A. BACKGROUND 

The World Bank (WB) and the European Union (EU) has been implementing a hybrid Trust Fund aimed to support the efforts of the Government of Mongolia (GOM) to improve fiscal discipline, public financial management (PFM), and transparency and accountability processes for strengthened governance in Mongolia. 

This TF, through both Recipient Executed (RE) and Bank Executed (BE) interventions, serves two main purposes: The first one is to complement and expand the ongoing technical assistance the WB is providing through the Strengthening Fiscal and Financial Stability (SFFS) Project with a number of activities that are deemed critical to support Mongolia in achieving the objectives the country has agreed to in its Economic Recovery Plan (ERP) as well as the development partners’ support including the Economic Management Support Operation (EMSO) of the World Bank and the Extended Fund Facility of the IMF. The second purpose of this TF is to 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. 

Against this background, Component 2 of the TF complements the work already initiated under Component B of the SFFS Project and focuses 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 public financial management 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.

Under the project's objective of strengthening the government's reporting and transparency of fiscal and financial information, the Debt Management Division (DMD) of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has seen a realistic need to identify and sort through the variety of financial instruments and tools the government uses that impose a range of risks that may affect the budget and essentially the ability of the government to achieve its fiscal targets. Hence, it will be essential to assess the fiscal risks of such financial instruments and tools with contingent liability implications, so to address and manage their risk exposure in the budget. Identification of the risk level would entail an analysis of those instruments and quantifying the risks to measure their effect.

So far, the MOF has been employing a Senior Consultant to help advance the above-mentioned agenda on risk assessment and contingent liabilities from the perspective of policy, regulations and methodology. Going forward, the DMD of MOF also sees a need to employ further technical assistance in assessing debt sustainability of SOEs which have been grown to substantial sources of contingent liabilities.

B. OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT 

The main objective of this assignment is to assist the DMD in conducting debt sustainability analysis (DSA) in contingent liabilities by analyzing balance sheets and financial statistics of SOEs to project their interest coverage ratios over a 5-year horizon. 

C. SCOPE OF WORK

The Consultant will undertake the tasks including, but not limited to, the following: 

1. Review and analyze the national Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) documents;
2. Review regulations and other policy documents governing SOEs’ business activities;
3. Provide technical assistance in conducting the SOEs’ projection of the interest coverage ratios (i.e. the ratio of an SOE’s earnings over interest payments) over a 5-year horizon by analyzing their balance sheets;
4. Provide technical assistance to conducting a DSA of SOEs in Mongolia;
5. Collect and compile available information on balance sheets and financial statistics of SOEs which include assets, liabilities and ownership equity;
6. Create a database needed for conducting analyses on the balance sheets and other reports provided by the SOEs;
7. Identify the share of SOE debt and receivables held by companies at risk;
8. Analyze debt statistics of SOEs and estimate risk analysis indicators of government debt in statistical bulletin;
9. Provide written and oral translations as necessary and as requested by the Head of the DMD. 

D. DELIVERABLES

• Deliverables 1:  Brief notes on the key issues arising from the review of the i) national DSA documents, ii) regulations and policy documents governing SOEs’ business activities;
• Deliverables 2: A report on technical assistance provided in conducting the SOEs’ interest coverage ratio projections;
• Deliverables 3: A full report on technical assistance provided to conducting DSA of SOEs in Mongolia together with the final DSA report;
• Deliverables 4: A report on collected and compiled balance sheet and financial statistics information of SOEs;
• Deliverables 5: A database on SOEs balance sheets and other relevant reports for further analysis; and database on debt and receivables share of SOEs, which are at risk;
• Deliverables 6: SOEs debt statistics analysis and estimated risk analysis indicators of government debt; 
• Deliverables 7: Monthly progress reports on the tasks performed under the assignment together with other relevant reports and translation materials where performed.

E. CONSULTANT'S QUALIFICATIONS/ SELECTION CRITERIA

Education:  A suitable candidate should have an undergraduate degree in a relevant field: finance, banking or economics; corporate management; project management

Experience:  Incumbent should have 1-2 years of relevant experience in debt management, finance or other relevant field. Specific experience of working in financial institutions and central government agencies would be an advantage;

Language skills:  Fluent written and spoken skills in English and Mongolian;

Other skills: 

• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to function effectively and collaboratively in a team environment;
• Be proficient in PC-based applications such as Word, Excel and data management, and have excellent web research and navigation skills;

F. SUPERVISION AND REPORTING 

Consultant will report directly to the Head of the DMD while simultaneously reporting to the PIU Coordinator. The consultant will work on full-time basis during the period of the contract.

The DMD and PIU (SFFS) shall evaluate the consultants' performance on an output basis and approve of invoices for delivered outputs. 

The Consultant must prepare and submit monthly and quarterly 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 DMD and the PIU (SFFS).

G. CONTRACT DURATION 

The consultancy assignment is expected to commence on February, 2022 with the expected duration of 12 months.  

H. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

The Ministry of Finance (DMD) will provide office space and will work with the DMD staff on a day-to-day basis. The consultant shall be provided with all necessary data and information to perform the many tasks detailed in these TORs. The consultant is expected to communicate and coordinate his/her work with international consultants who might be supporting the implementation of key activities under the sub-component. 

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