A.  BACKGROUND

The World Bank (WB) and the European Union (EU) agreed to implement a new hybrid Trust Fund (TF)-financed Strengthening Governance in Mongolia (SGM) project aimed to support the efforts of the Government of Mongolia (GOM) to improve fiscal discipline, public financial management (PFM), as well as transparency and accountability processes for strengthened governance in Mongolia. 

This new TF, through both Recipient Executed (RE) and Bank Executed (BE) interventions, will serve two main purposes. Firstly, it will complement and expand the ongoing technical assistance the WB is providing through the Strengthening Fiscal and Financial Stability (SFFS) Project. Secondly, this TF will support the GOM in advancing the current efforts toward increasing transparency, participation and accountability in fiscal matters as well as in strengthening its capacity to deal with non-technical drivers of the reform process that prevent state agencies from implementing policies and regulations as intended. 

The Component 2 of the TF will focus primarily on supporting the specific needs of the GOM to establish sound fiscal discipline, to improve expenditure management by strengthening the budget credibility, to establish the foundations for medium-term budgeting, and to re-orient public investment to strategic projects linked to the diversification of the economy. Five priority areas will constitute the core of the component: (i) development and implementation of a PFM reform plan and inter-agency coordination; (ii) strengthening budget preparation and execution towards results-based medium-term budgeting; (iii) improving budget reporting and transparency by increasing the comprehensiveness of fiscal and financial information and reporting; (iv) improving the management of contingent liabilities, through improving the existing governance framework for recognizing, managing, and disclosing contingent liabilities; and (v) strengthening public investment management, through the development and implementation of mechanisms for prioritizing capital project proposals and cost-benefit analysis.

The Citizen’s Budget for the consolidated budget in Mongolia was first-ever developed in 2018 with the aim to increase the citizens’ knowledge about the state budget, enable citizens to monitor and participate in the budgeting process, and improve budget transparency by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) initiative and with the support of the U.S. Department of Treasury. 

Since 2019 the SGM project supported the production of the Citizen’s Budget for both the proposed and approved budgets with the aim to explain the budget to the citizens in a transparent and easy-to-understand format using dialogues between family members and representatives of functional sectors, such as health, education and environmental protection etc. The booklets also included information on state fiscal policy, macro-economic projections, budget revenue sources, government loans and grants as well as information on government debt. Detailed expenditure information is provided for each functional sector. Also, comprehensive information is included about government services provided to children, mothers, senior citizens, disabled citizens, civil servants and herders. Starting from 2019, additional Citizen’s Budget booklets were developed to inform quarterly budget executions.

During fiscal years 2021 and 2022, the Citizen’s budget booklets were produced at the time of submission of the budget proposal to the Parliament and were published on the MOF website and the fiscal transparency websites as e-booklets. 

With the support of the SGM project, in February 2021 an interactive, web-based Citizen’s Budget was partially launched. The Citizen’s budget menu needs further modifications due to several structural changes that are to be made as per the 2022 Budget law. In addition, to receive suggestions from public and to facilitate participation during the budget cycle, additional development of the poll feature is needed. In this regard, the Fiscal Policy and Planning Department (FPPD) of the MOF plans to engage with a local consultant to support the web-development going forward. Furthermore, budget documents prepared and published in 2022 will be evaluated in the next round of the Open Budget survey round. Therefore special attention is needed during the year with the support of the local consultant. 

B. OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT 

The main objective of this assignment is to (i) develop poll menu to enable year-round discussions comments by citizen and increasing citizen participation in and oversight of the budget process; (ii) provide support in bug fix.

C. SCOPE OF WORK 

The Consultant will undertake the following tasks:

Task 1. Develop a poll menu that enables to discuss, comment on the budget proposal, approved budget, and submit suggestions on the budget:

1. Able to select to start and end dates from the calendar 
2. Include Poll name field, purpose, and description field 
3. Capable of creating multiple choice and textual responses 
4. Possibility to attach files /PNG, JPG, PDF/
5. Able to create and submit more than one survey
6. Able to delete, edit, or deactivate and activate the survey
7. Displaying the survey list
8. Display all survey responses by list /date, answers/
9. Able to download results in an excel worksheet. 

Task 2. Bug fix:

1. Remove unnecessary fields from Excel import file.
2. Remove or hide budget expenditure database menu
3. Fix the sequence of retrieving budget data from the excel template. The default year shall be the latest updated year.
4. Renew budget cycle date, and description according to the budget law.
5. Fix the duplicated figures in budget revenue data. 
6. Fix errors that could not updated in Health execution budget section
7. Make change into excel template according to budget structure change. 

D. DELIVERABLES

1. Design, development and delivery of a fully tested new feature to the website including the functionalities specified above.
2. Report on bug fix to the Ministry of Finance together with all the related documents;

E. CONSULTANT’S QUALIFICATIONS/ SELECTION CRITERIA

Education: A suitable candidate should have a Bachelor degree in relevant field: Information Technology, web developer or relevant discipline;

Experience: Candidate should have at least 5 years of relevant professional experience of working on software development; 

• Proficiency in HTML, CSS, Oracle, Mysql, Angular, Javascript.
• Ability to take a project from scoping requirements through actual launch of the project
• Language skills: Fluent written and spoken skills in Mongolian;

Other skills: 

• Excellent analytical, organizational, communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to function effectively and collaboratively in a team environment; 
• Ability to multi-task and meet tight deadlines;
• Ability to work with multidisciplinary teams and institutions;
• Responsible and flexible attitude and capacity to manage a variety of tasks with minimal supervision;
• Be able to work overtime if required.

F. SUPERVISION AND REPORTING

• The consultant will report directly to the Head of the Budget Consolidation Division (BCD) of Fiscal Policy and Planning Department (FPPD) and will work closely with the officials of the Treasury Department of the MOF. The Head of the BCD will communicate regularly with the consultant to review progress of the relevant tasks to resolve any outstanding issues. 
• The consultant will also work closely with the other consultants, the coordinating consultant covering the budget transparency agenda under the project, as well as relevant officials of line ministries, central and local budget entities.
• The BCD and PIU (SFFSP and SGMP) shall evaluate the consultants’ performance on an output basis and approve of invoices for delivered outputs. 
• The Consultant must prepare and submit monthly reports detailing achievements and when appropriate also include details of the impediments in the execution of the entire assignment as requested and on time. 
• All reports shall be prepared in both English and Mongolian, in electronic and hard format, which shall be submitted to the BCD and the PIU (SFFSP and SGMP).
• All information provided to the consultant will be regarded as confidential and information will not be shared with any outside individuals or organizations without prior agreement by the Client.

G. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

The client will provide an office space, assign the officials to accept deliverables stated in the contract and provide all necessary materials required for undertaking the assignment. The consultant shall bring his/her own computer/laptop.

H. CONTRACT DURATION AND PAYMENT CONDITION

The assignment is expected to commence in January 2022. The total duration of the consultancy service rendered is estimated to be two (2) months.  

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