Date: 8/6/2014 Ref.: RFP/14/170
Subject: Solicitation for ArcGis Software Development Services
The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) - Washington DC, invites your firm to participate in this competitive solicitation for pricing, delivery and terms of potential sale on the following items/services for IFES office in Islamabad, Pakistan.
BACKGROUND
IFES is an independent, non-governmental organization (NGO) with headquarters registered in the United States. IFES promotes democratic stability by providing technical assistance to the electoral cycle worldwide to enhance citizen participation and strengthen civil societies, governance and transparency.
IFES invites proposals from reputed firms having GIS expertise to carry out GIS-related activities for the delimitation of National Assembly, Provincial Assemblies and local councils constituency boundaries for general and local government elections, as well as related tasks such as the mapping of polling stations and electoral areas, and integrating the computerized electoral roll system (CERS) summary data at electoral area/census block level with the polling scheme and electoral constituencies.
The delimitation of constituencies is a constitutional obligation of the Election Commission of Pakistan and is required after each census, once the census report is officially published. In the past, the Election Commission has relied on paper maps and calculators to manually draw the electoral constituency maps and calculate the constituency populations. The Election Commission believes that computerizing this process by using a GIS-based application developed for this purpose will make a more efficient and accurate delimitation exercise. ESRI’s ArcGIS has been acquired for this purpose, but the Election Commission would like an extension to this program developed that will simplify many of the GIS-related tasks associated with delimitation and make the software program easier to use for non-GIS specialists. In addition, a database that links the necessary maps to population data must be created in order to use GIS for the delimitation of electoral constituencies.
DESCRIPTION OF GOODS/SERVICES
The overall objective of employing a GIS-based application at the Election Commission of Pakistan is to make electoral processes more efficient, credible and accurate. This is with particular reference to the delimitation of National Assembly, Provincial Assemblies and local councils constituency boundaries for general and local government elections, the mapping of polling stations and electoral areas, and other related tasks for electoral purposes. In addition, in order to enhance the transparency of the process, the GIS-application must be able to produce maps with graphical and tabular reports. Once the final draft of constituency plan is
prepared, maps with graphical and tabular reports associated with the draft will be posted on ECP website for public/electoral stakeholders’ information, scrutiny and representations. The software should support the preparation of preliminary constituency plan specifying the areas proposed to be included in each constituency in map format. The constituency maps should display the administrative units, population, communication infrastructure and geographical/topological features (roads, rivers, mountains etc.).
It is important to mention here that the core task of the contracted firm will be development of GIS software to support boundary delimitation process. Regarding electoral boundaries delimitation process, ECP itself will do it with necessary technical support from the contracted firm as and when required i.e. during the GIS pilot project and nationwide delimitation exercise and for specified period after the completion of the delimitation process.
Scope of Work
1. Design an extension for ArcGIS that supports or simplifies many of the tasks relevant to the delimitation process, including tools that will automate map production and reporting functions for publication on the ECP website.
2. Create a database that links all administrative boundaries, current constituency boundaries (National Assembly, Provincial Assemblies and local councils constituency boundaries) and electoral areas/census blocks with designated polling stations to the relevant population data (at a minimum, the electoral roll summary data at electoral area/census block level and administrative unit data but perhaps other population data as well).
3. Integrate the computerized electoral roll system (CERS) summary data at electoral area/census block level with the polling stations, electoral areas and constituencies. 4. Installation and configuration of the GIS software at the ECP Secretariat.
5. Train ECP and IFES officials on use of the application system.
6. Provide technical assistance to the Election Commission during the GIS pilot project (beta version) and nationwide delimitation exercise and for specified period after the completion of the delimitation exercise.
7. During the development of the software in all phases, keep update and involve the IFES and ECP’s designated staff.
8. Prepare work plan for software development with timeline – duration of work with deadlines for individual tasks.
9. Provide the source code for the software developed and the system documentation to IFES and the ECP. Note: any GIS/MIS data including metadata will remain the property of the ECP and will not be shared/retained by the contracted company. Design extension for ArcGIS: Features of the extension should provide the user with the ability to:
1. Easily set-up and create a constituency plan by assigning administrative units to constituencies using different layers of geography.
2. Store and manage an unlimited number of constituency plans.
3. Automate map production and reporting tools so that maps and data in tabular form can be published online easily.
4. The software should have the ability to create tabular reports depicting at minimum the following attributes:
i. The unique identifier for each block,
ii. The updated constituency numbers associated with each block, iii. The population of each block,
iv. A total population for the updated constituency, and
v. The percent deviation from the equal (ideal) size of constituency population. vi. Chart and graph generation, and standard report creation to show equal size of population with standard deviation, compactness, contiguity, summary, and split unit reports as well as other reports specific to ECP requirements. 5. Designate and change the layer to be used to assign geography to constituencies. 6. Add territory/area to target constituencies easily using feature selection tools. 7. Display attributes for any layer using labels or themes.
8. Display on the mapping screen, the population and population deviation (allowing for an adjustable threshold) for each constituency immediately as territory is assigned or subtracted from it.
9. Easily find any territory/area that has not been assigned to a constituency and identify and illustrate which areas require intervention including population check (as per set threshold), contiguity check and other such quality checks. Software should give immediate graphical and numeric feedback on changed boundary scenarios and should be able to enhance performance, expand the associated database, and allow users to make modifications to the system. It should give decision makers more information and enable them to quickly go through several different scenarios and see the resulting consequences visually, and thus allowing them to consider more alternatives in the same amount of time.
10. Constituency boundary delimitation process will be based on census blocks that the ECP adopts as electoral areas; presently there are 140,000 census blocks in Pakistan. 11. User should be able to select census units by drawing geometry on the map such as
points, line or polygon. Selected items should be highlighted at the coordinates of the surface point field (point representation of the census unit) in the corresponding census table and the statistics of the population of current selection being calculated. This statistic information includes total population, population deviation and objective (within the threshold) population. The user could then decide whether to include more census units in order to meet the population requirement for a constituency. If user wants to remove certain units from the selection, they could simply click and remove it. The statistic information be updated accordingly. The software should be able to handle duplicate or invalid assignments.
12. After all assignments have been updated in the database, the software should be able to generate the boundaries of electoral areas/constituencies list and all noncontiguous portions of a constituency.
13. All constituency boundaries should be delimited having regard to the distribution of population in geographically compact areas, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and public convenience and other cognate factors as far as practicable to ensure homogeneity in the creation of constituencies1. As
much information as possible relevant to these delimitation criteria should be included in the database. Mathematical geometry equations should be employed to check compactness and contiguity of the constituency among other principles. 14. It is mandatory that during delimiting boundaries, statistics are updated for each
selection of source geography units. User can assign the selected units immediately to the constituency or preview the statistics before making the assignment to the constituency. A delimited constituency can be composed of many electoral/census blocks2. However, it is desirable that no constituency boundary split a block. In the
event a block must be split, the boundary line splitting the block shall follow and be topologically coincident with the physical features of the area/ country. A reference list of supplemental GIS data representing these physical features and links where these data can be accessed are contained in “Construction of database” point no.2 (Scope of Work) of this document. To ensure privacy and security, the software application should:
i. Include the user information i.e. user name, email address, encrypted password, and data folder name.
ii. Store the boundary delimitation plans in files in the server file system. Each user has a dedicated folder.
iii. Define the maximum total number of registered users and the maximum number of concurrent users on the administrator.
iv. Contain properties and methods that satisfy security requirements and track users throughout the program on the user interface. After a final approval from concerned authorities, once an constituency boundary is delimited/modified; the core selection engine as well as supporting methods that should lock constituency from further assignments, create an electoral area/constituency polygon, and identify split units.
16. The application must administer its own level of security. Locking and determination of read and write privileges are handled by the application. When designing the extension, it should be kept in mind that there will be three types of GIS application software users:
i. General public/electoral stakeholders – these users can only view the final draft of constituency plan to be posted on ECP website for information, scrutiny and representations. General public can also view polling station locations on the ECP website for information and looking up for their polling station locations.
ii. Election Commission management – these users can only view all GIS related information related to proposed plans in the form of ticker tape on their LCD screens.
iii. The Election Commission GIS designated technical and domain staff users – these users will be working directly on the GIS software for boundary delimitation and other GIS related tasks.
2 Foundation layer used to build each constituency boundary. Census block and electoral block is the same thing, for ECP it is named as electoral block to assign voters to that area with set number of population as per Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
Construction of database: ECP will collect/procure the necessary data from the relevant organizations and support the contracted firm as and when necessary. The database should include:
1. Clear demarcation of all administrative units. For rural areas this includes: revenue estates [smallest], patwar circle, qanungo halqa, tehsil/taluka, district, division and provincial boundaries. For urban areas this includes: census block [smallest], census circle, census charge, town committee/municipal committee/municipal corporation/cantonment, tehsil/taluka, district, division and provincial boundaries. 2. Supplement GIS topological data i.e. physical features such as roads, railroads,
streams, mountains, rivers etc.
3. Link all administrative/census units with the appropriate population data using a systematic coding scheme.
4. Clear demarcation of current National Assembly, Provincial Assemblies and local councils’ constituency boundaries.
5. Clear demarcation of current electoral areas and polling stations – linked with the appropriate electoral rolls summary data at electoral area/census block level.
Training: Assess the training needs of designated Election Commission technical and domain staff, design technical training and end user training program and impart training as and when required.
Technical assistance: Provide technical assistance during implementation of pilot project for general and local government elections and up to one year after completion of the project as per terms and conditions fixed between the vendor and purchaser.
Deliverables
1. GIS strategic plan for the use of GIS application for the ECP, including all aspects of general and software requirement analysis, system design, development, risk analysis, implementation, pilot project, and nationwide implementation.
2. Assessment and technical specifications of IT infrastructure (hardware and system software) at the ECP for implementation of boundary delimitation software.
3. Pilot GIS software extension package built on ESRI’s ArcGIS for delimitation of constituency boundaries for use in pilot delimitation project.
4. Installation and configuration of the GIS software at the ECP Secretariat/designated sites.
5. Training of Election Commission staff on constituency delimitation GIS package/software application.
6. Geographic/topological database that links administrative and electoral boundaries to relevant population data, installed and ready to use with constituency extension GIS software package.
7. Database of polling areas and polling station that have been mapped and integrated with the CERS database and linked to the geographic and population database. 8. Final GIS software extension package for national implementation refined/enhanced
9. Technical assistance during implementation of pilot project for general and local government elections and guarantee of services for one year after fixing of bugs detected during pilot project as per terms and conditions fixed.
10. Complete system documentation and software source code of final GIS software extension package with relevant documentation, and user/technical manual.
Ownership and relinquishment of source code and data rights: The contracted firm must agree to release all rights of ownership, copyright, and distribution rights of the software with complete documentation and the source code resulting from these contract specifications to IFES. In contractual terms all approvals, ownership, handovers etc., will be between the contracted company and IFES. IFES will grant a right of use, a perpetual license free of charge, to the ECP for the software along with documentation. The ECP will have ownership of the GIS data and while IFES will retain the ownership of source code.
REQUIREMENTS
Bidders must submit the following in order to be considered, the proposal must include: 1. Timeline – duration of work with deadlines for individual tasks. The period of contract
will commence on as per mutually agreed dates, and end with the submission of software source code and the completion of all of the agreed upon deliverables. The successful completion of the work will be determined by IFES and ECP.
2. Cost – detailed cost estimation for each of the tasks, as well as for any additional software required, and for the procurement of any databases necessary to create the delimitation database.
3. Personnel – identification, and qualifications and experience of personnel to be employed for the development and implementation of the project.
4. Maintenance contract – The contracted firm will provide free of cost warranty of software maintenance services for one year as part of the contract, from the date of delivery of final product. Thereafter, IFES and the contracted firm may enter into annual “software maintenance services agreement” after the completion of warranty period. The firm will also quote cost of annual maintenance services charges in the proposal. General information about the bidder history and experience.
5. Detailed description of past experiences providing similar services to national and international NGOs/organizations.
6. Names, addresses and telephone numbers of three business references, and approval to contact listed references.
EVALUATION
IFES will evaluate bids based on the following criteria:
1. TIMELINE: 15%
2. EXPERIENCE/Past Performance: 20%
3. TECHNICAL PROPOSAL: 40%
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Release of RFQ 6 August 2014 COB EDT US
Questions Due 9 August 2014 Midnight Islamabad time Answers from IFES 15 August 2014 COB EDT US
RFQ Closes – All Bids Due 30 August 2014 Midnight Islamabad time GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS
1. Prices quoted must be valid for 90 days. 2. Payment terms are planned as follows:
a. 20% based on the mutual agreement and approval of a work plan for software development with timeline – duration of work with deadlines for individual tasks.
b. 40% payment will be made upon satisfactory development and configuration of boundary delimitation software at the ECP Secretariat, training of users on the application software and providing technical assistance to the Election Commission during the GIS pilot project till its successful completion. c. 30% payment after successful completion of pilot project and provision of
system documentation and software source code to the purchaser/awardee (IFES) as well as to ECP.
d. Remaining 10% payment after successful completion of one year warranty period of software maintenance services.
3. Unit prices are required and in the case of discrepancies between unit price and total price, the unit price will be taken as reference basis in the evaluation.
4. All procurement will be subject to IFES contractual obligations and contingent on the availability of donor funding.
5. IFES reserves the right to accept or reject any quotation or stop the procurement process at any time, without assigning any reason or liability.
6. IFES reserves the right to accept all or part of the quotation when awarding the purchase order.
7. All information provided by IFES in this RFQ is offered in good faith. Individual items are subject to change at any time. IFES makes no certification that any item is without error. IFES is not responsible or liable for any use of the information or for any claims asserted there from.
8. IFES reserves the right to require any bidder to enter into a non-disclosure agreement.
9. The RFQ does not obligate IFES to pay for any costs, of any kind whatsoever, which may be incurred by bidder or any third parties, in connection with the Response. All
Responses and supporting documentation shall become the property of IFES, subject to claims of confidentiality in respect of the Response and supporting documentation.
FORM/CONTENT OF RESPONSE All quotations shall:
1. Be in the English language.
2. Contain detailed cost in Pakistan Rupees with applicable Tax/Charges clearly identified, provided against each of the categories of services described in this request.
3. Include a contact name, email address, and telephone number to facilitate communication between IFES and the Bidder.
4. A brief outline of the company and services offered, including:
Full legal name and address of the company or individual;
Full legal name of company’s President and / or Chief Executive Officer (not applicable for individuals); and
Year business was started or established.
5. All questions and responses must adhere to the schedule noted above and shall be to the attention of Elizabeth Durbin (email: edurbin@ifes.org) and Ejaz Ahmed (eahmed@ifes.org )
