Technical Specifications Is Official
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Note: Please, be aware that only Romanian version of these Technical Specifications is official. The translation from Romanian into English was done by the Implementing Authority to facilitate a wider competition within the tender. Technical Specifications 1. General information .............................................................................................................................................3 1.1. Contracting Authority ...................................................... 3 1.2. Current state of affairs in the relevant sector ................... 3 1.3 Related programmes in the sector:.................................... 5 2. OBJECTIVE, PURPOSE & EXPECTED RESULTS..............................................................................................6 2.1. General objective ............................................................. 6 2.2. Purpose/ Specific objectives ............................................ 7 2.3 Results to be achieved by the Consultant ...................... 8 3. ASSUMPTIONS AND RISKS.................................................................................................................................8 3.1. Assumptions underlying the project intervention ............ 8 3.2. Risks................................................................................. 9 4. SCOPE OF THE WORK ........................................................................................................................................9 4.1. General............................................................................. 9 4.2. Specific activities ........................................................... 12 Project management.............................................................. 14 5. LOGISTICS AND PLANNING..............................................................................................................................16 5.1. Location ......................................................................... 16 5.2. Commencement date & Period of execution.................. 16 6. Requirements......................................................................................................................................................16 6.1. Personnel........................................................................ 16 6.2. Office accommodation................................................... 18 6.3. Facilities to be provided by the Consultant.................... 18 6.4. Equipment...................................................................... 19 6.5. Incidental expenditures .................................................. 19 6.6. Expenditures verification ............................................... 19 7. REPORTING ........................................................................................................................................................19 7.1. Reporting Requirements................................................. 19 Submission & approval of progress reports .......................... 20 8. Monitoring and evaluation.................................................................................................................................20 8.1. Definition of indicators .................................................. 20 Special requirements............................................................. 22 1. General information 1.1. Contracting Authority Contracting Authority: Ministry of Economy and Finance – Central Finance and Contracting Unit Implementing Authority: Ministry of Economy and Finance – Authority for Coordination of Structural Instruments Beneficiary Institution: Caras-Severin County Council 1.2. Current state of affairs in the relevant sector The Evaluation Facility is one of the tools of the Authority for Coordination of Structural Instruments within the Ministry of Economy and Finance aiming at increasing the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of policies and strategies, as well as of programmes/projects funded from public funds (local and central budgets). The Evaluation Facility provides the Romanian public bodies with financial and technical resources for conducting evaluation activities of public interventions that are not funded by the EU. The provided support includes: • Counselling and technical assistance to decision makers and public officials during the whole life-cycle of an evaluation project: elaboration of technical specifications, assistance in tendering procedure, contracting the provider of the evaluation services, monitoring and quality assurance of the evaluation exercise, as well as in preparation of implementation of the evaluation’s recommendations; • Funds for financing the consultancy in the field of evaluation (covering the costs of the evaluation services). The Evaluation Facility also contributes to the increase of the local capacity of the supply side of evaluation by supporting the know-how transfer from high calibre international evaluation experts to local consultants. The local Public Administration is currently undergoing a wide strategic planning process, at all levels (communes, towns, county councils). Within this process, socio- economic development strategies are under elaboration and/or update. Subject of this evaluation is The county strategy concerning the Speeding Up of the Development of Community Public Utility Services within Caraş-Severin County. This refers to the existing community public utility services at the level of 69 communes and 6 towns within Caras-Severin County, under the coordination of the Caras-Severin county council, concerning the monitoring, coordination and implementation of local strategies, as well as the related implementation plans. The local strategies will be implemented in cooperation with the involved local public administration authorities. The Strategy has been elaborated on the basis of the general objectives that are specific to each service, according to the provisions of the Accession treaty and the national and regional strategic documents: the Regional Action Plan for Environment of the West Region, the Regional Plan for Waste Management of the West Region, which result from the negotiations on the 22 Chapter – Environment for Caras Severin County -, that has been elaborated by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development on the basis of the data provided by the 69 communes and 6 towns. The strategy is structured on the 5 fields of public utility community services (SCUP) and comprises the analysis of the current situation of services’ structure, the management of public utilities community services, the strategy on speeding up the SCUP development on the 5 fields, the main objectives of the strategy, together with the forecasted financing sources until 2013, mostly public investment, measures that need to be undertaken at local level for implementing local strategies, as well as monitoring the county strategy. The county strategy for speeding up the development the public utilities community services for Caras Severin county has been finalised and approved in February 2007 and is currently under implementation. The programming of measures/ projects proposed under the strategy has been made in accordance with the deadlines defined within Romania’s EU Accession Treaty. The analysis of the funds needed for the proposed measures/ projects for each community and service type is based on feasibility studies, that are elaborated and approved by the local public administration authorities. Caras Severin County Council, through the Department for Monitoring the Public Utilities has the task to monitor, coordinate and implement the county strategy. In this stage, there is the need for an independent opinion on the County Council’s priorities, in order to most efficiently allocate existing resources, taking into account the effectiveness and sustainability of the interventions included in the strategy, in the context of socio- economic changes that have taken place. Currently, the evaluation capacity is extremely limited in Romania, even if it is of outmost importance for a sound financial management – this issue is included in the financial Community acquis (Chapter 28) – and for the participation in EU financed programmes through the pre-accession or structural instruments, that foresee the need for ex-ante, interim and ex-post evaluations. The evaluation process needs robust professional skills and standards, both for evaluation managers (demand) as well as for the consultants (supply). Consequently, the evaluation needs to be requested and provided in a professional way by persons with relevant skills and expertise, including the skills to „understand” both „sides” of the evaluation. Professionalism is a crucial factor in ensuring credibility and in demonstrating independence and impartiality of evaluation towards the different and sometimes the very strong interests related to a programme or to a public policy. Caras Severin County Council is the local public administration authority, which has been set up in 1992 in order to coordinate the activity of communes’, towns’ and municipalities’ councils, for carrying out public services of interest at county level, and it functions according to the Law nr.215/2001 of local public administration (re-published in the Official Journal, nr.123, of 20-02-2007). Its main tasks are following: a. Tasks concerning the organisation and functioning of the specialised departments of the county council, of the public institutions