1. Background
1.1. General overview
Supporting anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine is a high political priority for the European Union. By combating corruption, the EU contributes to the consolidation of democracy and economic growth of Ukraine, as well as successful approximation of Ukraine with the EU.
Following the significant results of the EUACI in 2017-2020, Denmark and the EU engaged in a second phase of the programme aimed at sustaining existing results and further expanding the support to newly established institutions. Of these National Agency of Prevention of Corruption is the one responsible for the formation and realization of the national anti-corruption policy, in particular through development of the national Anti-corruption Strategy and State Programme aimed at its implementation, as well as through the system of anti-corruption programs adopted by state authorities, bodies of local self-government and legal entities (on a local level).
On June 20th, 2022 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine finally passed the law on the 2021-2025 Anti-Corruption Strategy. After the two years of turbulence after the draft law was developed by the NACP with the inclusive participation of civil society and in consultations with international donors and experts, Ukrainian Parliament ultimately gave a green light to the Strategy. As the law was signed by the President on 7th July 2022, and officially published on July 9th, and entered into force on July 10th, 2022. The passing of the law became possible partially due to the path of the EU Integration of Ukraine: after the Ukrainian government filled out the EU membership questionnaire, it became clear that having in place a strong and comprehensive anti-corruption strategy is a necessary requirement for further EU Integration.
The Strategy is a comprehensive document developed in the result of broad consultations with stakeholders that identifies priorities for the prevention of corruption in numerous specific sectors, such as judiciary, prosecutor's service, police, taxes and customs, construction, land, infrastructure, defense, healthcare, education, social protection, etc. As a comprehensive and ambitious document, the Strategy requires a step-by-step implementation action plan. The law provides for this plan – the State Programme on the Implementation of the Anti-Corruption Strategy to be developed be the NACP and adopted by the government within 6 months since the Strategy enters in the force. The Programme is meant to be a tool to operationalize the Strategy and to give it more details through setting particular activities aimed at achieving the strategic goals, responsible authorities, deadlines and indicators. Provided that the Strategy covers very concrete sectors to be provided for in the Programme, NACP has requested for specialized sectoral assistance in order to ensure the high quality of the document to be produced.
Specifically, the NACP needs expert input in the following areas:
● Defense sector (use of defense lands, real estate, movable military property, fuel, intellectual property objects; public procurement; human resource management)
● Economic deregulation, public sector of the economy and controlling bodies
● Infrastructure (roads construction and repair, urban planning and land management, cultural heritage objects);
● Land reform and land ownership.
The assistance is needed with the development of the sections of the State Programme on the Implementation of the Anti-Corruption Strategy corresponding to the following subsections of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy: 3.2.1.; 3.2.2.; 3.2.3.; 3.2.4.; 3.2.5.; 3.2.6.; 3.2.7.; 3.5.1.; 3.5.2.; 3.5.3.; 3.5.4.; 3.5.5.; 3.5.6.; 3.5.7.; 3.5.8.; 3.5.9.; 3.5.10.; 3.6.1.; 3.6.2.; 3.6.3.; 3.6.4.; 3.6.5.; 3.7.7.
1.2. Contracting authority
The contracting authority is the European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine, hereinafter referred to as the “Customer”.
1.3. Beneficiary
The beneficiary is the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, Department of Corruption Detection and Prevention.
2. Objective
The main objective of support to be provided to the NACP within the framework of this engagement is to assist the Agency with expert services in development of the State Anti-Corruption Programme (SACP) through engagement of sectoral experts in relevant fields.
3. Scope of work and expected deliverables
3.1. Scope of work
Within the framework of this assignment the service provider(-s) is expected to provide expert assistance in the following fields:
- Defense sector (use of defense lands, real estate, movable military property, fuel, intellectual property objects; public procurement; human resource management)
- Economic deregulation, public sector of the economy and controlling bodies
- Infrastructure (roads construction and repair, urban planning and land management, cultural heritage objects);
- Land reform and land ownership.
Expert assistance in these sectors is to be provided to NACP Department of Anti-corruption Policy, in order to assist NACP in development of sector-specific parts of State Programme aimed at implementation of national Anti-corruption Strategy, including specific activities, responsible authorities, deadlines and performance indicators.
3.2. Expected deliverables:
Each expert is expected to deliver the following in course of undertaking the engagement:
1) Prepared description of the current state of each respective problem, which should include an up-to-date (as of 01.08.22) problem description, its causes and the volume of negative consequences (if necessary, the scale and dynamics of the problem), in two versions:
- "detailed description of the problem" (up to 1 page), including references to high-quality and reliable data sources, which will later become a component of the Explanatory Note to the Draft Law and will be used during the advocacy of the SACP;
- "brief description of the problem" (up to 0.5 page), which will be proposed to be included directly in the SACP.
2) Clearly formulated goal (in one sentence) that should be achieved as a result of solving the described problem.
3) Determined list of main tasks (from 3 to 5), successful implementation of which will allow to achieve the set goal and solve the relevant problem. For each task, proposed qualitative and quantitative indicators of task performance, sources of data on such indicators, as well as a base value for each indicator (as a basis for further assessment of progress) should be developed.
4) Proposed system of measures to implement regarding each task with the definition of the following indicators for each specific measure: implementation period, responsible authorities, funding sources, performance indicators and data sources on them, the base value for each indicator.
5) Prepared list of reliable sources (statistical data, analytical documents, studies and surveys, etc.), which justify: 1) the relevance of the described problem, its nature, causes, consequences, scale, dynamics, etc.; 2) the author's choice of the most efficient way of solving the respective problem through the definition of the appropriate system of measures and tasks.
6) Narrative report describing progress on this project (up to 5 pages).
4. Timeline
The period of implementation of the contract will be 7 months with overall input of 90 days. The involvement of each expert may vary, but should not exceed 30 days in total spread during the length of the contract as agreed with NACP and EUACI. The intended commencement date is the date of signature of the contract with the service provider.
5. Requirements for the Contractor
Each of the experts in the team should meet the following education and experience criteria:
● Advanced University degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in the relevant field of expertise, law, social sciences or related areas. A first-level university degree in similar fields in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;
● A minimum of 5 years of professional experience of working in the relevant field (government, non-government or international organization, providing technical assistance/advise on issues related to the field), preferably with the focus on policy cycle, institutional review of the field;
● Extensive conceptual and practical knowledge of state and local government operating processes (as well as state enterprises) in the field;
● Proven ability of analytical and report drafting work;
● Experience of working and collaborating with stakeholders including government, civil society and communities;
● Experience in designing national anti-corruption policies, strategies, and public campaigns, is desirable;
● Fluency in written and oral Ukrainian, English will be an asset.
6. Monitoring and evaluation
Definition of indicators
The performance of the contractor will be judged upon reaching the purpose of this contract as well as obtaining its results, as indicated in the sections "Objective" and "Expected Deliverables" herein respectively. Moreover, the performance of the contractors will be judged upon successful implementation of all the specific activities indicated above.
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.
The contractor reports to the EUACI. The contractor shall be briefed prior to starting with the assignment. The contractor shall de-brief the EUACI prior to finalising the assignment.
7. Cross-cutting issues (integration of the youth, equal opportunities)
The project will be implemented ensuring equal opportunities for men and women and integration of the youth.
HOW TO APPLY
Deadline for submitting the proposals is 3rd August 2022, 18:00 Kyiv time.
The proposal shall include each expert’s CVs, calculation of time needed for specific parts of assignment implementation for each expert and daily fee of each expert, total budget for the assignment, motivation letter, proofs of relevant experience (if available) and should be submitted within the above deadline to [email protected] with the subject “NACP Development of the State Programme of implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy”.
Bidding language: English.
Clarification questions
Any clarification questions regarding the bid request should be addressed to Oleksandr Komarov, [email protected] not later than 1st August 2022, 18:00 Kyiv time.