REQUEST FOR INFORMATION USAID/Albania Transparency in Healthcare Engagement (THE) Activity

Dear Potential Offerors, USAID/Albania is in the process of finalizing the design for the Mission's Transparency in Healthcare Engagement (THE) activity. This activity will focus on corruption in the health sector and will encourage the cooperation of selected independent government institutions with civil society organizations and media to urge for more responsible governance in health leading to improved health services for Albanian citizens. USAID believes that working to strengthen the cooperation of the High Inspectorate for the Declaration and Audit of Assets and the Prevention of Conflict of Interest (HIDAA), the High State Audit (HSA), and the Ombudsman, with civil society and media, provides opportunities for increasing public demand against corruption in the health sector while strengthening the performance of these institutions and making it transparent for the public to monitor. HIDAA collects and audits the annual declaration of assets and properties of around 5,000 mid- and high-level public officials in central and local executive agencies and supervises the prevention of conflicts of interest. Since its creation in 2003, HIDAA has gone a long way into establishing itself as an important anticorruption institution. Gradually over the years, the filing rate of public officials has increased, and cooperation with local public and private institutions has improved, HIDAA has referred more cases to prosecutors, and their cases have been stronger over time. HIDAA has also gained a reputation for being a transparent institution in offering public information of public officials' assets upon request. In order to be able to fulfill its watchdog role, HIDAA must have adequate tools to be able to collect, analyze, store, and retrieve the declarations of public officials. Currently, HIDAA must scan all public officials' declarations in a simple system that USAID helped establish about ten years ago. The current system is quite primitive. It allows for retrieval of declaration forms by name of public officials, but it is not able to make any calculations on the evolution of assets over the years. This has become even more difficult after recent changes in the law that have tripled the number of full investigations that HIDAA is required to conduct and simplified public requests for information by removing fees for service. Under such circumstances, a modern electronic asset declaration system would enable HIDAA to better perform its functions while also remaining transparent and accessible to the public. USAID/Albania requests information on the development and maintenance costs of an electronic document management system, to be owned and maintained by HIDAA, to improve its efficiency and effectiveness in performing its oversight role. Minimum system requirements include: - Compatibility with Government of Albania IT standards - Compatibility with file formats of previous declaration submissions - Automation or improved facilitation of scanning old declaration submissions - Ability of scanned documents to be mined for data - Produce statistical reports on the evolution of properties over the years - Ease of searching, exporting, and publishing data and reports, including to the internet - Electronic filing function for public officials Given the critical nature of the activity, we're reaching out to you, our potential offerors, to get comments/suggestions on the above draft portion of the statement of work (SOW). USAID requests respondents to include a brief description of the proposed system and a ballpark estimate of the total cost to develop and field the system, including initial set-up costs, training costs for HIDAA staff and maintenance costs. The description should note whether proprietary or off-the-shelf hardware and software is recommended. Please note that the figure in USAID's Business Forecast is only a place-holder and not indicative of this work. This is an RFI and not a Request for Proposals and is not to be construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government to issue any solicitation or to pay for any cost incurred in the preparation and submission of comments on this RFI. Please do not prepare a proposal in response to this RFI, as we're only looking for a ballpark figure or range. Responding to this RFI will not give any advantage to any firm or organization in any subsequent procurement and will not lead to an organizational conflict of interest. Responses will strictly be held confidential. To expedite our review and be considerate of your time, please keep responses to no more than 2 pages in length if possible. Responses to the RFI must be written in English, and use 11pt font. Please number each page consecutively. Please send responses to this RFI via email kjanaqi@usaid.gov and arexhepi@usaid.gov with the subject title "Response to USAID/Albania Transparency in Healthcare Engagement RFI", no later than the date/time stated above. You will receive an electronic confirmation acknowledging receipt of your response. In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 15.209(c), the following clause is incorporated into this RFI: 52.215-3 - Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes (OCT 1997) (a) The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this solicitation or to otherwise pay for the information solicited except as an allowable cost under other contracts as provided in subsection 31.205-18 Bid and Proposal Costs, of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. (b) Although "proposal" and "offeror" are used in this Request for Information, your response will be treated as information only. It shall not be used as a proposal. (c) This solicitation is issued for the purpose of gathering comments on a draft SOW. Thank you for your assistance and interest in USAID/Albania's programs and we look forward to hearing from you. Michael Capobianco Regional Contracting Officer USAID/Kosovo