TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR SIFMIS IMPLEMENTATION QUALITY ASSURANCE

CONSULTANT (FIRM)

A. BACKGROUND

The Federal Government of Nigeria has applied for financing from the International
Development Association (IDA) and is receiving a grant from the European Union (EU)
to assist some states to implement the State Employment and Expenditure for Result
(SEEFOR) Project in the country. The overall objective of the project is to enhance
opportunities for youth employment and access to socio-economic services whilst
improving the effectiveness of public expenditure management systems in the various
participating states.

Rivers State is one of the beneficiaries of this credit/grant and intends to apply part of the
proceeds for the establishment of a State Integrated Financial Management Information
System (SIFMIS). The objective of the SIFMIS sub-component is to support the
implementation and effective utilization of simple but robust off-the-shelf Integrated
Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), which will support human resource
management and payroll, planning and budgeting, accounting, auditing and reporting on
the use of financial resources.

In keeping with the foregoing the Rivers State Government is in the process of building
its financial management capacity and improving its financial management information
system by:
(i) Progressive introduction of a State Government Integrated Financial Management
Information System (SIFMIS);
(ii) Improving cash management by strengthening the institutional framework and
capacity for cash management
(iii) Improved financial reporting through:
(a) Adoption of the cash model of International Public Sector Accounting
Standards (IPSAS) which will later progress to accrual IPSAS.
(b) Design and implementation of departmental financial performance reporting
systems;
(iv) Modernization of external and internal audit arrangements; and
(v) Capacity building in financial management for relevant staff.

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 B. OBJECTIVES OF THE SIFMIS

The overall objective of SIFMIS is to implement a computerized financial management

information system for the Rivers State Government (RVSG), which is efficient, effective, and
user friendly and which:
i. Increases the ability of RVSG to undertake central control and monitoring of expenditure
and receipts in the MDAs.
ii. Increases the ability to access information on financial and operational performance.
iii. Increases internal controls to prevent and detect potential and actual fraud.
iv. Increases the ability to access information on Government’s cash position and economic
performance.
v. Provides the ability to understand the costs of groups of activities and tasks.
vi. Increases the ability to demonstrate accountability and transparency to the public and
cooperating partners.

SIFMIS is required to comprise the following integrated modules:

i. Budget preparation, approval and maintenance, including the ability to handle multi-
dimensional charts of account and to support multi-year budgets;
ii. Budget execution and treasury management, including support for: budget and warrant
control; reporting of committed and actual expenditure against allocated/ warranted
budgets; initially cash based but able to support the progressive move towards accrual
based accounting; cash book; bank reconciliation; financial reporting; and project
accounting;
iii. General ledger and the related report writing tools;
iv. Procurement, including support for e-governance initiatives;
v. Accounts payable including commitment accounting and controls;
vi. Accounts receivable and revenue management;
vii. Cash management;
viii. Internal Revenue, including support for e-governance initiatives;
ix. Human Resource Management and Payroll;
x. The system should have standard and/or user definable interface capabilities, based on
open system standards, to enable electronic interface between third party systems;

xi. Server Hardware, Systems Software and RDBMS designed and configured to support the
SIFMIS Software (SAP/ERP), with the capability to support up to 200 concurrent users
in MDAs, and comprising as a minimum servers for production, back-up and test
environments.

SIFMIS will be implemented using SAP HANA4 software initially in a phased approach starting
with some major MDA’s, and the remaining MDA’s will be taken on the next phase.

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 C. SIFMIS QUALITY ASSURANCE

Objectives of the Quality Assurance service

To ensure effective implementation of the system, a number of quality assurance measures have
been designed and integrated into the implementation modalities consistent with best practice
and the RVSG view that quality should be built and not just inspected into the implementation.
However, it is imperative that external expertise be sourced to undertake the following:

1. Provide an independent assessment and make practical recommendations to improve:

a) the quality of the implementation of SIFMIS as already delivered, and
b) the follow-on planned SIFMIS implementation actions.
2. Support the RVSG team in implementing the recommendations made on the quality of
implementation of SIFMIS already delivered, and assessing their efficacy in due course.
3. Contribute to institutional implementation and sustainable capacity building efforts of the
Rivers State Government of Nigeria in the areas of quality assurance and systems and
applications security.

The Scope of the Quality Assurance Service

The quality assurance service will be expected as hereunder:

a) Ensure that the systems /applications delivered are consistent with the technical
specifications, and that the implementation services providers have delivered what
the project should pay for.
b) Review Implementation arrangements and team composition, training plans delivered
(executive, end-user, system administration and maintenance), PFM staff capability
development and strategies for sustainability.
c) Review the project plan including ICT architecture deployment, Change management
plan, communication plan and arrangements for stakeholder involvement.
d) Assess the completeness and adequacy of User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and confirm
that the requirements of the RVSG have not been or are not compromised and that the
contractor has delivered all the deliverables to the required standard.
e) Assess the efficiency and reliability of the new business processes at the central level
(OAG, MoBEP, and MoF) as well as the MDA level (where SIFMIS is to be
implemented and where full implementation is expected only in future phases) in
supporting the intended PFM objectives. This assessment will be carried out through
operational acceptance testing of the system, including designing test scripts with live test
cases, load and performance testing, etc.
f) Quality assure the integration of financial data of all entities to be serviced by SIFMIS.
This includes integration between the required subsystems and interfaces as per bidding
document (General ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivables, Budgeting, Fixed
asset, Inventory management, Procurement, etc.), and integration of with other systems
such as the Human Resource Integrated Management Information system, Internal
Revenue Service systems and Commercial Bank information systems.

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 g) Review the new banking arrangements, including the Treasury Single Account (TSA)
approach, security of electronic funds transfer (EFT), CBN common platform for inter-
bank clearing/settlement, protocol for receipt of electronic bank statements for automated
bank reconciliation and advise on ways of addressing any weakness identified.
h) Review the System controls supporting the internal control environment (i.e. Access and
security controls, segregation of duties, organization controls, arithmetic controls,
personnel, authorization management, and audit trails).
i) Review the System support arrangements, backup and business continuity plans
including but not limited to reliability of connectivity and power supply as well as the
reliability of data replication Technology in use at the data centre.
j) Review the adequacy of system documentation including, Configuration manuals,
User/procedure manuals, Chart of Accounts (CoA) manual, new input forms and
vouchers among others.
k) Review and establish the reliability of cut-off procedures, legacy data and import of
transcripts from Accounting Transaction Recording and Reporting System (ATRRS), and
protocols for different interfaces being implemented.
l) Review the Performance of the system against user requirements and assess the extent of
utilization of system outputs.
m) Assess the effectiveness of management and oversight arrangements and the efficacy of
the skills transfer programme put in place to ensure sustainability.
n) Review the extent of Integration of records management standards and good practices,
provisions for management of paper inputs to the system before and after input to enable
the key process areas that generate financial records; provisions for long term
preservation of electronic records and of systems documentation.
o) Assess and determine the capability and capacity and challenges related to the hardware
and software of the Primary Data Centre.
p) Identify areas of improvement in the implementation of the ICT activities.
q) Identify end-user load on the system for the present and for future, and provide advice in
regard to improvements of hardware for the future.
r) Participate in Business continuity testing and advise on the necessary improvements to
ensure adequate disaster recovery preparedness.

D. DELIVERABLES
i. An inception report (ten bound copies and a soft copy) detailing the proposed work plan,
strategy, methodology, timetable and expected outcome of the assignment will be
submitted to the SIFMIS Coordinator and the Accountant General not later than two
weeks after the start of the assignment.
ii. Presentation of findings to key stakeholders in a workshop.
iii. Draft final report exhaustively covering the issues highlighted in the scope of services, as
well as a summary of the actions required to support the RVSG team in implementing
recommendations.
iv. Final report (ten bound copies and a soft copy) incorporating comments and feedback
from the stakeholders.

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 E. CAPABILITY OF THE QUALITY ASSURANCE CONSULTANT

To qualify, the quality assurance firm should demonstrate adequate capability by confirming the
following:

1. Firm’s experience:
The firm must demonstrate specific experience of at least one completed, verifiable and
successful quality assurance assignment for integrated financial management system projects for
a government entity. In addition, the firm should have been involved in PFM reforms for at least
5 years in a developing country context. The firm must provide detailed description of the above
assignments.

2. Availability and quality of professional Staff:

The firm must provide relevantly qualified and experienced staff for the assignment. At a
minimum, the following key positions will be expected:

(i) Team Leader - with at least 10 years Public Financial Management experience including
experience of designing and implementing PFM systems in at least one government;
Experience in project management, implementation, operational supervision and control or
audit of ERP systems software is preferable. Possession of qualification in Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) –PMP is desirable.

(ii) Application Functional Expert- with at least 5 years’ experience as a functional expert in
SAP/ERP , including at least 3 years’ experience as a Functional Team Lead for
implementation of projects of comparable size and complexity; experience of designing and
implementing SAP/ERP in the public sector is preferable. Membership of an accountancy
body recognized by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) is required.

(iii)Chartered Information Systems Auditor - with at least 8 years’ experience of auditing in the
public sector, including experience of completing systems audit of at least 3 recognized
institutions with at least one systems audit assignment involving ERP-based financial
management system. Member of an accountancy body recognized by the International
Federation of Accountants (IFAC) is required and possession of Certified Information
Systems Auditor (CISA) qualification will be an added advantage.

(iv) ICT Financial Systems Specialist – with relevant graduate qualification in an IT related
discipline such as Computer Science, information technology or any other related field. At
least 5 years’ working experience in the area of IT for financial management systems is
essential. Prior experience in the successful development of application building, testing,
implementation and quality assurance activities of automated financial management systems
is mandatory. Knowledgeable about IT and web applications for package based solutions is
desirable.

Responsibility for final reporting and follow-up consultations should primarily be undertaken by
the Team Leader with support from the other Experts. All communication and deliverables will
be in English.

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Management of assignment and reporting

a) Facilities to be provided by the client

The office of the Accountant-General of Rivers State will provide adequate office space for the
consultants and will facilitate meetings with relevant stakeholders. The following documents will
also be made available to the Consultants.
(i) PFM legal and regulatory framework.
(iii) Procurement and contract documents including, (bidding document, re-engineered business
processes and supplier contract documentation).
(iv) SIFMIS Project Charter, Project Plan, SIFMIS Security Policy, Solution design and
configuration documents, SIFMIS implementation strategy papers and all available project
implementation documentation as outlined in the contract.
(v) Minutes of the various organs as enshrined in the Project charter (SIFMIS Project Technical
Committee, Work groups and Implementation Dedicated Team among others)
(vi) Any other documents as deemed appropriate.

b) Client Responsibilities

The office of the Accountant-General of Rivers State will have the following responsibilities for
the project duration:
(i) Provide interface between the consultant and other stakeholders;
(ii) Provide senior management input and support as required, to ensure that the assignment is
successfully implemented;
(iii) Provide office space, internet facility, relevant reports and information and access to
government officials;
(iv) Provide comments on reports produced by the Consultants in accordance with the agreed
reporting arrangements.

c) Duration

It is envisaged that the assignment will be carried out after the application solution build prior to
Go-Live. A follow on assignment will be agreed depending on the findings from the first
mission.

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 d) Timelines

Activity No. of working Location

days

Preparatory activities

1. Study of relevant RVSG SIFMIS 5 Off site

Documentation

2. Initial consultations with relevant 3 On site

stakeholders

3. Preparation and submission of inception 3 On site

report

4. Discussion of inception report and 2 On site

agreement with the Accountant General
and SIFMIS Implementation Team

Information gathering, analysis and

consultations

5. Consultations, information gathering and 10 On site

analysis

Reporting

6. Presentation of draft findings to key 2 On site

SIFMIS stakeholders in a workshop

7. Preparation and submission of draft report 5 Off site

8. Incorporation of RVSG comments and 3 Off site

preparation and submission of final report

9. Dissemination of final report in workshop 1 On site

10. Update and submission of final report 1 On site

TOTAL NUMBER OF WORKING DAYS 35

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 e) Budget (in USD)

Consultant Professional fees Flight Accommodation Total

and meals
Team Leader 1000x35 1000 200x35=7000 43,000
days=35,000
Application 800x35 1000 200x35=7000 36,000
Functional Expert days=28000
Chartered 800x35 1000 200x35=7000 36,000
Information days=28,000
Systems Auditor
ICT Financial 800x35 1000 200x35=7000 36,000
Systems Specialist days=28,000
Overall Total 151,000