Organization
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Organization
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Organizational framework of the FIER II Project
The Ministry of National Entrepreneurship, Employment and Vocational Training (MENEFP) is the lead government agency. With regard to supervision, it will determine by administrative decision the modalities of management and orientation of the FIER 2 project. A national steering committee will evaluate the progress of the execution, and will ensure that the objectives are achieved, and that the intervention strategy is respected. A regional consultation committee will be set up in each target region. The host ministry will create the national coordination unit, which will enjoy management autonomy, and which will be responsible for implementing the project. In each target region, a regional coordination unit will work closely with the technical advisors of the regional council, particularly the vocational training and regional economic development advisors.
Management and orientation
The supervisory Ministry will establish by administrative act, the arrangements for the management and orientation of FIER 2. The National Steering Committee (CNP) will be composed of representatives of: the key Ministries (Finance; Rural Development; Entrepreneurship, Employment and Vocational Training); youth, etc.); agencies specializing in training and promoting youth employment; umbrella groups of peasant organizations including those of young people and women; of the National Youth Council; the Consular Chambers (CCIM, APCMM, APCAM), the Patronage and Regional Councils. The CNP will have the mandate to check the progress of the Project and ensure the achievement of its objectives and compliance with its intervention strategy through the following tasks: (1) approve the work programs and budgets annual (PTBA); (3) approve annual implementation reports; (4) review and approve audit reports; (5) verify the application of the recommendations of the supervision and audit missions; and (6) ensure the consistency of the Project and its PTBAs with current strategies, policies and projects. In each region of intervention, a Regional Consultation Committee (CRC) will be established and will have the mandate to: (1) approve the annual work programs and budgets (PTBA) prepared by the Regional Project Coordination Unit in collaboration with the technical unit of the regional council, (2) verify the application of the recommendations of the supervision missions; (3) ensure consistency of the Project and its PTBA with the regional economic development strategy, (4) ensure consistency in the implementation approaches of the different projects and maximize complementarities and synergies between them; (5) inform all stakeholders on the execution of the Project, discuss evaluation reports, impact surveys and project supervision reports to gradually improve its implementation; and (iv) constitute a forum for exchange on experiences and actions to be carried out.
National Coordination Unit (NCU)
The supervisory Ministry will set up the UCN, which will have management autonomy, and will be responsible for implementing the Project: (1) resource and heritage management; (2) personnel management; (3) management of partnership and execution contracts. The UCN will ensure relations with the supervisory authority as well as the Ministry in charge of the economy, acting on behalf of the Borrower (IFAD). She will organize supervision and review missions, and will ensure relations with other projects financed by IFAD or other technical and financial partners. With regard to operational management, the UCN will carry out the following tasks: (1) the development of the Annual Work Program and Budget (PTBA); (2) monitoring and evaluation of PTBA activities; (3) the preparation, in consultation with the technical services concerned, of tender documents for works, supplies and services and the award of contracts; (4) technical and budgetary monitoring of activities and results; (5) the preparation of quarterly and annual activity reports; (6) the coordination of the Project’s transversal actions (training, studies, missions, etc.); (7) the organization of the circulation of information between the different partners concerned (technical services, private operators, civil society, etc.); (8) assistance, technical support, monitoring of the regional coordination units of the Project in the implementation of the various activities; (9) monitoring the quality of achievements and the performance of service providers (NGOs, private actors, producer federations), (10) monitoring the implementation of the guidelines instructed by the National Steering Committee, the consistency and coordination with other projects financed by IFAD and technical and financial partners at the national level. The NCU will be composed as follows: (1) national coordinator, (2) an expert in promoting rural youth employment, (3) an expert in vocational training; (4) a gender specialist; (5) a rural engineering engineer; (6) a specialist in rural finance; (7) a Monitoring/Evaluation manager assisted by (8) a specialist in knowledge management and communication; (9) an administrative and financial manager; (10) a procurement specialist; (11) an administrative assistant; (12) one accountant; and (13) three drivers.
Regional Coordination Units (RCUs)
In each region of intervention, a UCR will be installed within the Regional Council. Under the coordination of the UCN, the UCRs will have administrative and financial management autonomy and will have the following mandate: (1) coordination of the project at the regional level; (2) links with the Regional Council and the decentralized Administration; (3) coordination, local procurement; (4) evaluation of performance contracts with local service providers, (5) close monitoring of activities implemented within the framework of the project by the different actors (POs, NGOs, decentralized public services, private providers). The UCR will be made up of a regional coordinator who will be assisted by a professional training specialist; a specialist in the economic integration of young rural people, a monitoring and evaluation assistant, an accountant, an administrative assistant and two drivers. The team of technical advisors of the regional council will participate, in collaboration with the UCR, in the development of the PTBA, in order to develop the relationship between the PTBA and the annual activity plan of the regional council which is adjacent to the regional strategy economic development of the region. The PTBA is examined and (validated) by the regional consultation committee (CRC) set up by the regional council and chaired by the President of the Regional Council. This important step will allow the involvement of elected stakeholders from the region in the planning of Project activities. The implementation of project activities at the regional level will be the responsibility of the UCR which will work in close collaboration with the technical advisors of the Regional Council, particularly the professional training and regional economic development advisors. The project will provide institutional support to the CRC, in particular capacity building of technical advisors of the Regional Council to facilitate their participation in the implementation of the Project and give them the capacity to sustain the achievements.
Implementation partners
FIER 2 will work according to the “faire-faire” principle39. The UCN will sign contracts with OCOs. These include consultancy firms and NGOs selected on a competitive basis, but also umbrella organizations of producers, young people and women, with whom the UNC will be able to sign strategic partnership contracts. To this end, with the support of resource centers, the Project will set up a restricted file of competent operators and service providers per region. This file will be established as part of a call for expressions of interest and will be updated every two years. In the start-up regions, an indicative list of potential implementation partners will be established based on the envisaged mandate and the capacities of said partners to carry out the mandate. Furthermore, the UCN will contract an aggregation facilitation operator (OFA) with international experience in this area, to facilitate the integration of young rural people into supply chains connected to markets. The construction of resilient aggregative infrastructures will be entrusted to companies selected also on a competitive basis. The project will develop a partnership with technical services, for the preparation of technical files and monitoring and control of civil engineering works (perimeter developments, constructions, etc.), as well as for the implementation of professional training systems, and technical support for young beneficiaries.
Financial management
The FIER 2 Management Unit will have administrative and financial autonomy and all implementation units will be recruited by call for applications and in a competitive manner. The organizational system for financial management of FIER 2 will be structured around the administrative and financial department of Headquarters and the branches, in charge of the accounting and financial management of the Project. The Administrative and Financial Department of the FIER 2 Headquarters will be made up of the Administrative and Financial Manager (RAF) and a Chief Accountant and an Accounting Assistant. The Headquarters fiduciary team will be strengthened with the recruitment of a Manager responsible for Fiduciary Support for OPAs in charge of the financial supervision of grants awarded to beneficiaries and the financial management of partnership agreements with implementation partners.
At the branch level, an accounting assistant will be recruited per branch who will be in charge of accounting and financial management. The tasks of accounting assistants will be focused on accounting management and budget execution, financial management of training workshops and field missions, financial monitoring of contracts and agreements. The branch team will be reinforced by an administrative assistant who will be responsible for administrative questions and the management of the petty cash fund.
The FIER 2 financial information system will be built around expenditure systems organized by financing window, with an option for the consolidation of financial data. The FIER 2 Project will use financial management software capable of allowing the accounting of all financial transactions in a context of decentralization of financial management. The FIER fiduciary manual will be updated with a proposal for specifications for the resources shared across all Mali Portfolio projects, in particular the internal auditor and the OPA Fiduciary Support Manager who could also provide support to the financial supervision of partnership agreements on other Portfolio projects. After the entry into force of the financial instruments, designated accounts (one account per donor) will be opened in banks in the place acceptable to IFAD in order to receive funds from the various financing windows. These accounts will be exclusively handled by authorized fiduciary officials following the provisions of the Financing Agreements. The FIER 2 PMU will also, for each financing window, open an operations account which will be handled by the Coordinator and the RAF of the FIER 2 Project. The PMU will open operations sub-accounts for its branches IFAD for payment of expenses at the regional level.
The programming of the PTBA’s annual budget will be subject to rigorous financial planning with a provisional disbursement plan backed by the PTBA’s annual budget. To optimize fund flows and control the risk of cash shortages, the PTBA’s forecast disbursement plan will be broken down into an operational cash flow plan. For the flow of funds to partners40, disbursements of funds will be made according to the principle of revolving funds advance.
109. The creation of the position of Manager in charge of Fiduciary Support for Takeover bids at FIER 2 Headquarters will generally improve the internal control environment. Internal control activities on the conformity of accounting data entered, cash management, asset management and consistency analyzes of management and balance sheet accounts will also be planned at the level of the FIER 2 SAF. The internal auditor41 will be responsible for identifying dysfunctions that could affect the operational performance of FIER 2 and other projects in the IFAD portfolio. It will plan its control activities as part of an annual audit plan, using a risk-based approach.
The anti-corruption measures of FIER 2 will involve the control missions of the General Inspection of Services of the Ministry in charge of Youth Employment, the Office of the Auditor General and the Accounts Section of the Supreme Court.
FIER 2 financial reporting will be analytical and focused on the expenditure profile in order to facilitate the assessment of the real financial impact of the Project on the beneficiaries.
Unaudited interim financial reports following a format acceptable to IFAD will be prepared semi-annually by Headquarters and will include expenditures by financing source. Unaudited annual financial statements (FS) will be prepared by the PMU and transmitted to IFAD within four months of the end of each financial year, throughout the project implementation period.
In accordance with IFAD guidelines, the accounts of FIER 2 will be audited annually by an external auditor recruited at regional level. The TOR of the annual audit (including the use of Project funds to Implementing Partners and Microprojects financed for the benefit of beneficiaries of Project action) will not be objected to by IFAD. Audit reports will be prepared in accordance with IFAD’s external audit provisions and transmitted to IFAD no later than six months following the close of the fiscal year.
Governance
Following the impact of the recent political crisis and the slackening of the implementation of actions undertaken in favor of transparency and integrity, governance remains worrying in Mali. According to the corruption perception index published by Transparency International for the year 2021, Mali is ranked 136th in the world out of the 180 countries assessed (compared to 129th in 2020), which confirms the continuous decline since the good score in 2015 (95th). Mali faces multidimensional fragility that COVID-19 has contributed to accentuating and plunging the economy into recession. The crises have led to permanent political instability, induced a sharp deterioration of governance and an increase in corruption in a context of poverty and inequalities, more particularly, gender inequalities. All these factors have increased economic and financial governance risks both at the central level and at the project/program level. Findings of the February 2021 IMF Review note the authorities’ efforts to strengthen governance, transparency and the business environment, notably with commitments made to transparency on emergency spending linked to COVID-19 and also, the revision of the legislation to broaden the base of those subject to the asset declaration obligation. Two structures are responsible for combating and investigating allegations of corruption in Mali: (i) the Central Office for the Fight against Illicit Enrichment (OCLEI) and (ii) the Office of the General Auditor (BVG) but their independence is not fully assured and satisfactory, and needs to be strengthened.
As part of FIER 2, the large number of contracts implemented to support young rural people located in very large geographical areas and in fairly remote sites greatly increases the risk of bad governance and attacks on integrity. of these types of intervention. To mitigate these risks, it is recommended (i) to inform all beneficiaries of project resources about IFAD’s policy on the prevention of fraud and corruption (ii) to ensure reinforced physical monitoring of project contracts. support for young people with stakeholders external to operations (iii) to provide a procurement expert among the key staff of the firm in charge of the external audit of the project.