort partner municipalities to assess their fiscal and credit capacities in line with the positive legal regulations. Through a one-day workshop for the municipal employees within the finance sector and delivery Guide for the assessment of the fiscal and credit capacities of the municipalities, they should understand and learn to conduct an assessment of the fiscal and/or credit capacity of the municipality for the purpose of proper planning of multiannual projects and activities, especially in case of using loans or commercial bank credits.

All 24 municipalities from the second cohort will be invited to participate and support will be provided to those who express interest.

3. Deliverables 

The consultant will provide the following outputs and deliverables:

• Developed a Guide for the assessment of fiscal and credit capacities of the Local Self-government units in North Macedonia. The Guide should provide practical tools and steps for conducting assessment of fiscal and credit capacities of the municipalities, based on the positive legal regulations in North Macedonia, including identification, management and mitigation of fiscal risks. The Guide should be concise (around 10 pages), user-friendly and easy to navigate, and understand. The Guide will be developed in Macedonian language.
• Developed training materials and delivered one-day in-person workshop on assessment of fiscal and credit capacities of the Local Self-government units in North Macedonia (comprising a workshop concept, agenda, PPPs, training materials, etc.). The materials should be shared with project representatives at least 5 days prior to the respective training session. Training materials will be developed in Macedonian language.
• Submit a report of the one-day workshop to the project including the results of the ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of the capacities of the participants for assessment of fiscal and credit capacities of the Local Self-government units. The report should be submitted to the project within 5 working days after the workshop in Macedonian language.

4. Period of execution of activities

The engagement will be executed in the period of November 30th, 2023 – December 30th, 2023. The overall consultancy engagement will be up to 5 working days.

5. Criteria and qualifications

Academic qualifications:

• University degree in Finance, Economics, Management, Business Development, Business Training and Consulting. A master’s degree or PhD will be considered as an advantage.

Professional experience:

• At least five (5) years of professional experience in the relevant scope of work
• Excellent knowledge of the positive legal framework and regulations of the North Macedonia concerning the fiscal and the credit capacities of the public institutions.
• Practical experience in capacity building activities (training, workshop, mentorship) of public administration.

Language:

• Excellent knowledge of Macedonian and English language.

Other critieria:

• Proven ability to work within tight schedule and deliver the services within the given time frame.
• Public servants are not eligible to apply.

Intellectual property: All works created under this assignment, including creations, inventions, ideas, designs, copyrightable materials, trademarks, and other technology and rights, shall be works made for hire. The consultant is not allowed to publish any part of the deliverables.

It is envisaged that only (individual) consultants will be eligible to apply and to be contracted to perform the activities listed in this SoW.

6. Application procedure

In order to be considered the interested applicant needs to submit the following documents:

• Cover letter
• CV
• Comparable reference list with three similar assignments
• Proposed gross daily rate in MKD inclusive of all costs.

The requested documents should be submitted on the following e-mail address: info@ideasdepo.mk, no later than November 17, 2023, by 16:00 PM.

Incomplete applications will not be considered for evaluation.