1. Introduction Annex C. Sample ToR for Independent Procurement Review TERMS OF REFERENCE INDEPENDENT PROCUREMENT REVIEW (IPR) 1.1. The procurement team of the World Bank requires an independent review of the procurement and contracting that have been undertaken in [insert country] for [insert project(s)]. 1.2. The review will be carried out at the headquarters of the Implementing Agencies for each of the projects. 1.3. Under the Bank s Procurement Regulations for Borrowers, the Bank is expected to assure itself that procurement and contracting for Bank projects is carried out in accordance with the Legal Agreement (LA). Only contracts procured following such procedures are eligible for financing using the proceeds of the Bank s loan. 1.4. To this end, the Procurement Regulations for Borrowers provide for the following review procedures: 1.4.1. For those contracts specified in the Procurement Plan as subject to Prior Review, and for any procurement that involves the use of Best and Final Offer, negotiations (for competitive procurement processes for goods, works and non-consulting services), competitive dialogue, and sustainable procurement, the Bank prior reviews the following documents: 1.4.1.1. The GPN and SPN. 1.4.1.2. If prequalification/initial selection is used, the invitation to prequalify/be initially selected, the prequalification/initial selection document, and the prequalification/ initial selection evaluation report. For Consulting Services, the Request for Expressions of Interest, including the complete TOR, and the Shortlist assessment report. 1.4.1.3. The bidding/request for proposals documents, and any amendments to them. 1.4.1.4. The first request by the Borrower to Bidders/Proposers to extend the Bid/Proposal validity period, if it is longer than four (4) weeks, and all subsequent requests for extension, irrespective of the period. 1.4.1.5. The Bid/Proposal evaluation report and recommendations for contract award, including documents demonstrating that any procurement complaints have been addressed to the satisfaction of the Bank. In twoenvelope or multistage selection processes, the Bid/Proposal evaluation report for each envelope/stage before proceeding to the next stage of the procurement process. 1.4.1.6. All requests for cancellation of a procurement process and/or rebidding/reinvitation of proposals.
1.4.1.7. A change the borrower s contract award recommendation arising from analysis of a complaint after the Bank s prior review and no-objection. 1.4.1.8. The minutes of negotiations and the draft contract initialed by both parties, if the procurement process involves negotiations between the Borrower and Bidder/Proposer/Consultant. 1.4.1.9. If requested by the Bank, the Contract Management Plan, including the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs); also, if requested by the Bank, ongoing reports of progress based on the agreed KPIs. 1.4.2. For all other contracts, the Bank reviews contracts and award decisions after the award of the contract (on the basis of documents provided to the Bank before the first withdrawal or replenishment application in respect of the contract). This is referred to as Post Review. 1.4.3. For contracts on account of which disbursements are to be made on the basis of Statements of Expenditure (SOEs), the Bank reviews most of these contracts and their award decisions ex-post, in the field during implementation support missions. 1.5. To facilitate compliance by Borrowers and review by the Bank, the Bank requires the use of its Standard Procurement Documents (SPDs). Nevertheless, the review of procurement is a very staff-intensive activity and often requires specialist procurement staff. It gives a significant degree of responsibility and discretion to staff, but does not have a built-in system for routinely monitoring the quality, consistency, and timeliness of the reviews. 1.6. Independent Procurement Review (IPR) serves an important role in the Bank s general review responsibility by: Objectives 1.6.1. contributing to the Bank s ability to maintain its fiduciary responsibilities with regard to the procurement function; 1.6.2. identifying weaknesses and related risks in both the Borrower s and the Bank s procedures with regard to the selected projects, recommending corrective action, and recording findings and recommendations in PRAMS to monitor implementation of corrective actions; 1.6.3. identifying systemic weaknesses in countries and providing recommendations for corrective action; 1.6.4. contributing to the improvement of project implementation and risk management; 1.6.5. reminding Bank management, staff, and Borrowers of the importance of their respective fiduciary responsibilities; and 1.6.6. creating a deterrent to negligence in procurement management, decision making, and oversight, to ensure that an environment conducive to fraudulent and corrupt practices is not allowed to develop and that any such practices are brought to light and eliminated.
1.1. The objective of the IPR is to review the procurement, contracting, and implementation processes that have been followed for contracts in the projects to confirm consistency with the LA. 1.2. The purpose of the IPR is to: 1.2.1. verify that the procurement and contracting processes have been followed; 1.2.2. perform an independent review and qualitative analysis of the Bank s procurement supervision; 1.2.3. verify technical compliance, physical completion, and achievement of value for money in each contract; and 1.2.4. identify additional risks and mitigation measures to improve risk management and address risks more effectively. 1.3. To this end, the consultant will: 1.3.1. determine whether the procurement and contracting processes were carried out in accordance with the LA and achieved value for money; 1.3.2. determine to the extent possible whether identified noncompliance with the LA, inappropriate practices, or questionable decisions/actions may have been related to corrupt practices; 1.3.3. evaluate the quality, timeliness, and reliability of the Bank s reviews and checks in ensuring that procurement, contracting, and disbursement are being carried out in accordance with the LA; and 1.3.4. in light of any deficiencies, identify ways of improving the procurement and contracting process, identify associated risks, and propose risk mitigation measures. Scope of the IPR 1.1. The IPR will cover a sample of selected contracts financed from the proceeds of the loans (or credits) for the following investment projects: Project name Rationale for selection Loan no. Loan amount (in US$ million) Loan funds disbursed until [date of review] (in US$ million) List projects that would be covered by the review preferably at least one per sector, to have a representative sample 1.2. The name of the implementing agency will be given to the selected auditor at least two weeks before s/he departs for the country where the IPR is required, to enable the collection of all the relevant materials before work in the field begins.
1.3. The consultant should conduct a thorough review of the sample of contracts that have been selected, making visits to project sites and physical inspections of the goods and works procured as needed. Where appropriate, prices and quality should also be compared with similar contracts financed by agencies in the country and the region and verified against international market prices for the items in question. 1.4. To cover systematically the various objectives and scope defined in the TORs, the review should focus on four main areas: 1.4.1. compliance of the procurement procedures, process, documents, and decisions with the LA; 1.4.2. timeliness of the procurement/contracting process and decisions, including the Bank s reviews; 1.4.3. compliance of the delivered goods and completed works and services with the requirements and specifications defined in the contract; and 1.4.4. value for money. 2. Methodology 2.1. The IPR should follow three broad phases: 2.1.1. Design of the scope and program of the review, defining the essential information requirements and contacts. 2.1.2. Field work. 2.1.3. Preparation of the IPR Report following discussions of the preliminary report with the Bank (and the Borrower if the Bank so decides). 2.2. If the subject of the IPR involves a very large number of contracts, a preliminary decision on appropriate sampling, consistent with the IPR s scope and objectives, should be agreed upon by the Bank and documented. 2.3. In the design of the IPR, the consultant should use standard auditing methodologies. The consultant is encouraged to give consideration to the notes on procurement sampling set out in the attached Note on Sampling as broad guidelines for the methodology. If the consultant intends to introduce variations or substantial changes to these broad guidelines, that intention should be indicated in the technical proposal and agreed upon by the Bank. 2.4. The consultant should perform his/her duties in the field with full respect for and communication with officials of the Borrower. 3. IPR Report 3.1. On completing the review, and before completing the IPR Report, the consultant should present his/her initial findings to the Bank in the form of a Preliminary IPR Summary. 3.2. The IPR Report should focus on the IPR findings and recommendations without going into details of what transpired during the review. Details of the review methodology and
procedures, evidence substantiating the review findings, and elaboration on the recommendations should be covered in the Annexes. 3.3. Except as otherwise justified by the consultant, the report should be structured as follows: 3.3.1. Summary of findings and recommendations 3.3.2. Outline of the IPR 3.3.2.1. Objectives and TORs 3.3.2.2. Scope, approach, and review sample 3.3.3. Findings on: 3.3.3.1. Specific contracts 3.3.3.2. Specific projects/agencies 3.3.3.3. Country issues 3.3.3.4. Bank s actions 3.3.3.5. General issues 3.3.3.6. Identified risks 3.3.4. Recommendations (if any), including proposed risk mitigation measures for each identified risk 3.3.5. ANNEXES 3.3.5.1. 1. Terms of Reference 3.3.5.2. 2. Review Methodology 3.3.5.3. 3. IPR Data (by contract and by project) - details of all findings of the review with evidence substantiating the findings. - tables and graphs illustrating the detailed analysis carried out during the review. 3.4. The Bank should review the Preliminary IPR Summary and the draft IPR Report and give the consultant a set of comments addressing all of the findings and recommendations. The consultant must not be required or expected to change his/her report to reflect the Bank s comments. If there is disagreement between the Bank and the consultant, the consultant should retain his/her findings and recommendations, but must incorporate the Bank s position, verbatim, in the report, making it clear that this is the Bank s position on the issue. The primary output of the review will be the final IPR Report, which will be the sole responsibility of the consultant and will represent the opinions of the consultant. 3.5. All reports will be in English. 4. Time Schedule
4.1. All IPR work would take place in the country identified in section 1 above with each of the projects executing agencies and other entities indicated to the consultant at contract negotiations. The consultant will select the contract sample after two or three days of work in the executing agency. 4.2. The documents and information listed in Attachment 3 will be available with the particular executing agency. The consultant will then carry out a detailed review of the procurement process and documentation for all IPR sample contracts, verification of technical compliance, physical verification of goods and works, cost analysis, and, where appropriate, comparison of prices with international/local price comparators. This activity may take one to two weeks. The activity should include a review of the Bank s process and decision making in the supervision review of the procurement and contracts. The consultant may contact the liaison person at Headquarters in writing to seek information not available in the field. The Bank will make every effort to respond to the inquiry promptly. At the end of this stage, the consultant should have a list of outstanding issues to present to the Bank together with the preliminary findings. 4.3. The draft final report will be presented to the Bank after the Bank has given an opinion in writing on the preliminary findings. Within two weeks after receiving the Bank s comments, the consultant will submit the Final IPR Report to the Bank. Depending on the scope of the work undertaken, the IPR should be completed within four to six weeks of the Bank s instructions to proceed with the IPR. 5. Staffing 5.1. The team will comprise the Team Leader (e.g., Senior Procurement staff from the office of the Accredited Practice Manager) and the procurement consultant (firm or individuals hired by the Bank for this task), working in close coordination with procurement staff assigned to individual projects. 5.2. The procurement consultant performing the IPR should have wide experience in public procurement under Bank-financed projects. The Bank will review and clear the curriculum vitae of the person(s) who will lead the assignment and be chiefly responsible for the field work before the commencement of the IPR, and no change in staffing will be made without the Bank s prior concurrence.
6. Data, Documents, Services, and Facilities 6.1. The consultant should aim to give the executing agency advance notice of the information and documents he/she will require. 6.2. The Bank will nominate a Bank contact to facilitate the work of the consultant. The Bank contact person will be the main means of communication among the consultant, the Bank, and the executing agency. 6.3. The Bank contact at Headquarters will be: [insert name] [insert phone] [insert e-mail address]