Background

Purpose

This consultancy is designed to move forward the process of strengthening the legislative functioning of the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago via the delivery of baseline reports, concept papers, functional review papers and comparative best practices reports on a number of topics such as the functioning of Committees in Trinidad and Tobago’s Parliament, public hearings and post legislative scrutiny. 
In a democratic country, important conditions for quality implementation of the competencies of the parliament are an efficient legislative process that requires adequate resources and skills, good organization and good planning. To exercise the legislative function of Parliament, Members of Parliament need to be able to rely on the support of experts and on the input of relevant stakeholders and civil society.
In this regard, the Parliamentary Advisor is expected to examine the functioning of the various Committees of Parliament and to recommend appropriate strategies in an effort to strengthen the legislative function of Trinidad and Tobago’s Parliament.
 
Situational Analysis and Context
The strengthening of the legislative functioning of Parliament is one of the key outputs of the joint project, Strengthening the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, between the Parliament of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and UNDP. This output is also a key objective of the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago Strategic Plan of 2013 – 2018, to improve the legislative process in Parliament to ensure better scrutiny and quality of legislation.
 
In Trinidad & Tobago, the Rules of Procedure of Parliament has organized the Committee structures as follows:
  • Sessional Select Committees are Committees that deal with matters relating to the internal operations of the Senate/House. These include the Standing Orders Committee, the House Committee, the Privileges Committees and the Regulations Committee (or Statutory Instruments Committee);
  • Special Select Committees carry out specific inquiries, studies or other tasks which the House judge of special importance, and are sometimes referred to as ad hoc committees;
  • Joint Select Committees, which include the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Public Accounts (Enterprises) Committee (PA(E)C) and the Departmental Joint Select Committees;
  • Departmental Joint Select Committees are to inquire into and report to both Houses of Parliament in respect of Government Ministries; Municipal Corporations; Statutory Authorities; Enterprises owned or controlled by or on behalf of the State or which received; funding from the State of more than two third of its total income in any one year; and Service Commissions.
Sub-Committees

In order to support the legislative function and the work of Committees, the UNDP project aims to strengthen the practice of public hearings on draft laws, taking into account the current forms of interactions with civil society in the legislative process such as Public Forum activities and Papers for Public Comment. The project will bring on board best practices from other parliaments, provide knowledge products and support piloting of public hearings on selected draft laws.
 
The project will also focus on post-legislative scrutiny of law implementation, a practice not yet introduced in Trinidad & Tobago. The project will offer research on best practices from other parliaments, knowledge products to assist MPs and senior staff and support piloting of post-legislative scrutiny hearings and oversight field visits on selected draft laws. The project will also pre-study the current challenges of the oversight Committees, mentioned above. Additionally, the project will consider, inter alia, the current functioning and operations of the Joint Select (Oversight) Committees.

Duties and Responsibilities

Expected Outcomes

The tasks and responsibilities of the Parliamentary Advisor need to be exercised taking into account the four strategy foundations of the Strengthening the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago Project: promoting national ownership in parliamentary development; incorporating of ‘lessons learned’ from other parliamentary development projects; knowledge building and knowledge transfer in order to enhance sustainability of the project outcomes; and working cooperatively with other partners. The consultant will be required to:
  • Bring best practices on parliamentary development, focusing on the Committee System, to the project;
  • Deliver quality project outputs, including but not limited to: baseline reports, concept papers, functional review papers and comparative best practices reports on a number of topics related to the functioning of Committees in Trinidad and Tobago’s Parliament, public hearings and post legislative scrutiny;
  • Support the project in the identification of knowledge gaps among target groups and beneficiaries and suggest measures to address such gaps; actively support the sharing of project results and products, lessons learned and good practices with other projects, government agencies and stakeholders;
  • Contribute to roundtable discussions and seminars; and
  • Participate in UNDP global knowledge networks, communication or meetings for the area of parliamentary development.
The key deliverables for this project would be:
Baseline Report (Report 1)
  • A baseline report on the functioning of the various Committees and the legislative functions in Trinidad and Tobago Parliament.
Committee public hearings on draft legislation (Report 2)
  • A comparative best practise research report on public hearings in Committees, procedures and techniques. In developing this report the Parliamentary Advisory will look at the challenges for the period 2011-2013 as it relates to Public Consultations, Public Hearings and the legislative function of Parliament. In addition, the lessons learned over the review period should be documented and distributed among the Members of Parliament and a Manual for T&T MPs should be developed on “How to conduct public hearings and consultations in the legislative process”. 
Implementation of Legislation Review ( Report 3)

A report with the lessons learned should be prepared for distribution among the Members of Parliament and policy makers after the following activities are accomplished:
  • Preparation of a Concept Paper on post legislative scrutiny; 
  • Parliamentary and expert roundtable on executive oversight: challenges, opportunities, rules, best practices and case studies on post-legislative scrutiny, and 
  • Development of a Road Map on how to pilot the implementation of review hearings and oversight field visits: two (2) per year on selected laws”.
Recommendations (Report 4)
  • A report on best practice oversight committee work and recommendations for the Trinidad and Tobago situation is needed.    

Competencies

  • Excellent oral communication skills and conflict resolution competency to manage inter-group dynamics and mediate conflicting interests of varied actors;
  • Excellent written communication skills, with analytic capacity and ability to synthesize project outputs and relevant findings for the preparation of quality project reports;
  • Maturity and confidence in dealing with senior and high ranking members of national and international institutions, government and non-government; and
  • Ability to work under pressure;
  • Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Post-graduate degree in social and political sciences, law, public administration, institutional/organisational development or related field;

Experience:

  • A minimum of seven (7) years working experience in the area of parliamentary affairs, legislative assistance and/or governance programme and projects;
  • Demonstrated knowledge and experience in working on improving parliamentary functioning in different countries;
  • Knowledge of the Westminster System of Democracy.

Language:

  • Excellent spoken, report writing and presentation skills in the English language.

Application procedure:

Proposal should be submitted at the below mentioned email address no later than Tuesday 22nd April 2014 with the subject e-mail “Parliament Advisor”  

  Name of Office:                      UNDP – Trinidad and Tobago
                                                3A Chancery Lane, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

Email:                                      registry.tt@undp.org

Attention: Procurement Unit
Subject:  Parliament Advisor 

Any request for clarification must be sent in writing, or by standard electronic communication to the address or e-mail indicated above with the subject “Parliament Advisor” and received by UNDP no later than Monday 14th April 2014. The Procurement Unit at UNDP TT will respond by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants.