TRENDER ANNOUNCEMENT November 2006

ACCOUNTABILITY THROUGH TRANSPARENCY

Q&A Session

The USAID e-Gov Project together with the Make Decentralization Work Project (M.D.W) will design and implement a software application called "Accountability Through Transparency".

This software application will improve the possibilities for citizens to be engaged in and informed about discussions held and decisions taken in the municipality council. It will thus increase the accountability and transparency of the work within the municipality councils in the Republic of Macedonia.

The tender documents consist of the Invitation to Submit Bids and a System Description. Copy of both documents can be found under Documents.

Following the deadline for submiting bids November 3rd, 2006 at 15:00 local time, the following 13 bidders submited requested documentation:

EIN-SOF
Gord Systems
Institute of Informatics
IT-GLOB
ITS Iskratel
MBS
Neocom
NextSense
Pexim
Seavus
Semos
Smart Solutions
SRC

After reviewing and evaluating all 13 bids, e-Gov Project decided to sign the contract with Seavus.

>Q&A session:

1. Can the bidder base the offer on a ready made software solution commercially available on the market, for which source code is not available?
The e-Gov Project must become the owner of the SW solution and have the possibility to pass it on to any organisation and without any restrictions in the number of recipients without paying any additional license fee related to the software. It is up to the bidder to suggest a solution that fits this requirement.

2. Regarding deployment, should it be implemented on one central server for all municipalities, or on more local servers, one for each municipality?
Each municipality will have the application installed at its local municipality server.

3. Do the municipalities have licenses for SQL Server? (If yes, for which version of SQL Server they have licenses?
MSDE installed. Municipality have licenses for the SQL server installed in their premises.

4. Do the municipalities already have an existing Back-Up system or the idea is to make it centrally, for all municipalities?
Each municipality is independent, and back-up system should be proposed as unique solution to be installed in each municipality.

5. Will the municipality's infrastructure be used for hosting, too?
Yes.

6. Should there be an administrator's approval before putting all the posts from the citizens on the site, or they should be put on-line immediately?
Citizens will put the posts immediately.

7. Who will approve the proposed issues (by the Council members and the citizens) for the next Council meeting?
The administration of the municipality organizes the Council meetings. You can find the manner of organizing the meetings of the Council in the Law on local self government listed in the System Description.

8. Which municipalities will be covered? Are they in Skopje or across Macedonia?
The municipalities are not yet decided but will be before a contract is to be signed. The municipalities will most likely be spread around the country. The software shall of course be installed in each individual municipality concerned and training provided.

9. You are mentioning the implementation in one municipality, and after that in 5 more. What about additional municipalities? Implementation? Training?
The number of municipalities are still unknown, thus the wording in the Invitation to Bid which indicates possibly 6 municipalities in total. If the software shall be installed in more municipalities, in addition to 6, additional compensation will be paid to the software developer, including of course for the additional training. The amount to be paid will be negotiated between the e-Gov project and the contractor before that extra work is being undertaken.