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Recognizing that effective contract management is essential to achieving intended procurement objectives and project outcomes, the World Bank has updated STEP with a Contract Management Module that is now available to Borrowers effective October 3, 2022. STEP is an online system used by borrowers to plan, record, and track key stages of the procurement process under Investment Project Financing (IPF) projects. 

Objectives and benefits:

The new Contract Management Module is designed to help Borrowers better manage contracts and thus improve overall contract and project implementation. The system will better equip borrowers to track contracts, key deliverables, key performance indicators (KPIs) and payments thereby speeding up project implementation while minimizing cost and time overruns. 

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Effective date:

Borrowers will be required to use the system to track the management of new contracts signed on or after October 3, 2022. Borrowers may also use the system to track existing contracts signed prior to this date. System implementation is being phased with additional functionality to be introduced in Q2 of FY2022/23.

Key features:

The new system now will: 

1. Cover the end-to-end contract implementation cycle from contract signing to contract completion and consolidates contract management records
2. Require assignment of a contract manager for each contract
3. Support borrowers to develop a Contract Management Plan to track progress during implementation including the following:
   • key contract deliverables and their expected dates
   • planned payments and their due dates
   • KPIs where applicable,
   • planned dates for major milestones and progress against them,
4. Provide automated alerts/reminders to borrowers and task teams of upcoming or overdue milestones
5. Support better tracking of contract variations, claims and contractual disputes including their resolution
6. Provide dashboards and contract and project level reports on progress with contract implementation

The system enables borrowers to record and track contract implementation details at four stages of contract implementation:

What you need to do:

1. Attend Information sessions
   Information sessions to introduce Borrower users to the new system will be held at the country/regional level and the invitations will be sent separately.
2. Review the online tutorials and user guides
   The online tutorials will provide an overview of the new system and instructions on how to use it. The user guide [available soon] will also provide further reference material. 

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Available tutorials:

- Introduction

- Processing a contract that is ready to be signed

- Recording planned dates for key stages of the contract

- Completing the Contract Management Plan, Part 1: Recording actual key contract milestones in the roadmap

- Completing the Contract Management Plan, Part 2: Recording planned Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

- Completing the Contract Management Plan, Part 3: Recording planned Contract Deliverables

- Completing the Contract management plan, Part 4: Recording planned Contract Payments and finalizing the plan

- Using the Contract Management Plan to manage the contract

This list will be updated as more resources become available.

For questions, please contact your project's designated World Bank Procurement Specialist. 

Additional procurement guidance on contract management:

•  for IPF Borrowers section V (para 5.97); Annex I (para  3.6-3.7 ); Annex XI
• Guidance: 
• Guidance: