PROJECT IDENTIFICATION AND PROCUREMENT

OF CONSULTANCY SERVICES

A paper prepared by Eng. Peter Maina Wakori for presentation at the Project
Management Seminar Organized by the Institution of Engineers of Kenya

21st -23rd July 2008

 PROJECT IDENTIFICATION AND PROCUREMENT OF CONSULTANCY
SERVICES

Project Identification is part of the planning process. I have therefore decided to present
to you the principal steps in planning in order to see where project identification falls.

PRINCIPAL STEPS IN PLANNING

1. Problem definition
2. Solution generation
3. Solution analysis
4. Evaluation and choice
5. Implementation

Social Economic and Political

Environment

Problem Definition
objectives
constraints
inputs and outputs
value functions Implementation
decision criteria

Solution Generation

Solution Analysis

Recommended strategy or
Evaluation and Choice projects
 Planning therefore is a continuous process involving an interaction of the
government, other stakeholders and the community being served.

II. GOAL, OBJECTIVES AND STANDARDS OR SPECIFICATIONS

Planning is supposed to chart the way for community’s goals to be realized. In

many instances, the terms goals, objectives and standards are used
interchangeably. However, in our discussion today we will use the following
definitions: -

A. GOAL:
Goal is an end to which a plan trends. It is an ideal expressed in abstract terms
that is sought after continuously, and not an end state that can be reached.
Goals are set of statements that attempt to convey to the planner an image of ideal
systems and in this way provide him with overall direction. Thus planning means
a pursuit of a carefully defined set of goals

The overriding goals of a society are contained in its national objectives: the
constitution, national policy and national development plans. Traditionally they
include at least freedom, social justice, progress and national unity. These are
ranked in order of importance in different societies according to the desires of
their respective members as filtered through the political systems.

B. OBJECTIVE
An objective may be conceived as a lower order goal which at least conceptually
is capable of being measured.

For instance: a typical community goal might be “to ensure that job opportunities,
housing etc are available to all socio-economic groups in the community.
One of the objectives of the urban transport system that should be fulfilled to
permit this goal to be pursued would be “to maximize and equalize the
accessibility to urban activities by public transport from all residential areas.

C. STANDARD
A standard is of lower order again than an objective and represents a condition
that is capable of both measurement and attainment.

For instance: if the objective of the transport system is to maximize and equalize
the accessibility to urban activities, one standard would be to permit the principle
activity centers to be reached form each other by public transport services with
travel times not greater than 30 minutes.

The distinction between goals, objectives and standards must be made, not only
order to overcome semantic difficulties but also to provide information for each of
the hierarchies of planning.
 The different levels of plan are: -

1. Conceptual plan: Which involves establishment of plan objectives for the

desirable form and function of the region and development of a plan with the
most viable application of these objectives.

Such a plan is for a 30-40 year period with at least one intermediate plan of
20years. One would prepare indicative forecasts of major concentrations of
land use, population, employment, etc on the basis of broad understanding of
existing conditions.

2. Outline Plan: This involves establishment of plan objectives at the sector

from the regional /rational objectives and development of a plan with the most
viable of sect oral objectives.
Such a plan (Outline plan) would be for a 20 year period and at least a 10year
intermediate horizon. It would use simplified forecasts of land use,
population, employment and other relevant factors by area concerned.

3. Master plan: (Outline plan) involves establishment of plan objectives at an

area-wide scale from the sector objectives and development of a plan with
most viable application of the established objectives.

Such a plan is for a 20year period with at least one intermediate horizon of 5
years. It requires neighborhood to be divided into homogeneous zones on the
basis of population and comprehensive forecasts made of zonal parameters
including population, employment, etc.

4. Statutory Plan: involves establishment of plan objectives at the local scale

from district objectives and these are for a 10year period with intermediate
horizon of 1 year. Detailed special forecasts are required depending on the
problem.

5. Detailed Plan: Involve formulation of detailed land use control plans,

development and re-development plans, design and implementation schemes.
These are 1 year or more depending specific proposed.

III PROBLEM DEFINITION

The first step of any problem –solving process is to develop a clear understanding
of the problem to the solved. Most of the urban transport discussions have tended
to cloud the real issue which is the identification of the urban transport problem in
its broadest sense. There is a fundamental difference between:
- Refining an existing solution to a problem is an effort to eliminate some of its
real weakness; and
 - Starting with a fundamental and comprehensive problem statement and
synthesizing a superior’s solution in a systematic fashion.
An important principle here is that the more general you understand a
problem, the more the number of possible solutions.
One Canadian gentleman by the name of Lithrick made the following
observations in a study of urban problems in Canada.

- If our task is to investigate the substance of urban problems, it is necessary at

the outset to understand what is meant by the urban problem.
- To many, this is a ludicrous effort, the problems are so obvious that trying to
understand them is a diversionary tactic aimed at preventing people to get on
with the job.

The aim of the problem definition step is to define the interface between the
system and its environment and to identify the rule or criterion which may be used
by the planner to identify the optimum system, programme or project.

The pertinent features of a problem definition may be developed in a concise and unified
form through the use of the following concepts:

• Project objectives
• Project constraints
• Project inputs
• Project outputs
• Value functions
• Decision criteria

Constraints

We have already seen how we establish objectives. Let us now look at the constraints.
The constraints on a project are defined as those characteristics of the environment
(financial, economic, social, political etc) that limit the extent of a feasible solution.

An example of a constraint is the financial constraint on both the capital and operating
expenditures associated with transport systems or projects. Transport investments must
compete with investments in other public sectors such as education, water supply and
waste disposal. The financial resources required of the projects often exceed the available
investment resources of a region or country.

Perhaps some of the most severe constraints on the planning of urban transport systems
are those of political nature. For example, it may be necessary to subsidise public
transport services out of general property taxation revenues in order to make these
services financially viable. The subsidy may be necessary in order to provide non-car
owners with an acceptable level of transport service. The government may not accept the
principle of direct subsidization. The planner may therefore be forced to look into an
alternative means of accomplishing the same end which is compatible with political
preferences.

Inputs

The inputs to a project may be described as those characteristics of the environment that a
project must transform into outputs in the light of the project objectives. The inputs to an
urban transport project are the demands for the movements of persons and goods between
activity areas.
There are two dimensions of travel demand that are of interest: spatial patterns of
travel demand that exist through out a region and the times throughout the day at
which the dominant spatial pattern of travel occur. These must be estimated.

Outputs

The outputs of a project are those characteristics of the project that influence its
environment directly and that are a function of the inputs and the project properties. The
magnitude of project outputs determine the degree to the project objectives are fulfilled.

Examples of outputs of transport projects are:

• Travel times (Objective may be to reduce travel times)

• Costs of travel (Objective may be to reduce travel costs)
• Vehicle operating costs
• Accident rates (Objective may be to reduce accidents or to increase safety)
• Environmental impacts such as noise and air pollution

Value Functions

This is a procedure for mapping the magnitude of an output into the units of value in
which the objectives are measured. For example:

A stated objective may be to increase safety with the objective being measured in
shillings. The problem is to formulate a value function that assigns shilling values to
changes in this output. We need to develop a method of converting the decrease in
accidents into monetary value.

Decision Criteria

A decision criterion is a rule that instructs the project planner how the individual
measures of value associated with the project outputs and the financial resources required
for the construction and operation of the project should be manipulated in order to arrive
at a single index of value for the project in order to allow the optimal project to be
identified.
For projects whose objectives are measurable in monetary value, the decision criteria is
straightforward: select a project with the maximum difference between the net present
value of benefits and costs.

SOLUTION GENERATION

The second phase of the planning process is solution generation. The aim of this phase
is to generate an array of solutions that satisfy the previously established objectives to a
greater or lesser degree and which do not violate the constraints.

This is where professional knowledge such as engineering or understanding of the

properties of the project you wish to develop is required. For example there is a
hierarchical classification of roads:

• Expressways: provide for high volume and relatively fast movement to and
from major activity concentrations that depend regional-wide support.
Traffic movement on such facilities are grade separated without direct land
access and movements between different road facilities are achieved by
interchanges.

• Arterials: provide for the movement of trips between freeways and collectors
where ease of traffic movement is emphasized and little or no direct access to
land is provided, intersections between arterials and with collectors are
usually at grade and signalized.

• Collectors: provide for the movement of trips between arterials and locals
and provide direct access to land.

One would therefore develop an array of road solutions depending on the objectives and
constraints.

SOLUTION ANALYSIS

This is the third phase of the planning process and its objective is to predict the probable
operating state of each of the alternative solutions that have been generated given the
social, economic, political and other aspects.

The planner must predict the magnitudes of the output variables given the input
magnitudes and the project properties. In transportation the input magnitudes and
behaviour of alternative projects are estimated normally through a four phase process
involving:

 Trip generation analysis or travel-demand forecasting

 Modal split analysis
 Trip distribution analysis
 Trip assignment analysis.
EVALUATION AND CHOICE

This is the fourth phase of the planning process. The aim is to identify the alternative
project that satisfies the objectives to the greatest extent. The data required for this phase
include:
• The output variable magnitudes predicted in the solution analysis step
• The value functions
• The decision making criteria.

I notice that my next presentation covers Feasibility Study, Economic Evaluation and
Preliminary Design. Feasibility Study and Economic Evaluation are part of the fourth
phase in the planning process: Evaluation and Choice.

PROCUREMENT OF CONSULTANCY SERVICES

Engineers are free to offer consultancy services to any organization: private or public. So
when I received the invitation to present this paper, particularly in the area of
procurement of consultancy services, I got a little confused. Do I discuss public or private
procurement of consultancy services? Well since I have never been involved in the
procurement of services for private entities, I took the easier option. I will therefore
attempt to present the process of procurement of consultancy services by public entities.

WHO QUALIFIES TO PARTICIPATE IN THE PROCUREMENT OF THE

SERVICES

As a rule, natural persons, companies or firms, joint ventures or groupings of companies,

cooperative societies and other legal persons governed by the laws of Kenya and who
have:

 the necessary qualifications, capability, experience, resources, equipment

and facilities to provide the consultancy services being procured;
 the legal capacity to enter into a contract in Kenya; and
 have not been involved in corrupt or fraudulent practices in any procuring
process involving a public entity.

are qualified to participate in a procuring process being administered a public entity.

Accordingly, public entities should prepare Request for Proposals (RFP) that clearly and
precisely define the qualifications, capability, experience and facilities required to
provide the services being procured. In addition evidence of legal capacity to enter into a
contract should be demanded as well as a declaration that the consultant has not been
involved in corrupt and fraudulent practices in the past and will not be involved in such
practices in the procurement being sought.
However natural persons, companies or firms, joint ventures or groupings of companies,
cooperative societies and other legal persons shall not participate in a procuring process
administered by public entity if:

 one is an employee, board member or member of a committee the procuring

entity;
 one is a minister, public servant, member of a board or committee of the
Government or any department of the Government or a person appointed by the
President or minister;
 one is a person, including a corporation that is related to a minister, public
servant, member of a board or committee of the Government or any department of
the Government or a person appointed by the President or minister;
 they are bankrupt, being wound up, are having their affairs administered by
courts, have entered into an arrangement with creditors, have suspended business
or are in analogous situation arising from a similar procedure provided for in the
laws or regulations of Kenya;
 they are subject of proceedings for declaration of bankruptcy, winding up, for
administration of their affairs by the courts, for an arrangement with creditors or
for any similar procedure provided for in the laws and regulations of Kenya;
 they have been convicted of an offence concerning professional conduct by a
judgment that has the force of res juricata;
 they are guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by means which the
procurement agency can justify;
 they have not fulfilled obligations relating to payments of social security
contributions and other taxes in accordance with the legal provisions obtaining in
Kenya;
 they are declared to be in a serious breach of contract for failure to comply with
obligations in another contract financed by the procurement entity.
 they have not declared that they will not in any way be involved in subsequent
stages of the project without the written authority of the procuring entity;

In this regard the Request for Proposal for consultancy services should have a declaration
that the consultants are not in any of the above categories. The consultants will be
expected to sign this declaration.

Procurement entity will also reject tenders if:

1. Consultants attempt to obtain confidential information, enter into unlawful

agreements with competitors or influence the procurement entity in the
process of clarifying, evaluation and comparison of proposals;
2. the consultants have influenced the selection procedure with illegal
payments or by granting or promising other advantages or if circumstances
suggest that such influence has been exercised;
3. the bid has been received after the deadline for submission unless the
bidder can prove he was not responsible for the delay;
 4. the bid does not fulfill the criteria in the request for tenders in essential
points, if it is incomplete or contains inadmissible restrictions;
5. the statement by the bidder that he is associated with other companies does
not clearly show that the former or the latter will not apply to participate in
the same project as supplier or contractor;
6. the consultant has not submitted a declaration of financial resources,
experience and general ability to perform the services required and of his
sector and regional knowledge;
7. the consultant has colluded or attempted to collude with any other person
to:

 fix price;
 have that other person to refrain from submitting a proposal or
withdraw or change the proposal.

Procurement entity will reject a proposal for award if they determine that:

 the recommended consultant has engaged in corrupt or fraudulent activities in

competing for the contract in question; and
 the consultant has colluded or attempted to collude with another person to fix the
price or to refrain from submitting a proposal or withdraw or change the proposal.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

According to clause 76 of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, a procuring entity
may use a request for proposals for a procurement if:

1 the procurement is of a service or a combination of goods and services; and

2.the services to be procured are advisory or otherwise of a predominantly intellectual
nature.

As a first step towards the use of the Request for Proposals, the procuring entity shall
prepare a notice inviting interested persons to submit expressions of interest.

Request for Proposals (RFP) shall include:

 Letter of invitation (LOI) that shall state the intention of the procurement
entity to enter into a contract for the provision of consultancy services, the
source of funds, a brief description of the services to be procured, the
qualifications necessary to be invited to submit proposals, name and
address of the procuring entity and the date, time and address for
submission of Expressions of Interest will be submitted. The LOI be
advertised as per regulations.
  Information to Consultants (ITC) that shall contain all necessary
information that would help consultants to prepare responsive proposals.
The ITC shall bring as much transparency as possible to the selection
procedure by providing the following information:

 A very brief description of the assignment.

 The names and contact information of officials to whom clarifications shall
be addressed and with whom consultant’s representative shall meet, if
necessary.
 The general and specific conditions to which the contract will be subject.

The essential components of the conditions of tender and the conditions of contract
are as follows:

1. Two envelop procedure: the bid for services and the price
quotations are to be sent separately, in two sealed
envelopes and submitted in a manner that shall ensure that
the technical evaluation is not influenced by price. Standard
formats for the technical and financial proposals to be
included.
2. The language of the bid and information on the site visit at
expense and risk of the applicant.
3. Enquiries only permitted in writing or other acceptable
means and deadline for their submission. Answers will be
sent to all applicants.
4. The period for which the consultant’s proposals shall be
held valid and during which the consultants shall undertake
to maintain, without change, the proposed key staff and
shall hold to both the rates and total price proposed; in case
of extension of the proposal validity period, the right of the
consultants not to maintain their proposal.
5. Deadline for submission of proposals.
6. A statement on whether joint ventures or other associations
between short-listed consultants are acceptable to
procurement entity.
7. Contents of the bid for services including critical analysis
of the TOR, concept and methods, organization and
logistics, timetable and staffing schedule, composition of
project team including backstopping personnel, explanation
of the task of each member of the team, account of
envisaged back-up services from home office, services to
be performed by sub-contractors, declaration of associated
firms and statement of other services provided by the
procurement entity executing the project such as office
premises, transport, equipment, etc.
8. Contents of the price quotation including structure of the
price quotation in a prescribed form where appropriate,
currency to be used, fees shown separately according to
expert personnel months, foreign allowance, and
accommodation costs in place of service, transport costs
between the home country and the country of service, local
transport costs, office costs in the country of service,
acquisitions, drawing up reports and other costs reasons for
which must be given.
9. Payment conditions including currency; lump sum or based
on work performed, fixed prices/escalating prices as
appropriate, arrangement for the payment of customs and
excise duties and other taxes; whether consultant is exempt
from these, method of payment; advance payment bond ,
retention bond, criteria for disbursement of intermediate/
final payments.\

10. Organization of performance of services including expected

total duration; expected date to start work; where
appropriate division into phases, person in the agency
executing the contract responsible for enquiries,
recommendation/ requirement for cooperation with local
consultants/experts, place where work is to carried out and
request for presentation of consultant’s envisaged logistics
for this work.
11. Binding statement of services to be provided by the client,
such as the client will provide the consultant with all the
information, maps, aerial photographs in his possession,
free of charge, etc.; will ensure that the consultant has all
the necessary permits to obtain additional documents; will
support the consultant in obtaining all the necessary
working permits, resident permits and import licences; will
provide some items such as office premises and equipment,
skilled personnel. Assistants and other back-up services
free of charge; will bear the taxes, customs and excise
duties and other charges incurred in connection with the
implementation of the project.
12. Assessment of the bids for services and the price quotations
will include criteria for clarity and completeness of the bid;
critical analysis of the objective of the assignment and
TOR; proposed concept and method, with the programme
of work, staffing schedule and monitoring and coordination
mechanisms; qualification of definitely assigned personnel
such as the key personnel to be employed on the project in
particular the project manager/coordinator, personnel in the
home office who will monitor and control the team and
 provide back-up services. Criteria are evaluated on a point
system.

.
 Terms of Reference (TOR) that set out the specific requirements
relating to the consultancy being procured. The specific
requirements must be clear and give a correct and complete
description of what is being procured and shall include the
technical requirements with respect to the services and anything
else required under the regulations to be set out in the TOR. The
technical requirements shall, where appropriate relate to
performance and be based on national and international standards.
 The procedures and criteria to be used to evaluate and compare the
proposals including the procedures and criteria for evaluating the
technical proposals which shall include a determination of whether
the proposal is responsive, the procedures and criteria for
evaluating the financial proposals and any other additional method
of evaluation and the procedures and criteria for that additional
method. These may be included in the TOR.
 A statement to the effect that the firm or its affiliates who will
enter into a contract resulting from a procurement by this RFP
shall be disqualified from providing downstream goods, works or
services under the project, if in the judgment of the procuring
entity, such activities constitute a conflict of interest with the
services under the assignment.
 Information on negotiations; and financial and other information
that shall be required of the selected firm during negotiation of the
contract.
 Anything else required under the PPD Act or the regulations set
out in RFP.

PROCEDURE FOR PROCUREMENT OF CONSULTANCY SERVICES SHALL

BE AS FOLLOWS:

Publication of service procurement notice

1. The procuring entity shall:

 Prepare the Terms of Reference (TOR), cost estimate and budget of the
assignment. (NOTE: cost estimate and budget remain confidential and
should not be disclosed to the prospective applicants)
 Prepare a notice inviting “Expressions of Interest”.
 Seek approval of the notice inviting ‘Expressions of Interest” and the TOR
from any development partner participating in the project.
 Advertise the notice inviting ‘expressions of Interest’ as follows:
1. In at least two daily newspapers of nationwide circulation for
locally-funded assignments. If there will not be effective
 competition unless foreign persons participate, the following shall
apply:

a. the notice inviting ‘Expressions of Interest’ and the

RFP must be in English;
b. the notice inviting ‘Expressions of interest shall be
advertised, at least twice in a newspaper of general
nationwide circulation which has been regularly
published for at least two years before the date of
issue of the advertisement, and on the website of the
procuring entity, and the advertisement shall also be
posted at any conspicuous place reserved for this
purpose in the premises of the procuring entity.
c. the procuring entity shall also advertise the notice
inviting ‘Expressions of Interest’ in one or more
English language newspapers or other publications
that, together, have sufficient circulation outside
Kenya to allow effective competition for the
procurement;
d. the technical requirements must, to the extent,
compatible with requirements under Kenyan law, be
based on international standards or standards widely
used in international trade;
e. a person submitting a proposal may, in quoting
prices or providing security, use a currency that is
widely used in international trade and that the RFP
specifically allows to used; and
f. any general and specific conditions to which the
contract will be subject must be of a kind generally
used in international trade.
2. in the media acceptable to any development partner financing the
assignment ( Journal of the European Communities, Journal of the
ACP states and the internet for European Commission; the General
Procurement Notice, the Development Business (UNDB),
international newspapers or technical magazines for the World
Bank; and in at least the ‘Nachrichten fur Aussenhandel’ for KfW)
and in at least two local daily newspapers of nationwide
circulation.
3. Sufficient time shall be provided for responses, before preparation
of short list (28 days for locally funded assignments and 30 days
for externally funded projects).

Procedures Subsequent to Advertisement

 Prepare a short list of consultants from those who have expressed interest
and have relevant qualifications.
 Seek approval of the short list from the development partner if any is
involved in the project.
 Prepare and issue the Request for Proposals (RFP) consisting of the Letter
of Invitation (LOI), Information to Consultants (ITC), TOR and the
proposed contact.
 Receive the technical and financial proposals separately in sealed
envelopes.
 Open and evaluate technical proposals for quality using an evaluation
committee of not less than three specialists in the sector. Evaluators of
technical proposals shall not have access to the financial proposals until
the technical evaluation, including any review by a development partner, if
any is involved, is concluded. The committee shall evaluate the technical
proposal to determine if it is responsive, and if it is, shall assign a score to
it in accordance with the procedures and criteria set out in the RFP.
 Reject those proposals that do not respond to important aspects of TOR or
fail to achieve a minimum technical score specified in the RFP.
 Prepare a technical evaluation report of the proposals that substantiates the
results of the evaluation and describes in detail the relative strengths and
weaknesses of the proposals. All records relating to the evaluation, such as
the individual mark sheets, shall be retained until completion of the project
and its audit.
 Seek ‘ No objection’ of the development partner, if any, on the technical
evaluation report and to proceed with evaluation of financial proposals.
 Simultaneously notify qualifying and non-qualifying consultants the fate
of their proposals. Consultants whose proposals did not meet the minimum
technical qualifying mark or whose proposals were considered non-
responsive to the RFP or TOR shall be so informed indicating that their
financial proposals will be returned unopened after completion of the
selection process. Consultants whose proposals secured minimum
qualifying mark will be so informed indicating the date and time set for
public opening of the financial proposals in the presence of representatives
of the consultants who choose to attend and the representative of any
development partner involved.
 The opening of financial proposals shall not be less than two weeks after
the notification of the opening date.
 The name of each consultant, the technical evaluation score and the
proposed prices shall be read aloud and recorded and a copy of this shall
promptly be sent to the development partner, if any.
 Review the financial proposals, correct arithmetic errors, if any and
convert the prices to a single currency selected by the procuring entity
using the selling exchange rate for all other currencies quoted by the
Central Bank.
  For purposes of evaluation of financial proposals, price shall exclude local
taxes but shall include other reimbursable costs such as travel, translation,
report printing or secretarial expenses.
 The proposal with the lowest cost may be given a financial score of 100
and other proposals given financial scores that are inversely proportional
to their prices. Other methods may be used in allocating marks to the
costs.
 Weight the quality and cost scores and add them. The weight for cost shall
be 10 to 20 points, but never more than 30 points out of a total score of
100.

Negotiations and Award of Contract

The firm obtaining the highest total score shall be invited for negotiations. Negotiations
shall include discussions of the TOR, the methodology, staffing inputs of the procuring
entity and special conditions of the contract. These discussions shall:

 not substantially alter the original TOR or the terms of the contract lest the quality
of the final product, the cost and relevance of the initial evaluations be affected.
The final TOR and the general methodology shall form part of the contract.
 not allow the selected consultant to substitute key staff, unless both parties agree
that undue delay in the selection process made such substitution unavoidable. In
such a case, the key staff proposed for substitution shall have qualifications equal
to or better than the key staff initially proposed.
 include clarification of the consultant’s tax liability in Kenya, and how this tax
liability has been or would be reflected in the contract.
 not include proposed unit rates for staff-months since these will have already been
factored in the cost of the proposal.

If negotiations fail to result in an acceptable contract, the procuring entity,

with prior approval of the development partner if any, shall terminate the negotiations,
inform the consultant the reasons for termination of negotiations and invite the next
ranked firm for negotiations. The procuring entity shall not reopen the earlier
negotiations. After negotiations are successfully completed, the procuring entity shall
promptly notify other firms on the short list that they were unsuccessful.

Rejection of All Proposals and Re- invitation

The procuring entity will be justified to reject all proposals and invite new proposals only
if:

1. all proposals are non-responsive and unsuitable either because the they present
major deficiencies in complying with the TOR, or because they involve costs
substantially higher than the original estimate. In the latter case, the feasibility of
increasing the budget, or scaling down the scope of services should be
investigated in consultation with the development partner, if any.
2. development partner, if any has been notified of the proposed rejection of all
proposals with an indication of the reasons for rejecting them.
3. development partner, if any has given a ‘No Objection’ to reject all proposals and
to commence a new process. The new process may include revising the RFP
including the shortlist and the budget with the agreement of the development
partner, if any.