BACKGROUND
	PROJECT OBJECTIVES
	CURRENT STATUS
	PHOTOS

The most significant accomplishment during this quarter was the approval from USAID of a budget modification that increased the overall task order by $580,000. Following are additional activities that were completed in compliance with the project objectives set out in the approved FAS Work Plan:

ORACLE Software Procurement

Procurement proposals were received and provided to WAJ, MWI and FAS. A selection committee was formed to discuss the award criteria. Oracle Dubai was selected as the best bidder at a 47% discount with full user support. The Purchase Order of the Oracle Financials Software was issued and the software is expected in two weeks. Software licenses were purchased in the name of the Ministry of Water & Irrigation and its subsidiaries. All WAJ/MWI employees will receive full training on the Technical and Functional materials of Oracle in order to be able to support and work on the system.

A presentation was conducted in Irbid for all the Heads of Divisions in the Northern Governorate Water Authority (NGWA) and for the involved employees in the Aqaba Water Authority. Discussions concerned X7 interfacing modules of the Oracle application with the current IT infrastructure for FAS. The technical FAS team conducted site visits in several governorates including Ma'an, Tafila, Karak, and NGWA to assess the current hardware availability and infrastructure of the WAN, LAN and PC’s in the WAJ offices.

Hardware Procurement and the Storage Area Network (SAN)

An external committee was formed by the Secretary General of WAJ to study the hardware procurement RFQ, Proposal and Award documents and decide whether SAN solutions is an FAS requirement. This committee consists of a representative from the Royal Scientific Society, a representative from the Technology Center and the Head of the Tenders Directorate of WAJ.

The Audits Bureau and receiving committee refused to receive the procurement as the hardware supplied did not comply with the specifications of the RFQ. According to the FAS work plan, the hardware procurement was scheduled to be received by January 15, 2003. To date, the FAS team has not procured the specified hardware.

Fixed Assets

The forms for data gathering were completed and distributed to the governorates and directorates throughout Jordan for fixed asset evaluation. Discussions are ongoing regarding whether it is the responsibility of the FAS project to evaluate all of the fixed assets results of the WAJ and its subsidiaries. An official letter is to be sent to the Planning Management Unit (PMU) detailing the FA classification as found in the approved work plan and asking the PMU to provide comments. Once an evaluation committee is formed, two sample governorates will be chosen to test the results, begin the registration process and, determine the requirements of a fixed assets cost center. The Chart of Accounts structure for WAJ has been agreed upon.

Detailed Process Mapping Documents

The FAS team finalized and submitted to MWI and WAJ for approval all Business Mapping.070 High Level Process Vision documents in both Arabic and English for all the project’s cycles. These process mapping documents include the project’s vision on inventory, workshops, general ledgers, fixed assets, budgeting and accounts payable. The FAS Team hosted a full day workshop on April 30th to discuss and approve business improvement decisions, the relation between WAJ central and all other governorates, and details of the Fixed Assets Classification. All documents were approved by the WAJ program manager.

Training Needs Assessment

The Training Needs Assessment document was finalized and distributed to all MWI, WAJ and JVA employees. A presentation was conducted on the results of the financial training courses and training plan. The Training RFQ was drafted in accordance with the TNA document and sent to Washington for approval and processing. The RFP contained 4 types of training: 1) Accounting Training, 2) IT Oracle Training, 3) Oracle Financials Training, and 4) Windows, Excel, Word.

Future Business Design

Ongoing discussions surround the issue of what is the future plan for WAJ and what are the expected structural changes of the governorates for the next 5 years. This information is needed to be able to design the FAS and meet WAJ future requirements. It was agreed that future WAJ changes are not clear and that the FAS team must design a flexible solution that can handle the current requirements as well as any future changes. The final business solution design will be discussed with the representatives at WAJ.