UNDP Jobs - 49899- International Consultant on Public Procurement

International Consultant on Public Procurement

Location :

Tashkent, UZBEKISTAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

06-Oct-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

30 working days in October - November 2014 (including a 10-w.day mission to Tashkent)

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Public procurement constitutes around 11% of Uzbekistan’s GDP. The current system of public procurement in Uzbekistan is regulated by a number of government resolutions, with no dedicated legislative act at the level of the Law. Although new regulations are being issued by the government (eg, on introduction of e-procurement and improving access to PP for SMEs), there is a growing understanding among the government and other stakeholders of the need to modernize the public procurement with an aim to make it more transparent and efficient. Overall, the system of public procurement in Uzbekistan is governed by a scattered and outdated legislation, with many gaps and uncertainties that keep the system opaque and risky for the stakeholders both at the procuring and supplier sides.

UNDP has been providing support to the Government of Uzbekistan in reforming public procurement through a joint project with the Ministry of Finance “Budget System Reform in Uzbekistan”. The project aims at bringing the national legislation in the area of public procurement in line with both the international best practices and the national context. As part of the ongoing assistance in this area, the project has facilitated the preparation of a draft Law on Public Procurement, which should provide a single legal framework for establishing modern and efficient public procurement system in Uzbekistan. The draft law tries to ensure the following:

Transparent selection of supplier (within reasonable timeframe, labour and resource costs for conducting procurement procedures), to meet the needs of the purchaser at the optimum "price-quality" ratio;
Equal treatment for all participants of public procurement procedures,
Competitiveness and favourable conditions for public procurement participants including bona fide suppliers;
Facilitation of socio-economic development of the country (supporting small business, national producers, promoting innovations, increasing energy-efficiency and etc.).

In order to ensure the flexibility the draft Law “On Public Procurement” should be framework-type, leaving all detailed description of procurement processes and procedures to be specified in the secondary legislation and guidelines. The flexibility is needed to avoid possible difficulties and problems that may occur during the testing of modern public procurement procedures and requirements in the context of Uzbekistan as well as due to existing limitations in terms of financial and human resource capacities to implement reforms in this area.

It is expedient that draft Law “On Public Procurement” incorporates best parts of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Public Procurement that applicable in the context of Uzbekistan, but also: a) considers limitations of transition economy; b) covers all procurement cycle, especially procurement planning, preparation and monitoring).

The main objective of International consultant’s assignment is a detailed review and provision of expertise to the draft Law “On Public Procurement” as well as further finalization of the document. The expertise should include recommendations on further improvement of the draft Law based on international best practices and modern tendencies in the area of public procurement covering relevant procedures, ICT tools, technical, organizational, and human resource development aspects, etc. In performing the assigned tasks the international consultant should focus more on procedures applicability and single procurement system functioning issues, rather than legal aspects.

Job title: International Consultant on Public Procurement.

Type of Contract: Individual Contract.

Project Title/Department: “Budget system Reform in Uzbekistan” project Economic Governance Unit.

Duration of the service: 30 working days (w.d.).in October - November 2014 (, including a 10-day mission to Tashkent):

10 w.d. desk work in a country of residence (October 20-31, 2014);
10 w.d. mission to Tashkent (November 03- 14, 2014);
10 w.d. desk work in a country of residence (November 17 - 28, 2014).

Duty station: Home based and Tashkent city, Uzbekistan.

Expected places of travel: Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Reports to: Project Manager and National consultant on inter-budgetary relations and public procurement.

Duties and Responsibilities

The International Consultant will work under the general guidance of the Project Manager and direct supervision of National consultant on inter-budgetary relations and public procurement. The assignment will consist of the following duties and responsibilities grouped in three stages:

Stage I

Discuss the details of the assignment (such as the plan of works, background reading, preparation for the mission to Tashkent, meetings with stakeholders, the expected outputs, logistics, etc. with the project manager and the team of national consultants (via Skype).
Desk review the background reading materials (to be provided by the project) and analyze the situation in the area of public procurement in Uzbekistan
Review the draft law on public procurement developed by the team of national consultants

Prepare and submit an inception report containing (10-15 pages max.):

The outline of the assignment details;
Preliminary findings;
Preliminary results of review of the draft law on public procurement with initial set of recommendations;
List of questions (discussion points) for the upcoming meetings with the stakeholders.

The review of the draft law should contain references and comparisons with best international practices that are relevant to Uzbekistan’s development context to the extent possible. As such, references to UNCITRAL model law and country experiences from the region will be expected.

Stage II

Conduct a field visit to Uzbekistan (up to 10 days);
Meet with key national stakeholders in the area of public procurement (eg, Ministry of Finance, Treasury, Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Investment and Trade, Ministry of Public Education, Parliament, Chamber of Commerce) as well as international donor organizations (such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank) to better understand the current context, issues and challenges in the area of public procurement;
Work with the team of national consultants on developing a set of detailed recommendations on the draft law on public procurement (ie, on the structure of the law, its scope, principles, enforcement mechanisms, institutional underpinning, compliance with international standards, etc.);
Prepare and submit a draft report with the recommendations on the next steps for the national partners and UNDP in the area of public procurement.

Stage III

Finalize the recommendations and the draft report based on the feedback from the project team and national partners.

Deliverables and Deadlines

The following tentative schedule of deliverables is expected under the current assignment. The project reserves the right, if necessary, to amend the terms of reference of an expert upon a written agreement. The final schedule will be agreed upon in the beginning of the assignment. All deliverables should be submitted to UNDP project in electronic form by the Consultant in English or Russian.

Inception Report with the plan of work and preliminary findings and recommendations; Due date: October 31, 2014, 1st installment(30%);
Presentation and facilitation of a discussion at a round table dedicated to the draft law on public procurement;
Draft report containing the comments and recommendations on the draft law, as well as the recommendations on the next steps for the national partners and UNDP in the area of public procurement, Due date November 14, 2014, 2nd installment (30%);
Final version of the Report. Due Date November 28, 2014, 3rd installment (40%).

This is a lump sum contract that should include costs of consultancy and other related costs, if any, required to produce the above deliverables.

Monitoring and control

Contract will be completed after the submission of final drafts of deliverables defined by the current TOR in three stages and upon acceptance by Project Manager.

Competencies

Good communication skills.
Strong analytical skills;
Writing and presentation skills;
Ability to meet tight deadlines;
Ability to use information and communication technology as a tool and resource;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

University Degree in economics, law, public procurement, public administration, business administration and other related fields.

Experience:

At least 5 years of hands-on work experience in consulting on the issues of public procurement for governments.Experience in working with transition economies and CIS is an advantage;
Experience in drafting and/or reviewing legislative and regulatory documents on public procurement;

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English;
Knowledge of Russian is advantage.

Evaluation:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

P-11 form;
Offeror’s letter.

Applicants are required to fill and sign a P11 Form and Offeror’s Letter and apply through UNDP job online system. You will be asked to upload your P11 Form and Offeror’s letter on the second page of the online application form. Please note that the system will not accept the uploading of more than one document so please merge or scan all your documents into one prior to uploading.

Only Shortlisted candidates will be requested to provide financial offer.

Individual consultant will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria weight: (70%).
Financial Criteria weight: (30%).

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

Individual Consultant General Terms and Conditions (available at http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf).