Home Procurement Communication Services Support of the Ukrainian Freeze and Seize Task Force

Communication Services Support of the Ukrainian Freeze and Seize Task Force

Download

 

 

TERMS OF REFERENCE

For the Communication Services Support of the Ukrainian Freeze and Seize Task Force

 

1. Background and context

1.1. General overview

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has caused hundreds of billions of dollars of damage so far, including to critical infrastructure of Ukraine. The sanctions imposed by the majority of Western countries and Ukraine on legal entities and individuals supporting Russian aggression against Ukraine, play an important role to limit Russia’s ability to continue the war efforts. The EUACI has as one of its priority topics to assist Ukrainian partners in the work on tracing and recovery of Russian assets. There is a growing understanding that the assets frozen under the war-related sanctions should be preserved to fund Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction and compensate for the damage of the Russian aggression. While the legal mechanisms for re-purposing of the sanctioned assets is still being debated, it is obvious that cooperation between the relevant Ukrainian authorities and their counterparts in the EU and EU Member States (hereinafter – EU MS) should be prioritized to enable more effective tracing and recovery of assets of sanctioned entities and individuals.

A specialized Freeze and Seize Task Force (hereinafter – FSTF) was set up within the Prosecutor General's Office to streamline Ukrainian law enforcement bodies work on freezing and confiscating Russian assets; its mandate has now expanded to cover assets frozen in relation to sanctions. In addition, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has established a new administrative procedure that enables repurposing of the sanctioned assets to be used for the benefit of Ukraine. The high-level representatives of the EU have recently voiced their suggestions on the need to establish new legal instruments in the EU that would generally serve the same purpose.

These efforts of Ukraine and the EU are met with the increasing wave of Russian propaganda in the EU public space aimed at undermining these developments. There is a low awareness of these efforts and a need for regular and full information exchange between Ukrainian and EU counterparts about their efforts in the area of asset tracing and seizing. This slows down the progress in Ukraine’s previous efforts to freeze and recover assets.

This engagement is aimed at increasing the effectiveness of FSTF’s public communication, promoting and raising awareness on the importance of tracing and recovery of sanctioned assets and Ukraine’s efforts in this regard among the decision-makers in key EU MS and EU institutions, as well as among the relevant peer institutions of the FSTF in EU MS.

1.2. Contracting authority

The contracting authority is the European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI).

1.3. Beneficiary

The beneficiary of this activity is the Freeze and Seize Task Force created by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.

2. Objective

The main objective of the support to be provided to the FSTF within the framework of this engagement is to contribute to the effective FSTS’s public communication, promoting and raising awareness on the importance of tracing and recovery of sanctioned assets and Ukraine’s efforts in this regard among the decision-makers in key EU MS and EU institutions, as well as among the relevant peer institutions of the FSTF in EU MS.

3. Scope of work and expected deliverables

Scope of work

Activities within this engagement should be implemented along the following lines:

- inform the target audience about the goals and relevant activities of the FSTF as agreed with the FSTF;

- assist the FSTF in explaining the audience about the importance of freezing and possible confiscation of russian assets as a part of the all-European effort to support peace and security within Europe, and to support Ukraine’s post-war recovery;

- ensure media coverage of the relevant achievements and activities of the FSTF as agreed with the FSTF;

- ensure media coverageabout the results of the legal cooperation between the Task Force and key EU MS and EU institutions as agreed with the FSTF;

- organization of interaction with European mass media (including Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, France, Germany) during foreign visits of the FSTF leadership and/or on occasion of major news from the TF side;

- increase the visibility of the FSTF and support to its work among representatives of target groups and decision-makers;

- increase the FSTF work presence in the social media (mostly in Twitter);

- support and mentor FSTF staff in their media work related to the above-mentioned issues.

A contractor will be expected to work in close coordination with the FSTF representatives, the EUACI’s anti-corruption and communication experts and will be required to report on the implementation of tasks.

Expected deliverables:

-   Communication strategy of the FSTF;

-   Engage target audience through conversations, content and campaigns as guided by the FSTF and that supports the activities of the FSTF and facilitates its communication and cooperation with relevant agencies in the EU and EU MS;

-  Develop or facilitate not less than 20 media products per month;

-  Prepare and facilitate 15-20 publications in European media resources;

-  Prepare and distribution of monthly newsletter from FSTF

-  Provide weekly media monitoring reports.

The material directed towards the external audience should be in the English language or other relevant foreign language. Material for use by the FSTF should be in the Ukrainian language as well as the English language.

Timeline

The intended commencement date is the date of signature of the contract with a service provider. The period of implementation of the contract will be six months.

4. Bidding details

The bidder must submit the following information to be considered:

  1. The CVs (no more than three pages for each person) of the key team members who will be involved in the project. List the names, project titles, key duties on this assignment, and amount of time dedicated to this project.
  2. A list of assignments similar to this project executed in the last five years, with the links to products developed under these assignments.
  3. A detailed description of the suggested methodology of work and the timeline of the project.
  4. A budget for the services in EUR, inclusive of all expenses, taxes or other such charges. Maximum total budget for this assignment is 30 000 EUR.

5.    Special requirements

By signing the contract, the contractor agrees to hold in trust and confidence any information or documents ("confidential information"), disclosed to the contractors or discovered by the contractors or prepared by the contractors in the course of or as a result of the implementation of the contract, and agrees that it shall be used only for the purposes of the contract implementation and shall not be disclosed to any third party.

6.  How to apply

The deadline for submitting the proposals is 20 February 2023, 18:00 Kyiv time.

The proposals shall be submitted within the above deadline to [email protected]  indicating the subject line “Freeze and Seize Assets communication”.

Bidding language: English.

Any clarification questions for the bid request should be addressed to [email protected] no later than 09 February 2023, 18:00 Kyiv time.

7.  Evaluation criteria

Bids will be evaluated under the criteria provided below:

# Criteria Weight
1 Portfolio of completed projects 60%
2 Relevant experience, skills and competencies of key team members 20%
3 Proposed budget 20%