TERMS OF REFERENCE
Request for Bid for
International Consultant (Mentor) for the formulation of the Strategy and Implementation Plan for the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine
European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI)
November 2020
- Background and context
The European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI) Phase II is the biggest European Union (EU) support programme in the area of anti-corruption in Ukraine, co-funded and implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark on behalf of the EU. It is a four-year programme (2020-2024) building on a flagship Phase I of the EUACI, funded by the EU, implemented and co-funded by Denmark in 2017-2020.
The overall objective of EUACI Phase II is reduction of corruption in Ukraine at the national and local level through the empowerment of citizens, the civil society, business and state institutions. Such state institutions include the whole newly set-up anti-corruption infrastructure of Ukraine, in which the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) plays a key role.
NABU is an investigative, law enforcement agency, set up in 2015, whose main mandate is to prevent and fight top-level corruption, i.e. criminal offences committed by senior public and local officials and those that threaten national security. The law on NABU determines its status, mandate, powers and organisation; the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine defines its investigative jurisdiction.
Since its establishment NABU has handled 986 investigations, issued 390 notices of suspicion, 265 cases are currently in court, 41 convictions reached. NABU has disclosed multiple abuses by state enterprises, frauds and corruption schemes related to violations of public procurement, fraudulent performance of government contracts, embezzlement and misappropriation of state funds. The amount of damages caused to the state, as disclosed by NABU, totals over UAH 80 billion (EUR 2.43 billion) and the amount already returned to the state, as a result of NABU activities, is over UAH 600 million (EUR 20 million). The economic impact of NABU investigations achieved during the first half of 2020 alone is more than UAH 1.5 billion (appr. EUR 45 million).
Specific areas of NABU’s competence include analytical work; pre-trial investigations which include search, seizure and covert operations; search and seizure of funds and other assets; internal control and cooperation with whistle-blowers. NABU pursues the policy of openness and transparency, and has an external communications department that is actively engaged with the public in reporting NABU results, raising overall public intolerance towards corruption and encouraging ways of counteracting it.
In addition to its headquarters in Kyiv, NABU has three regional offices in Lviv, Odesa and Kharkiv. NABU structure, as provided on NABU website, is shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1.
In late 2017, the EUACI helped NABU develop its first institutional strategy and implementation plans, adopted by the Order of the Director of the NABU on 28 November 2017. Those documents need to be revised. In November 2020, NABU passed an Order, setting up a working group, responsible for the development a new institutional strategy of NABU for 2021-2023.
2. Purpose and objective
To ensure sustainable institutional development of NABU, EUACI will provide consultancy assistance to help NABU develop its strategy and implementation action plan for 2021-2023. This process will be led by NABU and facilitated by the EUACI. The main outcome of the exercise twofold:
- to have the strategy for 2021-2023 and its implementation plan(s) drafted
- to have the internal capacities of NABU developed so that the agency is fully capable of organising the process of revision of their strategy and its implementation plans in line with the best international standards in the future.
The assignment is expected to be implemented in three phases in full coordination with the EUACI, including through its embedded expert in NABU:
1) Inception and planning phase. The objective of this phase will be to review the initial strategy and ensure that the strategy formulation process is aligned with NABU priorities and that all relevant stakeholders are consulted and included. Key activities include:
- Review of the initial strategy of NABU and the technical assessment document of NABU;
- Holding bilateral meetings with the management and relevant key departments of NABU to clarify the process and outcome;
- Holding meetings with the Anti-Corruption Donor community and CSOs (NABU Public Oversight Council) to collect input for the strategy
- Agreement with the EUACI on process
- Planning of strategy workshop and follow-up.
2) Implementation phase. The objective of the implementation phase will be to run the process of the strategy development. Key activities include:
- Facilitation of strategy workshops/bilateral consultations with relevant NABU departments led by NABU and the facilitated by consultant in co-operation with the EUACI embedded expert;
- Drafting of strategy with NABU during and after the workshop.
3) Validation and finalization of the strategy. The objective of the third phase is to ensure broader ownership of strategy and finalise the product.
- Assisting NABU in finalising the draft
- Assisting NABU with preparing draft for publication (English and Ukrainian).
4) Facilitation of the drafting of implementation plan(s) by individual departments of NABU.
The assignment will be undertaken online. The following NABU departments (working group members) will be engaged in the development of the strategy and implementation plan:
- Main Detectives Department
- Analytical Department
- Internal Control Department
- Special Operations Department
- IT Department
- External Communications Department
- Legal Department
- Financial and Material Resource Department
- Regional Departments (Kharkiv, Odesa, Lviv)
- Human Resource Unit
- Operative and Technical Department
- Internal Audit Unit
- Accounting Department
- Document Flow Unit
- Secret and Regime Unit
- Director’s Bureau Unit
4. Deliverables (outputs)
Key outputs include the following:
- Proposed approach and methodology to be submitted to the EUACI (and NABU) one week before the first phase. The methodology should also include description of how implementation of the assignment would facilitate development of strategic planning capacity of NABU.
- A draft workshop/bilateral meetings' plan to be submitted to the EUACI (and NABU) at the end of phase 1.
- A draft strategy document submitted by the end of phase 2.
- A final strategy document developed by the end of phase 3.
- Strategy implementation plan(s) developed by the end of phase 4.
- NABU staff capacity developed in drafting strategy and implementation plan(s) by the end of phase 4.
- Final report to be submitted to the EUACI, describing the actions undertaken and results achieved.
5. Requirements for the Consultant
A total input of 40 person-days is foreseen.
The key qualifications of the consultant shall include the following:
- Relevant education up to Master's Degree / Academic level that demonstrates the ability to perform the duties and responsibilities as described;
- At least 7 years of experience of strategy and implementation plan development for law enforcement, anti-corruption agencies or similar;
- At least 10 years of experience in with rule of law, good governance and preferably anti-corruption;
- Fluency oral and written in English;
- Ability to speak Ukrainian or Russian is an advantage;
- Previous experience of working in Ukraine or in the region is an advantage.
The consultant may choose to conduct work individually or with the help of other international or local consultants.
The selection procedures used by the Consultant to select these other experts shall be transparent, and shall be based on pre-defined criteria, including professional qualifications, language skills and work experience.
6. Timing
The intended commencement date is the date of signing of the contract by both parties. The activities and deliverables listed under paragraph “Scope and method of work” and “deliverables” should be completed not later than within six months following the signature of the contract.
The expert will approve the actual timeline and coordinate it with the EUACI and NABU.
7. Estimated budget and inputs
The requested indicative input should in total be 40 person days. The full budget for this assignment all included may not exceed EUR 30,000.
The EUACI will cover translation and interpretation Ukrainian-English-Ukrainian costs and they should not be included in the financial proposal.
8.Reporting and management
The main counterpart for the expert is the European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI), based in Kyiv, www.euaci.eu, to whom the expert should report to.
The performance of the expert will be judged upon reaching the purpose of this contract as well as obtaining its results indicated in the sections “Scope and method of work” and “deliverables” of this document.
The EUACI and NABU will provide background documents for the winner of the tender that is necessary to perform the tasks. The EUACI will cover reasonable translation and interpretation costs.
9. Special requirements
By signing the contract, the expert agrees to hold in trust and confidence any information or documents ("confidential information"), disclosed to the expert or discovered by the expert or prepared by the expert in the course of or as a result of the implementation of the contract, and agree that it shall be used only for the purposes of the contract implementation and shall not be disclosed to any third party. The expert also agrees not to retain copies of any written information or prototypes in their own archive and for their own use.
10. Contracting authority
The Contracting Authority is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, European Union Anti-corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI).
11. How to apply
Deadline for applications: 15 December 2020, 18:00 Kyiv time
Contact point: European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI)
Name of Programme Officer: Elena Konceviciute
E-mail address, Programme Officer: [email protected], [email protected]
Qualified experts should send the following:
1) their CV
2) proposed daily rate
3) a methodology of not more than 2 pages
with a subject line "International Consultant for NABU strategy".