TOR: CONSULTING SERVICES FOR DEVELOPMENT OF WEB-BASED ADMISSION AND ELECTRONIC REGISTER MODULES IN EMIS (EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM)

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TERMS OF REFERENCE

Consulting services for development of web-based
Admission and Electronic Register Modules in EMIS (Educational Management Information System)

CONTENT

1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1.1. Partner country
Republic of Moldova

1.2. Contracting Authority
EC PRO DIDACTICA

1.3. Beneficiary of the new system:
Ministry of Education, Culture and Research

1.4. Background
Education plays a key role in creating conditions for sustainable human development and building a knowledge-based society. The success of an individual depends on one’s ability to adapt to change and life-long learning, and the educational system must provide an appropriate environment for the development of these capacities. The key factor to achieve these goals is teachers’ professional development.
Austrian Development Agency (ADA) is supporting the Republic of Moldova to overcome these long-lasting problems, through the implementation of the ”Digital skills for employment in modern economy” project.
In order to boost digital skills for employment in the modern economy, the project will be implemented throughout a 3-year period and result in the following 4 outputs:
Output 1: Digital skills are acknowledged and continuously supported by vocational education and training (VET) institutions at strategic level as part of teaching and organizational culture.
Activities to achieve this expected output will include Capacity development of VET institutions’ manager of 6 beneficiary institutions through training, coaching visits and consultation in the process of IT infrastructure procurement, IT management systems development and maintenance; design of modern spaces.
Output 2: VET teachers and instructors have better digital skills for an efficient teaching, learning, assessment and class management.
Activities to achieve this expected output will include: Develop, include in the Excellence Center in IT (CEITI) in-service training offer and implement ToT programs, mentoring program, digital competence training program for teachers; organize one study visit.
Output 3: Digital content for VET trades and specialties is developed and open education resources are increasingly used in teaching, learning and assessment.
Activities to achieve this expected output will include: Developing guidelines on implementation of curricula from ICT integration perspective, developing digital content for 3 trades and specialties; implementing training programs on the development of digital content and copyrights and OER promotional campaign;
Output 4: Modern learning spaces created to foster the integration of ICT in the education process as well as the student centred learning.
Activities to achieve this expected output will include: Procurement of modern digital devices in 5 VET institutions and CEITI; organizing training on modern teaching methods using spaces and IT equipment; organizing 6 online and offline network meetings for teachers

1.5. Current situation in the sector
The increasing pace of changes in society, job market (growing ICT-sector, more engineers needed and data analysts, digital skills a key competence for 21st century job) and in the technological landscape (IoT, AI, big data) puts a pressure on educational systems around the world. The Republic of Moldova, as other countries, faces an increasing ICT skills gap and a low level of digital literacy. These drawbacks caused by the underuse of the ICT advantages, prevent many citizens from participating in the ICT-based society and economy. A large part of the population does not have sufficient knowledge and digital skills throughout their lives which can also reduce their access to public and social services, that will be increasingly available online, as well as will hinder Moldova’s opportunity to participate in the global digital economy. This can be changed only via the education system and by providing tailored training programs for teachers.
In the educational system of the Republic of Moldova was implemented the Educational Management Information System (EMIS) since 2016. EMIS includes modules for different educational levels: Preschool, Primary, Secondary, High School Education and VET.
The main goal of EMIS is to strengthen the quality and transparency degree of information about educational reforms in the Republic of Moldova by opening access to open data. It helps to create a favorable environment for social responsibility in the education sector and encouraging citizens to supervise the education services and the impact of ongoing reforms in Republic of Moldova. EMIS provides the local government with the relevant information for effective management of educational institutions. The veracity of EMIS data is ensured by the system operators which are trained according to the established standards.
EMIS was developed to monitor school abandonment and to collect the data about students, employees and institutions involved in pre-university education. Subsequently, the MECC decided to improve EMIS and expand the areas in which it is used to obtain complex, up-to-date information with a minimum degree of error. The technical platform of the EMIS is Oracle Database and Oracle Application Express as a development tool. All EMIS reports are made as APEX Interactive Reports (IR) and the MECC is satisfied with the platform. So, in the system were developed the Module for General Education which includes: Preschool, Primary and Secondary Education, VET. Integrating Modules for All Stages learning allow us to obtain a unique data system, based on which we can better analyze the student’s educational path. The EMIS has an open data interface „https://www.sime.md” for dissemination and interactive visualization of educational data.
Despite of the progress at a policy level (digital standards for general education teachers, strategies, investments in infrastructure and curriculum development for IT specialties (VET and general education), the educational system in the Republic of Moldova needs the continuous development and improvement of existent management processes, teaching and learning in institutions, including VET institutions.

Currently, in Republic of Moldova the most important National Informational Systems for Educational Management are:
⇒ Informational System for study documents personalization (SIPAS) (implemented in 2016)
⇒ Automated Data Processing System (SAPD) (implemented in 2017)
⇒ Portal SIME (implemented in 2017)
⇒ SIME General Education Module (implemented in 2017)
⇒ SIME Preschool Education Module (implemented in 2018)
⇒ Dual VET (implemented in 2019)
⇒ National Qualifications Register (NQR) (implemented in 2019)
⇒ SIME VET Module (implemented in 2020)
⇒ Development of the module SIME General Education with the integration of Electronic Register (implemented in 2020)
In August, 2020 in the Official Monitor was published the Government Decision regarding the approval of the Concept of Educational Management System (EMIS). Based on it was created the network between the National Systems for Education and Educational Management Informational System.
Module VET (vocational education and training module) represents an informational system for development of functionalities of educational management in VET institutions: professional schools, centers of excellence. Thus, EMIS VET already has been implemented in all VET institutions in the Republic of Moldova. Despite this for a complete functionality SIME VET should be extended with additional modules: Electronic Register, Admission Module.
1.6. Overall project description
The project’s intended impact is to substantially increase the number of VET students, both girls and boys, who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship (based on SDG 4.4.).
The project’s expected outcome is that the Information and Communication Technologies are effectively integrated into the vocational education and training system (based on Moldova Education Strategy 2020) thus enhancing the access to qualitative and relevant education (based on SDG 4).
This will be achieved through increasing the VET institutions’ management support for ICT integration, improving teachers’ digital competences, developing digital content for selected VET trades and specialties, as well as creating modern learning spaces that foster the integration of digital skills in the education process, as well as the student-centered learning.
The direct beneficiaries will be the teachers and the management of 6 VET institutions including the Centre of Excellence in Informatics and Communication Technologies, as well as another 5 VET institutions (around 15 managers and around 100 teachers in total). The 5 VET institutions will be selected on a competitive basis and will be further equipped with IT devices, for establishing a modern classroom, redesigned and equipped with educational IT digital devices, and will receive intensive training for managers and teachers. The CEITI capacities (trainers, IT experts) and resources (training rooms) of CEITI developed in the phase II of the VET TIC project, will be used for the proposed project. Around 3,000 students, boys and girls (all students of 5 VET institutions and of CEITI), and 500 teachers, women and men (all teachers of 5 VET institutions and of CEITI), will indirectly benefit from the project measures in the short term. In the long term all students of the VET system will benefit (as of today there are around 86,000 students).
The management teams will be trained to use ICT in the management processes of the VET institutions and will be consulted in the process of IT infrastructure procurement and IT management systems development and maintenance.
The teachers to be trained within the project will be identified in the baseline study, during initial six months of the project implementation, by using selection criteria, such as: the most suitable VET subject for digitalization, basic digital skills already used in teaching, pro-activeness and preparedness to integrate ICT in teaching and learning, as well as to participate in the development of digital content.
The 5 VET institutions to be selected will geographically represent the territory of the Republic of Moldova. CEITI is located in Chisinau.

2. PURPOSE & EXPECTED RESULTS OF ASSIGNMENT

EC PRO DIDACTICA is seeking a company or a team for creating a user-friendly Admission and Electronic Register Modules in EMIS for implementation in 6 VET institutions, with a future possibility to implement in all VET institutions in Republic of Moldova.

2.1. PURPOSE

The main purpose of this contract is described in the below table, which contains the Task List of the works/services

1.  ADMISSION MODULE
MANAGEMENT OF ADMISSION
MANAGEMENT OF ADMISSION PLANS ACCORDING TO DATA FROM NQR SISTEM (DB INTERACTION)
REGISTRATION OF ADMISSION REQUESTS
PAYMENT METHOD AND INFORMATION
AUTOMATIZATED DISTRIBUTION OF STUDENTS PER PLANS
CONFIRMATION OF ENROLLMENT
TRANSFER ENROLLED STUDENTS LISTS TO SIME VET (I YEAR STUDENTS WILL BE ALREADY ADDED IN SYSTEM)
ADMISSION INFORMATION REPORTS

2. ELECTRONIC REGISTER
GENERATION OF STUDENTS LISTS PER GROUPS FROM SIME VET
SMART SCHEDULE (COMPLETED BY DATA INTRODUCED IN VET ABOUT DISCIPLINES, TEACHERS AND GROUPS)
GENERATION OF ACCOUNTS FOR TEACHERS USING DATA FROM SIME
CREATION THE DIVISION OF THE LESSON BY SUBGROUP
CREATION THE LESSON FOR MORE GROUPS
EVIDENCE OF ABSENCES
DAILY EVIDENCE OF STUDENTS EVALUATIONS
GENERATION OF REPORTS BASED ON DAILY EVALUATIONS AND ABSENCES
AUTOMATED GENERATION OF GRADES AT THE END OF THE STUDY YEAR
AUTOMATED GENERATION OF GRADES AT THE END OF THE YEAR OF STUDIES

*PAYMENT METHOD – the mentioned above features must be integrated with MPAy.

2.2. NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Regulations
● Legea nr. 982/2000 privind accesul la informație
(Law no. 982/2000 about access to information)
● Legea nr. 1069/2000 cu privire la informatică
(Law no. 1069/2000 about informatics)
● Legea nr. 467/2003 cu privire la informatizare și la resursele informaționale de stat
(Law no. 467/2003 on computerization and state information resources)
● Legea nr. 71/2007 cu privire la register
(Law no. 71/2007 regarding the register)
● Legea nr. 133/2011 privind protecția datelor cu caracter personal
(Law no. 133/2011 on the protection of personal data)
● Legea nr. 142/2018 cu privire la schimbul de date și interoperabilitate
(Law no. 142/2018 about data exchange and interoperability)
● Hotărârea Guvernului 1123/2010
(Government Decision 1123/2010)
● Hotărârea Guvernului nr. 1090/2013 privind serviciul electronic guvernamental de autentificare și control al accesului (MPass)
(Government Decision no. 1090/2013 on the government electronic service of authentication and access control (MPass))
● Hotărârea Guvernului nr. 128/2014 privind platforma tehnologică guvernamentală comună (MCloud)
(• Government Decision no. 128/2014 on the common government technology platform (MCloud))
● Hotărârea Guvernului nr. 1016/2017 cu privire la aprobarea Cadrului național al calificărilor din Republica Moldova.
(Government Decision no. 1016/2017 on the approval of the National Qualifications Framework of the Republic of Moldova.)
● Ordinul Ministerului Dezvoltării Informaționale nr. 78 din 01.06.2006 cu privire la aprobarea reglementării tehnice „Procesele ciclului de viață al software-lui” RT 38370656-002:2006 (Monitorul Oficial al Republicii Moldova, 2006, nr. 95-97, art. 335)
(Order of the Ministry of Information Development no. 78 of 01.06.2006 on the approval of the technical regulation “Software life cycle processes” RT 38370656-002: 2006 (Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova, 2006, no. 95-97, art. 335))

Requirements to platform

1. The modules will run on a virtualization platform (MCloud).
2. All components of the Modules will be hosted on the MCloud platform of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research. The servers of the newly developed Modules will be configured and operated in the MCloud environment in the form of virtual machines.
3. The developer will implement the Modules on its own environment and will configure the test and production environments at MCloud.
4. The developer will specify in the offer the minimum and recommended configuration of the virtual machines (CPU, RAM, Storage, etc.). Note: Purchases of server equipment are not provided.
5. It is recommended to configure the nodes with the operating systems adopted by the common technology platform MCloud (CentOS Linux, Ubuntu Linux).
6. The developer will include in the offer all the costs of commercial licenses if they exist.

Architectural requirements

1. The architecture of the Modules must be based on open standards.
2. The architecture of the Modules must be organized in at least 3 vertical levels, clearly divided, so that the upper levels depend functionally only on the lower levels.
3. The architecture must be adapted to implementation and use in virtualized environments (Cloud)
4. Because the Modules are not an isolated IT solution, but will interact with inter-ministerial IT systems, the IT solution developed must provide support for integration with other IT subsystems (SOA architecture).
5. In order to ensure an adequate level of information security, the delivered IT solution must allow secure connections to be made between the client stations and the application server to ensure the information sent (using the HTTPS protocol).

Interoperability

1. Authentication of users in the system will be done through MPass (Managers) or username / password (Teachers).
2. Integration with EMIS will be done through Web-Services.
3. The system will have an external interface for the provision of statistics and performance indicators (KPIs) related to the use of the Modules by Internet users and authorized users.
4. All message flows between the System and external entities will be made using open standards.

Maintenance

1. The system shall have mechanisms for processing all generated errors. Errors produced during the operation of the Modules will be recorded and accessible for further analysis and improvement of the quality of operation of the Modules.
2. The system shall be accompanied by detailed technical documentation on the VET Modules architecture, components and modules, interfaces and interactions between them, the structure of the databases
3. The source code will be developed according to the recommendations for writing the easily maintainable source code, including: well structured, accompanied by comments, suggestive variables, etc.
4. The developer will prepare means that facilitate the administration functions of VET Modules:
a. Back up the database and content files
b. Restore the functionality of VET Modules based on the indicated backup.

Security

1. The system must not be vulnerable to any of the vulnerabilities specified in the OWASP Top Ten Most Critical Web Application Vulnerabilities guide.
2. Penetration test and vulnerability scan reports must demonstrate the security level of the newly developed Modules.

Monitoring and control

1. The system will log the following business events
a. User authentication
b. Management of qualification standards (registration, editing, archiving).
c. User management (creation, editing, blocking)
d. Exporting reports
2. For each business event the system will log at least the following information
a. Event type (write, update, delete)
b. Type of information object.
c. Date and time (hour, minute) when the event took place.
d. The user who generated the event.
e. The IP address of the workstation from which the user generated the event.

Resilience and continuity

1. The system must have mechanisms in place to ensure the integrity of the data in the event of accidental failure of any of its components.
2. The system should have mechanisms for the operational restoration of the availability and accessibility of the Modules in case of continuity incidents.

Documentation and teaching

1. The system will be delivered together with the following documents: technical architecture document, administration guide, user guide, system installation and configuration guide. All guides will be in Romanian.
2. The Provider will train the staff of the Beneficiary and the Staff of the VET Institutions who will be involved in the administration and use of the Modules.
3. The provider will provide user guides in electronic format. The guides should be in PDF format. The main streams of the Modules have a guide in video format.

Testing and acceptance

1. The Beneficiary will check the operation of the Modules according to the functional requirements.
2. The Beneficiary will verify the operation according to the requirements for integration with EMIS IT resources.
3. The bidder will perform the security tests.
4. The tenderer will perform the accessibility test.
5. The tenderer will provide details on how to test and the results obtained.
6. The bidder will run the performance testing for at least two components
a. Module load testing
b. Testing the behavior of the Modules at high stress (stress testing)
7. The acceptance criteria of the pre-acceptance tests are 100% of the non-conformities discovered on delivery were addressed
a. 80% of the accessibility tests for level A pass successfully
b. 100% of the security tests pass successfully
c. performance results are better than indicated in the requirements
d. 0 critical nonconformities were discovered and no more than 2 major nonconformities
8. The date of acceptance will be considered as the time when all non-conformities found during the production phase have been rectified.
9. The operator will run the performance tests on the test environment.
10. The beneficiary will check the coverage of the technical documentation and the user guides of the system.

Operational acceptance tests

1. The developer will develop and coordinate with the Beneficiary all the scenarios related to the operational acceptance tests of the Modules.
2. The beneficiary will verify the entire business cycle and the technical results related to the operational testing, namely:
a. generation of reports, statistics, performance indicators (KPIs)
b. sending / receiving notifications
c. integration with EMIS information systems (MECC)
d. MPass authentication
e. configuration of users and roles
f. journaling the critical events generated by the system with the internal means of the Modules
3. Operational acceptance criteria: The beneficiary will consider acceptance if:
a. at least 80% of the negative scenarios must be passed successfully
b. no test scenario will corrupt the integrity of the data.
4. The developer will transmit the documented source code for the components developed for the Modules.
5. The manufacturer shall, if necessary, submit any license required for the use of predefined components or purchased from third parties

Qualification requirements
1. Experience in implementing projects containing personal data.
2. Experience in developing and implementing educational informational systems;
3. At least 5 years of experience in developing systems at the national level, a brief description of their objectives should be provided;
4. Experience in data integration from different Oracle database for large organizations (more than one thousand authorized users);
5. Experience in Data Mining;
6. Extensive experience in creating of the technical specification documents for similar products;
7. Experience in working with stakeholders in order to identify right requirements towards the final product and adjust to possible new needs.
8. Developing information systems in 3 languages (Romanian, Russian, English), including the interface and documents generated by the system;
9. Experience in developing flexible reports with the possibility of changing/updating;

Requirements for drawing up the technical proposal

The developer will present a description of the technologies used to perform the task.
1. The developer shall provide detailed descriptions of the technical, performance or other characteristics relevant to all key technologies, materials, other goods and services presented in the technical offer (eg version or release number and / or model). Without providing sufficient clear details, tenderers risk that their tender will be declared incomplete.
2. The developer shall provide any other technical information regarding technologies, materials, other goods and services necessary to evaluate the submitted technical offer (eg history of IT services, ability to develop, implement and maintain national projects in the field of education, of similar complexity, etc.). All these present a mandatory criterion to assess the technical capacity of the tenderer.
3. The Developer shall provide details regarding the resolution of the technical requirements submitted by the Applicant, demonstrating the ability to substantially analyze the system requirements as well as the individual particularities of some components included in the Terms of Reference.
4. The developer shall submit a Preliminary Work Plan describing, inter alia, the methods and human and material resources that the Bidder proposes to use in the design, management, coordination and execution of all proposed tasks, as well as the duration of execution.
5. The developer shall provide detailed descriptions of the implementation of the functional requirements.

2.3. PERMISSION SETTINGS:

Nr.

d/o

Role Responsibilities
1. User

(public access)

•      consultation of public information from the VET module on the SIME open data portal (www.sime.md)

•      performing searches

•      viewing information in the form of tables and / or diagrams

Authorized access:
2. National Administrator VET

 

Has full access to all the features, files and related database to the VET module :

•      managing the roles, responsibilities and profiles of users;

•      monitoring user events and activities in the system;

•      administration and management of classifiers and nomenclatures;

•      setting the application parameters of the system;

•      distribution of functionalities by roles;

•      opening / revoking the access for entering / modifying the data in the system for years of studies;

•      performing complex searches in the system;

•      providing support to system users;

•      generating reports.

3 Institution Administrator VET Has access to the functionalities and data of the VET module, which refers only to the educational institution for which it is responsible:

•      managing user profiles within the institution;

•      monitoring the events and activities of the users in the system within the institution;

•      responsible for opening / closing the study year of the institution;

•      data management of the educational institution;

•      managing the data about the network of groups within the institution;

•      managing data about the institution’s students;

•      managing data about the institution’s staff;

•      providing support to the users of the institution;

•      generating reports.

3 Electronic Register Administrator VET Has access to the functionalities and data of the VET module, which refers only to the Electronic Register of the educational institution for which it is responsible:

•      administration of user profiles within the electronic register of the institution;

•      managing the data about the educational institution’s schedules;

•      managing the data about the catalog of each group within the institution;

•      managing the data about the absences and evaluations of the students of the institution;

•      providing support to the users of the institution;

•      generating reports.

3 Admission Institution Administrator VET Has access to the functionalities and data of the VET module, which refers only to the Admission of the educational institution for which it is responsible:

•      administration of admission plans within the institution;

•      monitoring the events and activities of the users in the system within the institution related to Admission;

•      responsible for opening / closing the admission process of the institution;

•      data management of the educational institution related to admission;

•      providing support to the users of the institution upon admission;

generation of registration plates.

4 Admission Operator Has access to all the functionalities and data of the VET module, with the right to read only.
5 Teacher VET Has access to all the functionalities and data of the VET module, which refers only to the educational institution to which it was granted the right, with the right to read only.

Multi Language interface
Provide user interface to Romanian, Russian and optional English languages
Provide functionalities for translation of user interface elements
Scalability requirement
System must provide scalability capabilities for updating data interface, functionality and workflow according to legal environment changes.
Compatibility requirements
● System User Interface must be compatible with latest web-browsers like IE, Firefox, and Chrome.
● Web-based software must not require a plug-in as a default.
● User Interface should be visualized correctly on computers, tablet and mobile screens.
● The web-based software must be designed with minimum graphics for fast load pages.

Results to be achieved by the Contractor
General:
a) Extension of existing information management system for VET institutions, piloted and adjusted according to the needs of the beneficiaries.
b) The system must be interoperable with EMIS (national educational management information system) and do not duplicate the existing specifications at national level.
c) The system has to take into account people with disabilities (adapting the colors, font, etc.)
d) Developed system should be a web-based application.
e) Solution should be hosted on premises or cloud (take into account the Governmental Cloud Computing technology).
f) The developer will implement Modules VET on its own environment and will configure the test and production environments in MCloud.
g) Servers will be configured and operated in the MCloud environment in the form of virtual machines. The developer will specify in the offer the minimum and recommended configuration of the virtual machines (CPU, RAM, Storage, etc.). Note: Purchases of client and server equipment are not provided by this project.
h) It is recommended to configure the nodes with the operating systems adopted by the common technology platform MCloud (CentOS Linux, Ubuntu Linux).
i) System should provide workflow driven procedures managed and configured through a visual, user-friendly and modern interface.

3. ASSUMPTIONS & RISKS

Several iterations and changes may occur during testing with final beneficiaries.

4. SCOPE OF THE WORK
4.1. General
4.2. Geographical area to be covered
The assessment must cover all the National VET institutions
4.3. Specific work
a) Contract and Kick-off meeting: The contract is signed and a discussion about the assignment takes place in the EC PRO DIDACTICA office. First documents, including available data, are provided by the project team to the Consultant.
b) Concept – the Consultants/company will describe the time schedule, the coordination mechanism with each institution. Bidders are invited to submit a detailed plan that is considered appropriate to answer the evaluation questions.
c) Inception – initial environments and requirements are discussed.
d) Iteration/Development – The development team works to deliver working software based on iteration requirements and feedback.
e) Release – QA (Quality Assurance) testing, internal and external training, documentation development, and final release of the iteration into production. –
f) Production – Ongoing support of the software.
g) Maintenance – End-of-life activities, including customer notification and migration.

4.4. Project management
4.4.1. Responsible body
EC PRO DIDACTICA and Ministry of Education, Culture and Research (Beneficiary) will be responsible for managing the contract. The Project Manager, assisted by the Project Coordinator, and the responsible from Beneficiary will be directly involved in coordination of the tasks fulfilled by the Consultants/company.

4.4.2. Management structure

EC PRO DIDACTICA is the implementing partner ADA for” Digital skills for employment in the modern economy” Project. The Project Management Unit is created by ECPD, led by the Project Director. There is a Project Steering Committee and an Advisory Group within the Project framework and the Final Draft of the system will be presented to these groups as well. The coordination of tasks will be taken by the Project Manager alone, but the strategic and financial issues must be authorized by the Project Director (Mrs. Rima Bezede).

4.4.3. Facilities to be provided by the Contracting Authority and/or other parties

EC PRO DIDACTICA can provide, as appropriate, room facilities for meetings of stakeholders, discussions and presentation of the system.

5. LOGISTICS AND TIMING
5.1. Location
The Consultant will use his premises for performing the task. In case of stakeholders meetings, discussions, coordination issues, it will be possible to use the project office at EC PRO DIDACTICA.
5.2. Start date & period of implementation
The intended start date is November 1, 2020 and the period of implementation of the contract will be until April 15, 2021.

6. REQUIREMENTS
6.1. Staff
Note that civil servants and other staff of the public administration, of the partner country or of international/regional organisations based in the country, will only be approved to work as experts if they are well justified. The justification should be submitted with the tender and will include information on the added value the expert will bring, as well as proof that the expert is seconded or on personal leave.
Guidance notes on expert inputs:
Working days: performance of the contract (and therefore payment) will be based solely on working days. The Consultant will only be paid for days actually worked on the basis of the daily fee rate contained in the budget breakdown (Annex V).
Tenderers must annex the ‘Estimated number of working days’ worksheet contained in the spreadsheet for Annex V to their Organization and Methodology (Annex III) to demonstrate the correspondence between the proposed methodology and the expert inputs.
The fee rates for all experts must include all the „administrative costs of employing the relevant experts, such as relocation and repatriation expenses [including travel costs upon mobilization and demobilization
accommodation, expatriation allowances, leave, medical insurance and other employment benefits given to the experts by the Consultant”.
It may be important, though, to establish how many times each expert needs to travel (since travel is included in the fee rate, the number of trips will have an impact on that fee rate).
All experts must be independent and free from conflicts of interest in the responsibilities they take on.
6.2. Support staff & backstopping
The Contractor will provide support facilities to their team of experts (back-stopping) during the implementation of the contract. Backstopping and support staff costs must be included in the fee rates.
6.3. Office accommodation
Daily office accommodation is not provided by the Contracting Authority.
6.4. Facilities to be provided by the Contractor
The Contractor must ensure that experts are adequately supported and equipped. In particular it must ensure that there is sufficient administrative, secretarial and interpreting provision to enable experts to concentrate on their primary responsibilities.
6.5. Equipment
No equipment is to be purchased on behalf of the Contracting Authority / partner country as part of this service contract or transferred to the Contracting Authority / partner country at the end of this contract.
6.6. Incidental expenditure
There are no incidental costs provided by the Contracting Authority for performance of this task.
6.7. Lump sums / Fee based
This will be a Fee-based contract, but it may include activities paid under the basis of lump sums (e.g. of a fee-based contract for KE 1, KE2, other NKEs, but if activities paid under lump sums are required, please highlight them in budget, as separate line and correspondent description.
The financial offer will be provided in Euro.
6.8. Expenditure verification
There is no provision for expenditure verification in this Contract. However, EC PRO DIDACTICA will be evaluated at the end of the project implementation. The contractor will be ready to provide, in case of necessary documentation, the relevant documentation to the auditor, entitled to verifying the expenditure of ECPD in relation to this Contract.

7. REPORTS

7.1. Reporting requirements

The evaluator will submit the following documents:
a) an Inception Report – will include the architecture of the system and main features. Also, will include the schedule for sprints session for follow up for the entire development period. A visual prototype should contain a flowchart that will represent the link between the pages. This report will be submitted in three weeks after the kick-off meeting.
b) 2nd Progress Report – This report will include the prototype of the system developed based on the inception report approved, including architecture and structure, UX/UI and maintenance mechanisms. This report will be based on the feedback received from the final beneficiaries in several sprint sessions. Every feature will be prototyped, tested with users and adjusted as follows.
c) Final Report – will represent the final version of the management system, each feature tested and approved, with a final feedback from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research and Austrian Development Cooperation. It will include the content management system, training program for the staff, including training guide on how to administrate, maintain and update the information for each VET institution, the web page, following the requirements described in the scope of work section of the ToR.
d) Maintenance and warranty reports. The reports will include the description of the activities performed during the warranty period. This report will be submitted on a monthly basis after acceptance of the final version of the management system to ECPD.
All reports need to be written in English and Romanian.

7.2. Submission & approval of reports
The reports must be written in English and Romanian. The consultant can choose the original language of reporting and state this in their proposal. The Project Director is responsible for approving the reports.

7.3. Special requirements
The offers should also include the technologies used, as well as provide insight about maintenance costs of the platform for the next 3 years.
* * *
The tenderer will submit the following document:
– CVs of the team
– breakdown of key expertise of each team member for this project
– Portfolio (Similar projects in the education area will be an asset)
– Copy of offeror’s official registration
– business license;
– Previous reference of min 3 similar size projects (deliveries) in the past which will include the Name of the Customer, Amount of the Contract, Contacts of the Person in Charge
The company/consultants have to provide detailed CVs, estimated number of working days with total budget and a timeline for the assignment.

DEADLINE for submissions: All proposals should be sent to EC PRO DIDACTICA and Ministry of Education, Culture and Research at the address provided below by 1 November 2020 at 18:00.
prodidactica@prodidactica.md and miliev@prodidactica.md
natalia.grîu@mecc.gov.md and corneliu.ciorici@mecc.gov.md