Consulting Services, Water Sector Programme

Brief description of the Contract:

Based on the National Albanian Master Plan for Water Supply and Sewerage, the Government of Albania (GoA) and KfW have identified priority investments in 7 of the 15 largest water utilities of Albania, namely in Berat and Kuçova (one joint utility), Elbasan, Fier, Kamza, Lezha, Shkodra and Vlora. In addition, the level of performance and institutional capacity was assessed for each location.
Based on these findings, Feasibility Studies (FS), Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIA) have been prepared and for some of these locations optional implementation services (detailed designs, tender documents, and assistance to the tendering process as well as supervision) have been contracted.

Requested Services:

The Programme Coordination Unit (PCU) is seeking to engage a qualified Institutional Consultant to perform the following services:

1) Different short term assistance to AKUM to strengthen the capacity of AKUM and its Programme Management Unit (PMU), comprising issues such as management of sector funds in compliance with EU guidelines, IT management capacities, quality control, financial control procedures, monitoring quality of utility data, and enhancement of human capacities.

2) Continuous support to AKUM to (i) review and aggregate reports of the different WPIP Implementation Consultants, and (ii) to contribute to the sector policy discussion.

3) Medium term technical assistance to the water utilities as Project Execution Agencies (PEAs), to support their capacity development and the achievement of performance requirements of the WPIP.

4) Technical assistance and capacity building to UK Lezha and the municipality of Lezha to increase the resilience of the city of Lezha to floods.

5) Management of funds, procurement of services and provision of support to AKUM for the coordination (i) with sector stakeholders for additional activities aiming at strengthening of the institutional framework at national level and harmonised planning processes in complementarity to other donors’ capacity building actions; (ii) with donors, PEAs and WPIP Implementation Consultants for a specific component which will cover the communication and visibility measures required under the IPA II action “Albania – EU for a cleaner environment”.