RFP for Selection of an Independent Verification Agency for verification of Disbursement Linked Indicators under “Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion"

Assignment Title: Selection of an Independent Verification Agency (IVA) for verification of Disbursement Linked Indicators under “Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP)”

Background:

The Twelfth Plan projects, by 2017 the total labour force in India would comprise 502.4 million people. The country has a substantial challenge ahead as the Government reports that only 2.3 percent of the total workforce in India has undergone formal skill training, compared to 68 percent in the United Kingdom, 75 percent in Germany, 52 percent in the United States, 80 percent in Japan, and 96 percent in South Korea. In addition, the skills forecast study indicates that 298.25 million members of the current farm and nonfarm sector workforce will need to be skilled, re-skilled, and/or upskilled to increase labour productivity. Moreover more than 90% of the workforce is informally employed in India. Striking feature of India’s labour market is lower female workforce participation rate of only 31 percent. Lack of training infrastructure, inadequate trainers, availability of financial resources, un-employability of trained graduates etc. are other major hurdles in expanding the outreach of skilling in India.

The objective of this Independent Verification Agency (IVA) assignment is to:

a) Carry out an independent verification of achievement of the DLIs reported by MSDE for each disbursement claim under the Program, based on the Verification Protocol agreed between MSDE and the World Bank and

b) Prepare and submit independent and comprehensive Verification reports to MSDE, for DLI’s achievement reports for each disbursement claim prepared by MSDE in the form and substance acceptable to MSDE and the World Bank.

List of documents to be submitted along with EoI are:

a) Document (s) to demonstrate that the firm is in the business for the last 08 years (registrations/licenses etc.)

b) Details of Work Experience and Similar Assignments undertaken to support the shortlisting criteria accompanied by copies of contracts/completion or acceptance certificate(s);

c) Certificate from the statutory auditors/ Chartered Accountant certifying the turnover from consultancy business during the last three (03) financial years.

Eligibility Criteria

The Independent Verification Agency (IVA) shall be hired initially for a period of three (3) years, with extension of another three years, subject to satisfactory performance by the Consultants on annual basis in the first 3 years.

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) now invites eligible consulting firms (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest as Independent Verification Agency to support MSDE in implementing SANKALP and timely and quality verification of the outcomes under the project.

Interested consulting firms should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to undertake the mentioned assignment.

The shortlisting criteria are:

a) The firm should be in the business from last at-least eight years.

b) The firm should have an average annual turnover of INR 50 crore in the last three financial years. (2013-14; 2014-2015; 2015-16)

c) The firm should have experience in strategic recruitment of professionals at leadership and operational levels to ensure the availability of experts in the team required to carry out the activities.

d) The firm should have carried out similar assignments as independent verification agency or impact evaluations projects including quality and fiduciary assurance mechanisms to at least 3 large scale projects in the past five years for National/ State level government projects, preferably supported by bilateral or multi-lateral agencies.

Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form and should include firm’s demonstrated capacity to provide the required expertise. Expressions of interest must be delivered to the address below through registered post/speed post/ courier/ by Hand by 21^st November, 2017 till 1700 hrs.

Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship

Address: 2nd Floor, Annexe Building Shivaji Stadium,

ShaheedBhagat Singh Marg, Connaught Place,

New Delhi - 110001.

Attn: Director, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship

Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (“SANKALP”)

Tel: +91-11-23450828

E-mail: deepti.srivastava@nic.in

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