Web Developer

1. Description of the Context and the support project

Faced with the economic, social and institutional crisis that Lebanon is experiencing today, the Lebanese authorities are more than ever obliged to conduct a vast reform program to consolidate their budgetary position and meet the demands of the population for greater transparency. As part of the CEDRE conference (Economic Conference for Development through Reforms and Enterprises) organized in April 2018, the main international donors committed to release the necessary financing provided that structural reforms are implemented.

The reform of public procurement is part of the roadmap proposed by France in August 2020 to support the strengthening of Lebanese state institutions.

AFD and the World Bank supported the conduct of a detailed evaluation of the public procurement system in 2019, using an international methodology, MAPS (Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems).

Following the conclusions of this evaluation, a reform dynamic is being established. Thus, a new law on public procurement was adopted by Parliament in June 2021, and an interministerial committee responsible for monitoring the entry into force of the Law was formed in February 2022.

This law has also been the subject of strategic variations:

- a national strategy for public procurement reform, adopted by the Council of Ministers on 20 May 2022,

- a national training policy, currently being finalized,

- an e-procurement strategy, prepared by the World Bank.

In this context, AFD is committed to supporting this dynamic, and has launched a support project to support the reform of public procurement in Lebanon.

This support focuses more particularly in a first phase on supporting the structuring of this reform by accompanying local authorities in the finalization of the action plan and the establishment of a framework for monitoring results. A second phase focuses on the implementation of the reform through the implementation of certain axes resulting from the action plan and chosen in consultation with the local authorities and AFD. The project is divided into four components:

Phase 1 – Structuring the reform

Component 1: Support the Lebanese authorities in structuring and monitoring the reform.

Phase 2 – Implementation and monitoring of the reform

Component 2: Implement the legal and regulatory framework at the operational level;

Component 3: Strengthen the capacities of public procurement institutions and agents;

Component 4: Improve transparency and integrity of the system.

In parallel with this support from Expertise France and AFD, two international donors are supporting the e-procurement component:

- the World Bank, via the Global Procurement Parthership, from June 2022 until December 2023,

- the European Union, from September 2023.

In the context developed above and to accompany the dynamics of ongoing reforms, aimed at supporting the reform of public procurement in Lebanon, this project will focus more particularly on assisting the Public Procurement Authority in the implementation of the electronic tools necessary for the eventual development of a complete e-procurement system, the Public Procurement Law having assigned this mission to the Public Procurement Authority.

The project therefore aims to support the Public Procurement Authority in the gradual implementation of a comprehensive e-procurement system, by following the following steps:

- step 1: the establishment for the month of October 2022, of a central portal for the benefit of the Public Procurement Authority, allowing the minimum functionalities provided for by law, including the publication of annual procurement plans and public procurement announcements,

- step 2: from November 2023 until 2026, the establishment of a central platform, for the benefit of the Public Procurement Authority, which makes it possible to automate the entry and retrieval of data in the central portal, integrating planning and procurement via an e-tendering platform (electronic public procurement system), based on Delta System,

- Step 3: from the end of 2023 until 2026, the implementation of a complete system and regulation on e-procurement, covering the entire public procurement cycle: planning, procurement, execution, audit.

1. Mission Objectives and Expected Results

In order to carry out the implementation of the project, Expertise France will rely on a web developer.

2.1 - General objective

The Public Procuring Authority in Lebanon (PPA) is seeking a full stack Web developer that will be responsible for developing a new, secure, responsive, and a flexible portal, based on an open-source content-management framework.

Around 2 000 entities will be registered to use the system securely on a role and permission basis.

The ideal candidate will have experience with Laravel, PHP, MySQL, and other web development technologies.

He/she will also be able to work independently and as part of a team and be able to meet deadlines and deliver high-quality work.

The currently running portal can be found on the following link:  https://www.ppa.gov.lb/

2.2 - Expected Results

Result 1: The Public Procurement Authority has a secure portal published and fully operating in November 2023, which meets the minimum requirements of the law, and public administrations can self-register and use the portal

Result 2: The Public Procurement Authority has the internal skills to administer the central portal, and install updates, program, develop without external support

Result 3: The Public Procurement Authority portal is ready to be interconnected with the future environment of e-tendering (e-procurement system) and e-learning (e-learning).

1. Description of the mission of the web developer

Under the overall guidance of the PPA team, the developer will perform the following tasks according to the new public procurement law (PPL):

• Design, implement and deploy the PPA multi-language responsive portal and its related CMS that can be high-volume and low latency using the latest version of the required technology.
• Portal will integrate dynamic site structure with dynamic content pages added as necessary to meet the publishing needs of registered administration (Procuring Entities).
• Analyze PPA requirements to define business objectives, system features and functionality.
• Migrate existing features to the new platform and add new ones when needed.
• Migrate the existing MySQL to the newly developed database.
• Identify and resolve any technical issues arising.
• Provide the appropriate support and technical training for the PPA IT team by providing a technical guide at the end of the contract.
• Provide at any time the latest working source code and related materials.

Deliverables:

-Initial diagnosis

-Follow-up notes

-Weekly timesheets with activities delivered

-User and development manual for agents of the Public Procurement Authority

-User manual for the public (registered administrations)

-Source codes of the website with its modifications

-Mission report

1. Duration and location of the mission

The mission period is planned for a period of 6 months from September 2023 to February 2024.

The Public Procurement Authority is in Beirut, Lebanon.

The mission will be achieved mainly remotely, but some meetings will be held at the PPA office in Beirut.

1. Web Developer Profile

The web developer will have an excellent command of website development and the PHP language on which the current site of the Public Procurement Authority is based.

He/she must meet the following qualifications:

1. Qualifications and competencies

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Computer Engineering or related field.
• Excellent qualities/abilities:
  • Communication
  • teamwork and interpersonal skills
  • pedagogy
  • transmission of knowledge
  • synthesis and writing
  • analysis and resolution of problems
  • decision-making and initiative
• Excellent command of Arabic (written/oral) and French (written/oral), English is an advantage

1. General professional experience

5+ years of Hands-on web development experience as a Laravel full stack Web developer. Demonstrated history of developing under similar systems and frameworks.
The following skills are required:

• Similar projects (number and type of projects/complexity)

• Proficiency in PHP
• Experience in latest Laravel framework and its related packages (Notification services: SMS, e-mail, etc.)
• Sound knowledge of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) Patterns and Concepts
  • Good Understanding of RESTful web services, related security mechanism (authentication and authorization etc.)
• Experience in handling external and embedded databases.
  • Understanding basic design principles behind a scalable application. The portal should be built modular in mind.
• In-depth knowledge of code versioning tools, for example, GitHub

• Web Technologies like HTML, JavaScript, CSS, jQuery.
  • Modern Java script libraires /Frameworks like Angular, React JS or Vue Js.
  • Proficient in modern UI frameworks: Material, Bootstrap etc.
  • Chart libraries: Chart Js or other libraries.
• Excellent knowledge of Apache HTTP Server.

• Web user experience design (usability and user interface design): deliver responsive, usable, friendly CMS and Portal design.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills
• Strong communication and teamwork skills.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Ability to meet deadlines and deliver high-quality work.
• Experience with Agile development methodologies

1. Specific professional experience

• Experience and familiarity with security best practices:
  • Hashing, Encryption, Authorization, Authentication, Multifactor, two factor authentication, one-time password, password management.
  • Role and permission management.
  • Cyber-attack protection.
  • Authentications modes:
    • Login.
    • Registration.
    • Password Management.
    • Two-Factor Authentication.
    • Email Verification.
    • Profile Management.
    • Browser Sessions Management.
    • API Tokens & Permissions.

1. Evaluation criteria

The candidate will be selected based on:

• His/her portfolio (Relevance, Quality, Creativity)
• An Interview: during the interview the candidate might be asked to check the website and propose possible solutions to specific challenges