National Call “The selection process to anticorruption institutions”
The EUACI is a collaborative initiative funded by the European Union and the Government of Denmark, with the aim of supporting Ukraine in its efforts to reduce corruption at both national and local levels. The new phase, launched in January 2024, focuses on key strategic objectives: reducing corruption in Ukraine, advancing anti-corruption reforms, and implementing reconstruction efforts in war-affected areas with a strong emphasis on transparency, accountability, and integrity.
Civil society and media play an important role in Ukraine in enhancing awareness, investigating corruption, developing and advocating legislation and other state policies, influencing integrity of state institutions at the national and local level.
The EUACI operates across four intervention areas:
- Support to independent state institutions fighting and preventing corruption
- Transparency and accountability of the reconstruction process
- Support for cities in war-affected areas to enhance integrity in the reconstruction process
- Civil society and media engagement in preventing and fighting corruption
The national call “The selection process to anticorruption institutions” is announced under intervention area 4.
The grant competitions will aim to assist civil society in conducting integrity assessments of candidates for heads and other staff of anti-corruption institutions as well as judges and staff of the High Anticorruption Court. Other institutions within the mandate of the EUACI might be covered as well as per agreement with the EUACI.
The specific objectives of the call:
- Conduct high-quality integrity assessments of candidates for heads and staff of AC institutions as well as judges and or staff of High Anticorruption Court based on open sources and objectivity.
- Monitor selection processes of candidates for heads and staff of AC institutions as well as judges and or staff of High Anticorruption Court. A monitoring report is anticipated as an outcome of the monitoring process.
- Provide support for the capacity development activities of partner organizations and/or young professionals related to integrity checks.
Please note: The applicants may be one organization or consortium or coalition of organizations who divide the role of the integrity checks and monitoring between themselves.
Grant competition budget: 300,000 EUR. The aim is to fund at least 1 project within the scope of the call. The applicants should ensure that the grant budget remains below 150,000 EUR per year, 300 000 EUR for 2 years.
Grant budget structure
- program activities (conducting investigation and events, translation services, communication activities, program activities, monitoring report preparation and translation, etc.)
- salary for the staff (executive director, deputy executive director, accountant, communication manager, project manager, etc.) and fees for permanent and external experts (researcher, lawyers, journalist, peer-review, etc.)
- capacity building of staff involved in the project implementation and of the implementing organization in general.
- administrative services (office rent, communication, bank fees, annual audits)
- unallocated funds up to 7% of the budget.
Selection process
Applicant eligibility criteria:
To be eligible for a grant, the applicant must:
- be a legal entity officially registered according to Ukrainian legislation
- be a nonprofit civil society organization with codes 0032, 0034, 0036, 0038, 0039
- have proven experience and expertise in capacity-building and networking
- have experience from working with integrity and/or anti-corruption issues
- have no attachment to political parties or vested economic or political interests
The full proposal with the budget will be evaluated against the following criteria:
- compliance with formal selection criteria;
- relevance to the goal and objectives of the call for proposals;
- the level of the thematic expertise of the organization and experience in the anticorruption sphere
- the level of the sustainability of the organization;
- well-structured and clear project proposal with measurable outcomes and outputs of the proposed project;
- the budget is reasonable and clearly outlines costs; the budget items are explained adequately in the narrative;
- a partnership with experts or CSOs located in the regions of Ukraine may be advantageous.
Please note that applicants should provide a brief methodology for the integrity assessments and the selection process of candidates for heads and staff of AC institutions. Please note that the methodology should not exceed one page and should be provided in English.
The evaluation and selection of grant proposals will be conducted by the Selection Committee in accordance with the specified criteria. The committee comprises external experts with expertise in the fields of anticorruption, and members of the EUACI management team.
Timelines
The project must be submitted no later than May 31, 2024 23:59 Kyiv time.
The information about the competition result will be published no later than June 21, 2024.
The grant agreements are expected to be signed no later than mid-July 2024. Applicants may start the project between mid-July and mid-October 2024.
The project duration should not exceed 24 months, with all projects required to conclude before end of October 2026.
How to apply The applicants are required to complete the proposal and budget forms in English language (ANNEX 2. Project Proposal and ANNEX 3. Project Budget forms, a brief methodology for the integrity assessments and the selection process of candidates for heads and staff of AC institutions). The proposal with the budget shall be submitted by e-mail to: [email protected] with the subject: Response to National Grant Call for Assessing the Integrity of Anticorruption Institution Candidates
Deadline for proposal with the budget submission is May 31, 2024 23:59 Kyiv time. The proposal either received after the deadline or incomplete, without detailed budget will not be considered.
Competition presentation. The presentation of the grant call in online and offline format is planned on 13 May, at 11 am. The online broadcasting will be available at EUACI YouTube chanel and EUACI Facebook page The registration link on the event https://forms.gle/KSXxAFnCJ4U3F33H9
Questions in English or Ukrainian for the National Call the selection process to anticorruption institution should be submitted to: [email protected] no later than May 24, 2024 17:00 Kyiv time, indicating clearly the title of this call for proposals. The EU Anti-Corruption Initiative reserves the right to not provide clarifications to questions received after the deadline. Replies will be posted on the EUACI website by May 28, 2024 17:00 Kyiv time. To ensure transparency and fairness of the application process, the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative cannot express any prior opinion on the eligibility of applicants, proposed actions or specific activities.