EXTERNAL SERVICE PROVIDER TO MANAGE THE MESPT ETHICS HOTLINE At Micro Enterprises Support Programme Trust

INTRODUCTION:

Micro Enterprise Support Programme Trust (MESPT) is a development organization established in the year 2002 by the Government of Kenya and the European Union and later by Royal Danish Embassy in Kenya, (DANIDA) enjoined through a Trust Deed of 2013.

Our Mandate

MESPT is mandated to support sustainable economic growth and development of small holder farmers and Agri MSMEs to increase productivity, income and enhance competitiveness for job creation especially for youth and women. This is achieved through capacity building which includes skills development, technical support, business advisory, financial and market linkages.

Our Services

For the past 18 years, MESPT has been working with the agricultural and financial services sectors of the Kenyan economy, and for the past 10 years, the green/ renewable energy industry. The Trust has developed key competencies that have contributed enterprising solutions that have impacted Kenya’s rural poor to increase their competitiveness in various agricultural value chains leading to job creation. These services include:

· Facilitating access to markets

· Promoting sustainable agricultural production and Food safety

· Provision of sustainable credit to financial institutions & SMEs

· Promoting green transformation solutions.

BACKGROUND:

MESPT has an existing Whistle blowing policy, however in order to ensure the independence in administration of this policy and build confidence among users to report concerns, MESPT would like to engage a qualified service provider with the requisite capacity to manage an Ethics Hotline service on behalf of MESPT within the desired quality, scope, timeframe, and cost.

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The primary objective of this consultancy is to support the management in the inculcation of strong integrity culture and the promotion of good ethical practices and the highest standards of governance in MESPT and amongst the clients, vendors, suppliers, service providers and other business partners (“other stakeholders”) by: Reviewing, investigating, and disposing complaints received against any member of the Board of Trustees, management, employees of MESPT or its other stakeholders.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

MESPT requires a service provider to manage our ethics hotline where reporting of any unlawful activities or concerns of irregularities of whatever nature, occurring within the organization’s business structures are received.

The unlawful activities or concerns to irregularities to be reported, can include, but are not limited to:

• Any criminal offence; or

• Concerns regarding questionable business practices,

• Warnings about particular risk areas going unchecked,

• Non-compliance observed – with regard to company policy or the law,

The hotline is available to our internal staff, external stakeholders such as contractors, vendors, suppliers, clients, and other interested parties to report on any possible misconduct that directly or indirectly has detrimental effect on the organization.

DELIVERABLES:

In fulfilling its primary objective, the consultant will undertake the following: –

• Receive, process, investigate and determine the genuineness and seriousness of

any complaint/report raised.

• Conduct initial enquiry on any complaint/report received.

• Review the findings of the inquiry in respect of any complaint/report/recommendation.

• Dismiss any complaint/report if the same shall have no basis or merits or is not a

matter to be dealt with.

• Decide on the appropriate actions to be taken to address the complaint/report/recommendation should it have merit.

• Conduct investigation into any complaint/report/recommendation, if deemed necessary.

• Make recommendation to the Board for consideration and adoption for any complaint/report/recommendation of a concern.

• Provide concise (monthly & quarterly) incident reports on all issues reported to the Board in a format agreed on with MESPT:

• Review and evaluate the effectiveness of Whistleblowing Policy and recommend any changes it considers necessary to the Board for approval.

PROPOSED TIME-FRAME AND REPORTING:

The consultancy will be for an initial period of one year.

DESIRED SKILLS AND COMPETENCE

• Should be registered with a relevant professional body in good standing

• Should have been in operation for a period of at least 5 years

• Should have experience in forensic audit

• Should demonstrate that it has the capacity, capability and experience required to undertake the assignment.

EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS

The proposals received will be assessed according to their responsiveness to the following terms of reference:

Technical Responsiveness

a) Letter of interest.

b) Service Provider’s Organizational Profile

c) Interpretation of the ToR’s understanding.

d) Methodology to be used in undertaking the assignment.

e) Detailed Work Plan

f) Firm’s experience in undertaking similar assignment

(Please provide contactable references minimum of 3)

g) Qualification of proposed team matched to responsibilities in the assignment with their academic and experience profile.

Financial Responsiveness

a) The total cost of managing the ethics hotline service must be clearly stated on the financial proposal with a breakdown of all the elements listed on their pricing schedule (unit price and any related taxes).

b) All costings shall be in Kenya Shillings.

c) The organisation will only pay the figure stated.

d) The financial proposal document must have a password.

NB: The technical proposal should be separate from the financial proposal; the financial proposal should be password protected and will be requested if the bidder attains the minimum technical score of 60 points and above.

Additional Information to be submitted includes:

Registration certificate, PIN No, VAT, Tax Compliance certificate, CR12.

DETERMINATION OF WINNING BID AND AWARD OF CONTRACT

The bidder achieving the highest combined technical and financial score will be considered to have won and will be invited for discussions towards signing a contract for undertaking the assignment. However, MESPT may at its own prerogative, decide to negotiate with the winning bidder in case the bid price is beyond the budget assigned for undertaking this assignment.

MESPT reserves the right to accept or reject the proposals