REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST (CONSULTANCY SERVICES) COUNTRY: Afghanistan NAME OF THE PROJECT: Safety Nets and Pensions Support Project (SNPSP) IMPLEMENTING AGENCY: Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled GRANT #: PROJECT ID: H-848-AF 113421 Assignment Title: Consultancy Services for Bio-Metric Capturing Module for Pension Management Information System (PMIS) Reference No: ASNPSP-80-SBCC-CF- CONTRACT TYPE: Duration of assignment: Lump Sum 19 weeks a. Background: The Government of Afghanistan through its Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MOLSAMD) is now implementing the Safety Nets and Pensions Support Project (SNPSP). One of the first phases of reform was dedicated for public sector pension program (PSPP) to ensure effective implementation of the new Pension Regulation. Significant progress has been achieved during PSPP pension administration reform activities which were resulted in civil service and military old age pensions new assignment and payment procedures which are still being implemented now in Pension Department. On the public pension reform side, the Government has already undertaken a number of important preparatory activities: Based on Pension Regulation for Civil Service employees a set of regulation documents (HR Guidebook, Military Handbook, Administrative Rules, PD Manual and PDF and HRF forms) have been designed and are gradually implemented. A proposed new organizational structure has been implemented in the Pension Department Pension Building renovation has been finalized. AS implementation activities are ongoing now. Pension Administration Software was developed and its implementation is ongoing now. b. Objectives: Further development of the Pension Administration Software requires improving data security, methods of beneficiaries’ identification, and optimization of regular pensioners’ recertification process. In accordance with these objectives, the pension administration software will be updated with the pensioners’ fingerprints capturing and further operating fingerprint (biometric) database within PD business processes. Biometric data makes PD staff enable to identify pensioners easily and faster. The procedures would be reliable and secure as the system would provide uniqueness of comparison data. The scope of work includes the following activities: 1) To develop the following software modules of the fingerprint processing 2) To deliver 5 (five) fingerprint slap scanner. The scanners will be used in PD for fingerprint capturing and beneficiaries (retirement pensioners, survivors and designated payees) identification. 3) To conduct training for end users and MIS team of the Project. c. Activities: To develop biometric software: As per NIST Standards and Fingerprint Verification in VB.NET / C#.NET to develop software utilities to capture Fingerprint in: Segmentation; Quality Check; Image Compression. Design of de-duplication Module with fingerprint matching system; Design the Verification Module of fingerprints with current Pension MIS System System integration with Pension software system; System integration with de-duplication module. To deliver slap scanners: Number of scanners to deliver is 5 (five). The main specification of the slap scanners should be compatible with the PAS system and software utilities are being proposed. The main features of the hardware should be as follows: Fingerprint Type Frame Rate Single Rolls Single Flats Four Finger Slaps Two Thumbs 20 frames per second Capturing Speed 4+4+2 in 15 seconds Resolution 500 dpi, 256 gray Platen Size 89 x 80 mm (3.5” x 3.15”) (W x L) Image Quality Standards Four Finger Slap: 81 x 76 mm (3.2” x 3.0”) (W x L) Finger Roll: 41 x 38 mm (1.6” x 1.5”) (W x L) FBI IAFIS Appendix F Interface USB 2.0 High-speed (Data & Power) IP Rating IP54 Speakers Built-in LED indicator Yes Operating Temperature 0°C ~ 50°C Operating Humidity 10 ~ 90%, non-condensing Dimension 152 x 152 x 127 mm (5.9” x 5.9” x 5.0”) (W x L x H) Weight 1.8kgs (3.96lbs) Certification WHQL, CE, FCC, UL, IP54 Operating System Compatibility Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP and Windows Server 2008 Database Compatibility SQL Server 2008 R2 Image Size To conduct training for end users and Project MIS team: Training courses on the new fingerprint capturing procedures for approximately 10-15 PD staff and 5-6 Project staff. Duration of the training course is 6 days with 1 additional day for certification. 4. Training courses are taken place in the specialized training premises arranged by Contractor with necessary facilities (classes, computers, boards). Training is ended up by certification by taking exams. Examination questions and answers should be agreed and approved by PST; 6. Contractor needs to coordinate his activities with Pension systems and Business processes expert, Project MIS and pension teams, and General Manager of the Project. 7. Duration of the assignment is 19 weeks. d. Compliance with the current PAS system (requirements) The system should be consistent with the following features of the current Pension Administration System: Windows Server as an operational system; Web based thin clients and ASP.Net technologies for software applications; Windows MS SQL Server 8 as a RDBMS; Bilingual user interface in Dari and Pashto; Function will be integrated in operational system, RDBMS and software application level. Once user entered system with login and password database and applications will inherit that features and operates as with global variables. Information exchange between components, including components of information system to be integrated, must be based on the usage of standards tools and interaction means such as: programming interfaces ADO, ODBC, OLE DB; network protocol TCP/IP; e-mail protocols – SMTP, IMAP, POP3; internet protocols – HTTP, HTTPS; SQL technologies; services of asynchronous message exchange; Web-services standards and technologies: XML, SOAP, WSDL, UDDI and others. The security of the system shall be built in by a combination of Login Identification and passwords. The security shall be provided at the Operating System Level (Level 1), Application Login Level (Level 2) and at the Menu/Program Execution Level (Level 3), and are user definable. All user actions are recorded in a system. The system records the time and date of all actions performed within the system by users. Data must be protected and kept confidential at all stages of processing member personal data. It is necessary to secure against various types of threats and ensure confidentiality. To support functional scalability architecture and realization of separate modules and components must correspond to requirements of openness and invariance in relation with other subsystems. System must provide, without any fall-outs and significant lowering of system, possibility to increase and add: o Functional capacity. Performance for large numbers of functions. Software applications must provide vertical scaling up to necessary numbers of functional procedures of system; o Performance for large numbers of users. To scale out necessary numbers of additional users or workstations. System must available to scale out the servers and storages taking into account possible extending of data without letting the performance degrade; o Easy deployment. Easily deploy software applications without time delays today and in future and without letting the performance degrade. Every further version of certain technology must allow usage of information resources accumulated within the bounds of past versions. System must provide ability to add new functions without breaking its operability. Taking into consideration constant growth of information volume to be processed System must allow smooth increase of computing resources performance for storage and processing of huge information volume. System interfaces must be in Dari, Pashto, and English. System must support Unicode data representation for storage and presentation of data in the following languages: Dari, Pashto, and English. Provide contextual search in the noted languages. The Consultant is expected to propose its plan on the data backup and clearly describe the best possible ways to address the Client’s concern. The help provided will be dynamic and contextual depending on the where or which process the user is present. Online help may in the form of a process guide, tool tips or even sample data. The designed system (software and database) should be piloted in PD for the period agreed by PD and PST. The system should be maintained for the period of 24 months after signing user acceptance sheet. e. Reporting Arrangements The consultant firm will report to the General Project Manager of PST and to PD and will work closely with the MIS team of the PST. The following deliverables are submitted to PST and Pension Department: 1) Project Inception Report – Provides Consultant’s plan for completing the project, proposed training timelines, key tasks, roles and responsibilities detailed, methodologies and key deliverables at each stage specified including dates, resources, plan for communications/issues resolution. 2) Training Material – curriculum for operational staff training. The paper includes business processes and software functionality, chain of processes. 3) Draft and Final completion report. The General Project Manager will establish and implement procedures for reviewing the Consultant's progress and approving outputs as per consultations with the Ministry. f. Qualification Required Only firm meeting the following mandatory requirements will be eligible to participate in the bidding process The firm must have been in operations for a minimum of Three (3) consecutive years The proposed main software firm must have prior experience implementing the biometric capturing with a minimum of hundred thousand people finger print enrollments. The proposed solution must be an upgradeable and supported Verifiable list of similar jobs successfully executed in the last three years including letters of award, project cost and contact address of the clients The firm must trained five master trainers on trouble shooting of Hardware and Software The firm must provide User Manual and Technical Documentation Upon completion of Project all the documents and Software Source code must be submitted to PST g. Deliverables Hardware Devices Software Module User Operational Manual and Technical Documentation Software Source Code h. Activities and Timelines Activities 1. Inception Report along with System specification Tentative Timeline after signing the contract 2nd week 2. System Design, Development and Integration 14th week 3. Configuration of Technical Environment and User Acceptance 15th week 4. Trainings & Documentation 18th week 5. System Launch 19th week Total 19 weeks The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to paragraph 1.9 of the World Bank’s Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants [under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits & Grants] by World Bank Borrowers current edition (“Consultant Guidelines”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest. Consultants may associate with other firms in the form of a joint venture or a sub-consultancy to enhance their qualifications. Further information can be obtained at the address given below from Saturday to Wednesday during official hours, i.e. 08:00 to 16:00 hours]. Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form to the address below (in person, or by email) 14 calendar days after the advertisement. Enayat u Rahaman “Abdali” Procurement Specialist Safety Net and Pension Support Project (SNPSP) Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD), opposite 1st Makroyan Market , kabul Afghanistan. E-mail: enayatrahman@molsamd.gov.af Phone: 0093(0)786111148