Background

Important Notes:

All necessary information including Complete Terms of Reference, Selection Criteria, and Annexes are found on the following link under Procurement Notice Number IC-012/13:

http://www.iq.undp.org/ProcurementNotices_Overview.aspx

Proposals should be submitted to the following e-mail address no later than COB 9th of February 2013 (Amman Time +3GMT):
SSA.undp.iraq@undp.org

• Applicants should download the application documents (presented in compressed file) from the previously mentioned link for UNDP Iraq – Procurement notice web site, complete and sign them, and send the scanned copies to the email account above by or before the deadline of this post.
• Applications with NO financial offer or MISSING P11 form or the required documents for the technical evaluation will NOT be considered for evaluation.
• Applications WITHOUT Annex 3 for submitting a financial offer instead of other format will not be considered due to the need of Annex 3 for the ease of comparison of the received offers. All the necessary information for this post (TOR, Deliverables, Target dates, etc. are presented in the procurement notice documents) therefore, applicant MUST download it to apply for this post.
• DO NOT send only CV to the Email account mentioned above WITHOUT Annex 1, 2, 3, 4, Cover Letter and Methodology (If Requested) as it will considered as incomplete application.
• The documents are available in PDF (the Procurement Notice, Annex 3, 4 and 5) and Word 2010 (Annex 1 and 2) format; this is the only format available and it will not be provided in other formats.
• Applicants need to use Adobe reader, Word 2010, zipping software (WinRAR) to be able to use and view the documents for this procurement notice.
• Each email should be less than 8 MB; emails over this size will not be received to the above mentioned account.

Introduction:

 The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has requested assistance from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for resource and technical assistance through a program to increase the capacity, skills, planning and overall quality of operations of the Kurdistan Board of Supreme Audit (KBSA).

On 21 April 2008, the KRG passed the Law of the Board of Supreme Audit to establish the KRG - BSA. The KRG - BSA is the supreme audit authority for the KRG with its headquarters in Erbil - Iraq and a branch office in Suliamaniya - Iraq. It has total capacity of 396 staff members with less than one half of those being auditors. The KRG - BSA’s structure and responsibilities are set out in the Audit Board Law of Kurdistan.

Background:

This request follows from a self assessment that the KRG conducted in 2009. As a result, the KRG designed and adopted comprehensive, multi-year Governance and Transparency Strategy focused on enhancing the overall governance systems, institutions and practices within the Region. The KRG - BSA was identified to be a core element of the Strategy, as a new institution of the KRG requiring intensive capacity building and technical training in order to function as a credible supreme audit authority within the Region.

Moreover, during a follow-on review with the Chairman of the KRG-BSA, He acknowledged that KRG-BSA was in great need of capacity building in order to carry out and produce high quality audits and reporting. Specifically, KRG-BSA Chairman stated that auditors at the KRG-BSA were only conducting basic compliance audits and that there was a great room for improvements and expansion in the audit function to include also financial and performance audits. The Chairman described that his staff were lacking the necessary academic and professional qualifications expected of a supreme audit authority. He also shared his vision to establish a formal training program for his staff, with a long-term agenda to be designed and delivered by dedicated and capable trainers. Additionally, he was in need of an IT coordinator and guidance for his existing staff in need of basic IT skills to prepare audit reports efficiently and accurately. He requested that the KRG-BSA sought the resources and technical assistance to enhance skills and capabilities of its professional work force overall, so that the KRG-BSA could produce a full range of automated and thorough audit results, including in the areas of compliance, financial and performance audits.

The UNDP is seeking to employee a Consultant to provide technical assistance in assessing the current KRG-BSA situation and provide a “Need Assessment” (including IT assessment) and capacity building plans for KRG-BSA.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives:

• Conduct a NEEDS ASSESSMENT to determine closely the KRG-BSA needs in terms of institutional development, capacity building, training program, technology, planning, and practices. The assessment shall be benchmarked against applicable best practices that can be implemented throughout a three to four year plan in a set of project and project outputs and activities.
• Support the results of the assessment in terms of projects and programs:

            - In the areas of capacity building and training.
            - In other areas as recommended by the assessment (e.g. developing strategic plan, resources, relationship and reporting to the parliament).

• Determine other requirements such as IT requirements (i.e. IT infrastructure needed including Intranet, Internet, communications, accountancy and audit electronic application, document content management/reporting and document management) in addition to the legal support and management support.
• Identify the gaps that will require future assistance.

Scope and expected outputs:
The need assessment will be conducted through field visits/assessment by the Consultant. The assessment shall include but not limited to:

• Examine and evaluate the current KRG-BSA operations (mission, vision, process), mandate and legal framework.
• Examine the internal and external environment affecting KRG-BSA operations.
• Design a survey/methodology for data collection about the current resources in KBSA and their competencies.
• Conduct and analyze the survey/data collected.
•  Identify gaps and opportunities:

         - Determine best practices to be benchmarked against.
         - Evaluate customer satisfaction (internal customers) level.
         - Identify existing performance issues & qualification gap.
         - Identify future needs.
         - Gap analysis.

• Recommendations; including developing long term strategy, manpower required, IT required and detailed capacity development and institutional building programme.
• Training plan and IT plan; design a training programme that will address the needs identified in 1-5 above, including:

            - The topics needed for training but not limited to the followings (Compliance audit, financial audit, performance, audit, forensic audit, revenue cycle audit, government internal audit function, evidence collection, data analysis, planning, sampling, documentation, investigation techniques, reporting techniques, communication with entities being audited …etc)
           - The targeted staff and resource assessment.
           - IT requirements (i.e. IT infrastructure needed including Intranet, Internet, communications, document content management and document management) in addition to the legal support and management support
            - Time schedule
            - Cost–benefit analysis
            - Provide Terms of Reference’ to each of the above items.

The assessment of the current situation and the examination of the external environment should use tools such as site visits, interviews, workshops and internal research.

Gap analysis (including business process mapping) should be used to further examine the internal environment and chart future performance.

IT and Internal Environment Assessment should include – but not limited to-: infrastructure, network, Intranet, Internet, application inventory and compatibility, hardware and software used and related licensing, information backup strategy, reporting tools, email service, communication networks, technology support, maintenance and servicing, data management and storage, integrity of information, security and access level, IT department organization chart, human resources, training needs assessment, IT budget, policies and procedures etc …

External Environment Assessment should include -but not limited to-: IT Governance, Funding, Regulatory Restrictions, and Security Issues.

Competencies

• Ability to think conceptually and flexibly, capacity to adapt, innovate, and propose solutions to complex issues within a difficult and changing environment.
• Previous experience in Iraq is an advantage.
• An ability to work in potentially hazardous and difficult locations, with good health and physical ability.
• Ability to work well under pressure and stressful environment.
  

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Bachelor Degree in Accountancy or professional credential in Accounting and Audit.
  

Work Experience:

• At least 7 years of experience with environment, preferably functioned at high-level senior position with or within government, and fragile or post conflict states
• Prior experience in the SAI (Supreme Audit Institution).
• Experience in working with high level counterparts and engaging with senior government officials.
• Previous work experience with UNDP and other UN agencies is considered as advantage.
• Excellent reporting and writing skills.
• At least 7 years of experience with environment, preferably functioned at high-level senior position with or within government, and fragile or post conflict states

Language:

• Fluency in of English both written and oral (advanced Level).
• Knowledge of Arabic both written and oral (intermediate Level) is an asset.

 Proposals:

Documents to be included when submitting the Proposal:

Technical Proposal:
(Which will include the following):

• Signed Template Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal. (Please use Annex 1);
• A letter explaining why he/she considers himself/herself the most suitable candidate for the work;
• Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references. Please Use the attached (P11 Form Only) CV Form – Annex 2 attached. UNDP-Iraq reserves the right to disqualify any of CVs who are not compliant with the requested form.
• A language assessment will be conducted for the purpose of verifying influence in English and Arabic.
• A brief Methodology on how the candidate will approach and conduct the work.

(The expert is asked in his/her offer submission in the methodologies section to describe the following:

• Desk review of relevant project documentation and background information prepared by the National Consultant and the local UNDP team in Iraq/Jordan.
• Data collection and stakeholder consultations in-country, synthesising findings and feeding them to the International Consultant.
• Attendance at a stakeholder consultation workshop in Amman, expected in Quarter 1 or Quarter 2 2013, to discuss project design and scope.
• Iterative document-writing process (for those documents expected from the National Consultant), acting on early-draft comments and feedback from the UNDP Country Office, the UNDP Regional Technical Advisor, and the International Consultant.

Financial proposal:

The financial proposal will specify a total lump sum amount and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables. Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. A breakdown of this lump sum amount is to be provided by the IC candidate. Total Fees: Please use Annex 3 – Financial proposal form.
All necessary information including: Complete Terms of Reference, The Selection Criteria, and Annexes are found on the following link under Procurement Notice Number IC-012/13:

http://www.iq.undp.org/ProcurementNotices_Overview.aspx

Proposals should be submitted to the following e-mail address no later than COB 9th of Febryary 2013 (Amman Time +3GMT):

SSA.undp.iraq@undp.org