Background

Organizational Context:

The extensive volume of business transactions that take place, involving private and public sector bodies, potentially offers great opportunities for irregularities and private gains. International statistics indicate that public procurement may represent more than 10-20% of GDP (variations normally depend on the size of the public budget and the nature/size of the public sector) and, maybe, as much as 30% of the national budget is allocated for the acquisition of goods, services and works. It is absolutely vital to the credibility and efficiency of a public procurement system that it is free from corrupt and fraudulent practices.

Mitigating corruption risks in procurement is a key pre-condition for promoting open economy in Thailand and providing an environment that is conducive to investment. UNDP has been a pioneer in developing methodologies for integrity risk assessment in several sectors, including health, water and education. In 2014, UNDP conducted an integrity risk assessment in public procurement in Thailand building on internationally recognised methodologies.

Accordingly four key important risk areas were identified:

  • Bid collusion and bribery (kickbacks);
  • Conflict of interest;
  • Discretion;
  • Political interference.

To enhance openness and integrity in public procurement, Thailand also needs i) a coherent, sound and modern public procurement law covering all public sector entities as well as other supporting legal infrastructure, and ii) a public procurement agency or similar body to oversee the implementation of rules, policies and practices for procurement to  which the new law applies, and iii) support the professionalization and career development strategy of the procurement function, management and staff, including strengthening the credibility of the procurement profession.

Currently, Thailand is not in the possession of a coherent public procurement law, but a regulatory system based on government regulations. With such a regulatory approach there are risks of fragmentation instead of coherence, weak enforceability and coverage, lack of legal certainty for the bidders, insufficient protection for procurement staff, and opportunities for unjustified exemptions and discretion.

In this context, the Royal Thai Government is in the process of drafting a new Public Procurement Law (PPL). Unlike the current Prime Minister’s Office Regulations on public procurement, the PPL will cover all public entities, including central government agencies, local governments, state-owned enterprises, independent organisations and other types of public institutions. The PPL will not in itself set out all the rules and regulations that may be necessary for its effective implementation, and that other supporting legal infrastructure, appropriate institutions, and capacity-building tools will also be needed to form a coherent procurement system. In this regard, the project aims to provide the best international technical expertise in this field to ensure that the designs of secondary legislation, institutional setup, and capacity development strategy will lead to effective implementation of PPL and successful public procurement reforms. The project will take a systematic approach to support the reform efforts at the legislative, policy, and operational levels to fulfil the goals of “value for money” in public procurement with integrity.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work:

The international consultant is to support the Comptroller General’s Department (CGD), Ministry of Finance to conduct a comprehensive review of legal infrastructure and development of additional guidance to support effective implementation of the new PPL. S/he will work closely with the relevant CGD and UNDP officials as well as national and international consultants to provide technical inputs and assist in reviewing the current and proposed legal infrastructure as well as in designing/drafting secondary legislations and regulatory frameworks in line with relevant best practices. The expected outputs will include a review of general provisions, secondary/tertiary provisions, existing/related laws and policies as well as drafting legal implementing guidelines, operational guidance documents, model documentation, and recommendations to support effective implementation of the new PPL.

Under the guidance of the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative and in close collaboration with UNDP colleagues, the consultant will perform the following tasks:

  • Conduct preparatory work to review existing regulations and draft PPL and other existing documentation on the procurement system;
  • Review inputs/materials from relevant stakeholders, including the Comptroller General’s Department (CGD), the State Enterprise Policy Office (SEPO),  Department of Local Administration, Ministry of Interior, relevant line ministries and state enterprises, as well as representatives from the private sector, the National Anti-corruption Commission, and academics to gain insights into the Thai procurement systems;
  • Contribute to the development and implementation of a sound and efficient legal foundation of the public procurement system in Thailand;
  • Support the establishment of an effective complaint review mechanism;
  • Support the preparation and implementation of the new PPL legislatively, institutionally and operationally by provision of detailed reviews, analyses, assistance to designing/drafting secondary legislation, and organization of seminars on the new law;
  • Work closely with the International Consultant (Institutional Expert) on areas related to capacity development and professionalisation;
  • Conduct follow-up, in-depth interviews with key informants/stakeholders to validate the information and/or obtain additional information to design and develop legal implementing guidelines, operational guidance documents, model documentation to support effective implementation of the new PPL;
  • Engage in and facilitate multi-stakeholder discussions/seminars as requested and appropriate;
  • Draft legal implementing guidelines, operational guidance documents, model documentation,  and a report with key findings and recommendations;
  • Assist the CGD, SEPO and other stakeholders to be able to avail of comparative experiences and international standards in public procurement.

Final Products:

The consultant will submit the following outputs:

  • A presentation to engage discussions on the new PPL at a seminar in July and a preliminary report with a review of existing regulations and draft PPL to be submitted after the seminar;
  • Detailed reviews, analyses, and draft supporting operational guidelines and operational guidance documents;
  • Final report with findings and recommendations, including a new public procurement legal framework with secondary legislation, supporting operational guidelines, and operational guidance documents.

The contract will be based on Lump sum payment including Professional Fee and lump sum travel related expenses.

The financial proposal will specify the Lump sum professional Fee (with breakdown of daily fee x number of working day) and lump sum travel related expenses in US Dollars. The payments will be made to the Individual Consultant based on the completion of the deliverables indicated in the TOR.  To submit Financial Proposal, please use Template of Submission of Financial Proposal Template provided in Annex IV.

Evaluation:

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

  • a) Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
  • b) 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 350 technical points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

  • Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents;
  • Building support and political acumen;
  • Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
  • Building and promoting effective teams;
  • Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
  • Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
  • Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNDP & setting standards;
  • Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
  • Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;

Functional Competencies:

  • Strong sense of integrity is essential;
  • Excellent communication and organization skills;
  • Effective interpersonal skills;
  • Full computer literacy and experience in working with PC-based equipment;
  • Strong communication and reporting skills and ability to work in a team.

Client Orientation:

  • Contributing to positive outcomes for the client;
  • Anticipates client needs;
  • Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
  • Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective.

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing: 

  • Developing tools and mechanisms
  • Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
  • Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms.

 

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • International Only with advanced degree in Law, Economics, Business Administration, or related fields in social science.

Experience:

  • At least 10 years of experience in international and national public procurement systems;
  • A strong track record with extensive and wide geographical experience of drafting national laws and implementing rules and regulations in the field of public procurement;
  • Knowledge on rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and good practices of national and international public procurement systems;
  • Expertise in reviewing and assessing national procurement systems against international best practice and the measurement/benchmarking systems of a number of international organizations;
  • Prior experience and knowledge of the Thai public procurement system is an advantage.

Language:

  • Fluent in spoken and written English.

Duration of Assignment:

  • 8 months during July 2015 to February 2016 with maximum of 35 working days.

Duty Station and expected place of Travel:

  • Home Based with travel to Bangkok,Thailand for interviews and consultative meetings with key stakeholders in July-August 2015, October 2015, and January2016.

Provision of Monitoring and Progress Control:

The consultant will report directly to the Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP Thailand and shall work under overall supervision of Programme Analyst and Programme Specialist, Democratic Governance and Social Advocacy, UNDP Thailand.  The Programme Analyst, Democratic Governance and Social Advocacy Unit, UNDP Thailand will review the progress and quality of assignment upon outputs prior to issuance the payment.  Review/approval time required to review/ approve outputs prior to authorizing payments is 7 – 10 days.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individuals must submit the following documents /information to demonstrate their qualification, experience and suitability to undertake the assignment.  All below supporting documents must be part of the detailed CV and uploaded as one document.

  • Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
  • Personal CV or P.11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
  • Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
  • Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided.  If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.
  • UNDP P.11 Form can be downloaded from http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/Careers/P11_Personal_history_form.doc

Financial Proposal:

  • Professional Fee:

Note: