Deadline for application: 30 September 2021, at 14:00, Danish time
Description:
Background
The European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI) in Ukraine is a joint EU and Government of Denmark financed programme aimed at supporting Ukraine to reduce corruption at the national and local level through the empowerment of citizens, civil society, businesses, and state institutions. This assignments falls under EUACI’s component 2, where partner cities are supported in their efforts to strengthen integrity, transparency, and
accountability.
Integrity and Municipally Owned Enterprises (MOEs)
Ukraine’s MOEs often have a significant economic and social impact in local communities and are among the largest employers, contributing to a substantial percentage of the workforce. Because of their role, structure, mandate, legal status, and many competing interests, they are often exposed to critical integrity risks. If compared with private companies, MOEs can face particularly heightened corruption risk owing, among others, to underlying issues in their ownership, regulatory and corporate governance arrangements, as well as shortcomings in the quality and credibility of corporate disclosure. Given the challenges, the cities' and MOEs' leadership are keen to pilot an assessment of the integrity situation and, subsequently, to follow up on its findings, probably through the
development of an Integrity Plan based on the findings and recommendations of
the integrity assessments.
The assignment
The EUACI is seeking a Consultant (Consulting firm) that can work closely with the EUACI and its partner city to conduct an integrity assessment of municipally owned central heating supply enterprises (MOE) in Mariupol, and provide practical recommendations (solutions) on how best to tackle identified risks to the enterprises integrity.
Purpose
The purpose of the assignment is to provide a sound technical foundation for the EUACI's support to its partner city Mariupol in the integrity assessment of the central heating supply MOE.
Scope of Work
The integrity assessment to be conducted with the MOE should as a minimum cover the following three main areas and sub-areas:
1) Assessment of transparency and accountability of procedures and processes:
a. Evaluation of the MOE’s internal procedures and their enforcement towards the best practices of transparency and accountability for central heating MOEs in Ukraine and international standards;
b. Assessment of MOE’s compliance with the requirements of Article 78 of the Commercial Code of Ukraine.
2) Assessment of corruption risks:
a. Analysis and assessment of legal, institutional, financial, and other factors to identify corruption vulnerabilities within the operations of the MOE;
b. Advice on efficient, cost-effective strategies to mitigate the identified corruption vulnerabilities or risks.
3) Corporate governance assessment:
a. Identification of the status and ability to implement the OECD’s corporate governance principles[1] into the MOE.
b. Advice on implementation of such principles. The specific industry standards shall be considered for implementation if not applied by the targeted MOE.
Approach and methodology
The Consultant will pursue a respectful and participatory approach throughout the assignment with close attention to the needs of representatives in the MOE and city corporations for understanding and subscribing to the assessment methodology, the findings, and the recommendations.
The methodology will take the point of departure in generally accepted international practices and guidelines so as to adhere to generally accepted standards for integrity assessments.
The Consultant will need to pay special attention to the description of how international guidelines, practices and standards will be guiding the Consultant’s design of the integrity assessment in the specific context of municipally owned central heating enterprises.
Duration and timing:
The contract is expected to be of a 28 weeks duration with a maximum 235 person days distributed over the three experts and a pool of local assistants for data collection and analysis.
Budget
The maximum budget available for the assignment is DKK 554,300 (equivalent to approximately EUR 74,550).
Deadline for application: 30. September 2021, at 14:00, Danish time
Contact point:
Name of Programme Officer: Bohdan Boiko, Local Governance Expert
E-mail address, Programme Officer: [email protected]
Telephone of Programme Officer: +380969139498
Criteria for selection
A minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 applicants with references best suited for this assignment will be invited to submit tender.