PURPOSE
To provide guidelines and a strategy for the successful tendering of Financial Service Providers for cash-based interventions as it relates to programmatic service provision, while ensuring that CRS protects its assets and reputation by working with financially sound and reputable institutions.
SCOPE
This process begins at the Scope of Work (Purchase Requisition) and ends at the Financial Service Provider Selection. The Contracting Procedure is separate and should refer to the Office of General Council page General Guidelines for Legal Review and the CRS Procurement Contracts Policy POL-PUR-POS-001 at the contracting stage. It is recommended for the Head of Operations to reach out to the Office of General Council at the start of the process to ensure the contract is ready by the time the FSP has been chosen to avoid any delay in project implementation.
The procedure is based on the CRS Procure-2-Pay Manual with many sections pulled directly from the guidance.
GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS PRE-TENDERING
1) Risk Assessment Checklist: Country Programs can use the Risk Assessment Checklist as a first step to quickly assess its systems before starting a cash-based response or to review its ongoing interventions
2) FSP Capacity Assessment Tool: This set of questions is to guide your pre-tendering informational interviews with representatives of financial service providers. The questions suggested are broad and should be adapted to the local context. The information gathered from different service providers can be organized in a spreadsheet (see mapping financial service providers tool) that allows for an overview of the service providers operating in the affected area, their distribution and their capacity to reach the affected population within the required time-frame.
3) Mapping Financial Service Provider Template: A simple template to track potential service providers
GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS TENDERING PROCESS
1) Financial Service Provider Tendering Procedure: The full step-by-step process each CP should follow when procuring an FSP; including links to agency Global Treasury and Procurement Policies.
2) Financial Service Provider Tendering Procedure Quick Reference Guide: Summary of the full FSP Tendering Procedure – to be used as a reference guide, but not replace the full FSP Tendering Procedure guidance document.
3) Financial Service Provider Tendering Quick Reference Guide Timeline: Example timeline to use as a reference for planning and the development of a country/project specific procurement timeline.
4) Financial Service Provider Tendering Questionnaire: Specific questions for FSPs to answer AS PART OF THE RFP. These questions have been developed by Global treasury, Programming, Compliance and GKIM, but if there are questions that do not make sense for your specific context, then flag them and discuss the omission of those questions with the technical advisor supporting and Global Treasury.
Please note this questionnaire has sections for Electronic and Non-Electronic modalities. It is necessary to use the correct questions for that specific FSP. If, for example, the local post office offers cash-over-the-counter, then the post office would not need to answer questions with regards to the electronic modality. The procurement team will need to determine if the RFP will include both Electronic and Non-Electronic questions in the same RFP or if the RFPs will separate.
5) Financial Service Provider Tendering Evaluation Template: This document is a weighted evaluation sheet to be used by the bid committee during the selection process. This questionnaire should be checked to ensure that it matches your country specific questionnaire exactly and it is also important to ensure that each member of the bid committee is clear on each question before the FSP proposal scoring commences.
Please note this questionnaire example does not have the Financial questions added, so those will need to be added on a separate document as the Admin and Technical sections should be scored prior to and separately from the Financial document.
6) Financial Service Provider Tendering Example Packages: Each country will be somewhat different and it is important to tailor your procurement process to the specific context of that market. Below are two examples from different projects in different CRS countries.
Ethiopia JEOP Example
Ethiopia Expression of Interest (EoI)
Ethiopia Request For Proposal (Full Document)
Ethiopia Bid Committee Scoring Criteria
Philippines R2R Preparedness Example
Philippines Expression of Interest (EOI)
Philippines Request For Proposal (Full document)
Philippines Bid Committee Scoring Criteria
FSP CONTRACTING PROCESS
The Head of Operations/Operations Manager in collaboration with the DRD Operations should liaise with the Office of General Council (OGC) to draft a vendor contract for the specific program. A contract will be required when working with a Financial Service Provider (FSP), such as a bank, mobile money provider or Western Union. A different style vendor contract will be necessary when working with vendors in the market, such as local vendors selling NFIs, rice, lentils, spaghetti, etc.
The Contract Requirements E-transfer Checklist can be used as guidance when thinking about contracting, but is not a replacement for liaising with OGC.
WHAT TO DO WHEN THERE ARE NO FSP OPTIONS
There will be times when there are no viable FSPs in the service delivery area. When this occurs, refer to the Guidance on Direct Cash-in-Emergencies & Flowchart