Official Development Assistance (ODA)

Japan has introduced aspects of cost based evaluation to the selection of consultants for ODA loan projects. Previously, only Quality Based Selection (QBS) was applied when evaluating proposals in the selection process of consultants, but from now on QCBS will be applied as a rule. A specific calculation method for QCBS evaluation will be as follows, based on the operation of the World Bank and other examples, which is set from the perspective that technical evaluation should remain the core of the evaluation in order to give enough consideration to the quality and safety of Japanese ODA loan projects.

In addition, it was clearly written in JICA's Guidelines for the Employment of Consultants under Japanese ODA Loans that application of QBS will be limited to the following types of assignments.

Previously, SSS was basically applied for selecting consultants for Japanese ODA loan projects when the recipient country requested, for reasons such as satisfactory performance of the said consultant engaged in related works. JICA's Guidelines have now clarified that SSS will be allowed only in exceptional cases and, based on the operation of the World Bank and other examples, have established that SSS will be acceptable only under the following conditions.

(Note) Except when downstream assignment is substantially larger in value than previous work.

To uniformly handle information related to corruption such as bribery in ODA projects, the Government's contact points are consolidated into the Aid Policy and Management Division of the International Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and into the General Coordination Division of the General Affairs Department of JICA. Japanese embassies and JICA overseas offices in the recipient countries will also receive information related to corruption.

Also, the Government of Japan will be promptly advancing negotiations with the Governments of the recipient countries to the effect that the recipient countries to treat informers fairly so that they should not receive unfair treatment for reporting corruption, and when the Government of Japan and JICA are informed about Japanese ODA loan-related corruption, recipient countries will provide relevant information to the Japanese side. With the Government of Viet Nam, the Government of Japan signed an Exchange of Notes (E/N) with the following stipulations.

Furthermore, based on the above principles, the General Terms and Conditions (GTC) of the Loan Agreement for Japanese ODA Loans were agreed between JICA and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, which stipulated the following.

Japan has stipulated that a "debriefing" must be carried out in JICA's Guidelines for Procurement and Guidelines for the Employment of Consultants to clarify the accountability of executing agencies. Accordingly, executing agencies of the recipient country should disclose the final results of the evaluation to those bidders not selected for the ODA loan project after proposal evaluation, and offer explanation on the evaluation results upon request by the bidder. JICA, based on the Guidelines, will provide appropriate instructions to executing agencies when they fail to respond to a bidder's request.

When recipient countries' executing agencies employ consultants, JICA has required the recipient countries to obtain JICA's concurrence at each stage, such as when (a) sending letters of invitation, (b) evaluating proposals, and (c) concluding contracts. Furthermore, JICA, in its Loan Agreement, has required executing agencies of the recipient country to submit documents which JICA regards necessary. Going forward, Loan Agreement between JICA and the Government of a recipient country shall stipulate the obligation for the recipient country to submit documents which JICA regards necessary to check thoroughly for concurrence, in order to further strengthen the said concurrence procedures.