Background
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with whom the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) runs a joint secretariat for the Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) project, works in more than 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty, and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion. It helps countries to implement projects, develop policies, leadership skills, share experiences, develop institutional capabilities and build resilience in order to sustain development results.
The OECD is a global economic forum working with 34 member countries and more than 100 emerging and developing economies to make better policies for better lives. Its mission is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. The OECD provides a unique forum in which governments work together to share experiences on what drives economic, social and environmental change, seeking solutions to common problems.
Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) is a joint initiative of the OECD and UNDP designed to support developing countries to strengthen national tax administrations through building tax audit capacity and to share this knowledge with other countries. Under TIWB, tax audit experts work alongside local officials of developing country tax administrations on tax audit related issues. TIWB aims to strengthen tax administrations by transferring technical know-how and skills to developing countries’ tax auditors, and through the sharing of general audit practices and dissemination of knowledge products.
For further information on TIWB and the partnership between the OECD and UNDP, please visit the TIWB website.
Duties and Responsibilities
To support implementation of TIWB, a Roster of Tax Audit Experts will be established.
We are looking for energetic, enthusiastic and experienced tax (audit) experts to take on exceptional opportunities, as a TIWB Tax Audit Expert in different parts of the world. The main responsibility will be to provide assistance to developing countries’ tax administrations, performing real time audits and on-the-job training programmes.
Experts will need to demonstrate extensive professional experience in at least one (preferably multiple) of the thematic areas listed below:
- Conducting tax audits (e.g. transfer pricing; intra-group financing; permanent establishment issues; business restructurings; anti-avoidance rules; consumption and/or value added taxes, excise duties; high net worth individuals etc.);
- Knowledge of industry-specific or sector-specific tax issues (e.g. extractive industries, tele-communications, financial sector etc.);
- Experience in developing general audit approaches (such as risk assessment and case selection; audit investigatory techniques; audit planning; dispute resolution procedures etc.);
- Knowledge of computer forensics in tax audits.
The assignments require close collaboration with the TIWB Secretariat and the developing country ‘host’ tax administration. This role will require travel and missions of varying durations (one to two weeks, one to two months, or even up to year-long deployments depending on the programme).
The duties and responsibilities detailed below are a representative, but not exhaustive, list of potential activities. Specific Terms of Reference will dictate the scope of work and the selection of experts from the vetted roster for each of the assignments. Key areas of support and activities will include:
Capacity development and training for tax administrations
- Deliver TIWB audit assistance programmes in host administrations of requesting countries in real-time audit or anonymised cases
- Assist the TIWB Secretariat in undertaking skills gap/transfer analysis before and after delivery of TIWB Programmes
- Provide training on different topics at capacity-building workshops organized by the TIWB Secretariat and/or international partners
- Prepare reports on the outcome of TIWB deployments
Generation of knowledge and sharing of best practices
- Support the development of learning materials and internal guidelines or administrative practices, including case studies and documentation of lessons learned
- Attend if requested, at least one international and regional tax organization networking event to build capacity through knowledge sharing as part of TIWB programmes
- Attend if requested international meetings of OECD and/or UNDP where TIWB is presented to stakeholders
The hired consultants will report to UNDP, seek approval/acceptance of outputs as specified in the contract.
Duration of the Work:
Each assignment will vary in duration. The expected duration will be specified in the Terms of Reference for each individual assignment, up to one year maximum.
Competencies
- Specific technical expertise in at least one of the thematic areas listed above;
- Highly organized with strong analytical and research skills;
- Excellent analytical, presentation, and communications skills;
- Ability to prepare succinct reports;
- Diplomatic sensitivity and effective negotiating skills;
- Focus on impact and results for the client and positive response to critical feedback;
- Flexible thinking;
- Demonstrated ability to work in an independent manner.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Advanced university degree in taxation, public administration, law or other field related to taxation.
Experience:
- At least 5 years’ substantial proven experience in tax auditing obtained from recent serving in a tax administration.
- Proven experience in providing assistance, guidance and/or training to tax officials, including co-ordination and management of technical support;
- Substantial experience in communication and negotiating processes with large enterprises and/or their tax advisors;
- Fluency in the use of standard software applications such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint;
Language:
- Fluency in English;
- For some assignments, working knowledge of the following UN languages is required: Spanish, Russian, Arabic, French. (Note: Some assignments would be open only to an expert with the knowledge of a specific language).
Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:
- Financial proposals must be all inclusive and must be expressed on the basis of “a daily fee” in USD. The term ‘all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, utilities, consumables, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the financial proposal. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and she/he expects her/his employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing her/him to UNDP under a 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;
- Payment will be made upon monthly submission of a certificate of payment request, following a detailed mission report indicating outputs achieved and days worked to be verified and cleared for payment by the supervisor;
- Arrangements and fees for travel related costs will be determined at time of call off assignments.
- When opportunity arises, rostered candidates will be contacted for availability and requested to submit a financial proposal for call off assignments fitting their profile. The all-inclusive daily fee provided by each candidate during the application stage will be the maximum fee to be quoted for each call-off assignment under this Roster. Candidates may also be requested to provide costs for travel costs to duty station and/or mission related travels, as applicable.
Recommended Presentation of Offer:
Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. The application should contain:
- Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of at least three (3) professional references;
- Brief description of why the individual considers her/himself suitable for the roster.
- Please indicate the category/categories of work in which you are qualified (from the four themes listed below) with a short paragraph highlighting your experience in each (1000 words or under):
- Conducting tax audits (e.g. transfer pricing; intra-group financing; permanent establishment issues, business restructurings; anti-avoidance rules; consumption and/or value added taxes, excise duties; high net worth individuals etc.);
- Knowledge of industry-specific or sector-specific issues (e.g. extractive industries, tele-communications, financial sector etc.);
- Experience in developing general audit approaches (such as risk assessment and case selection; audit investigatory techniques; audit planning; dispute resolution procedures etc.);
- Knowledge of computer forensics in tax audits.
Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials. Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.
Qualified women are encouraged to apply.
Due to the large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.
Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:
- All applicants will be initially screened against the minimum requirements as specified above. These long listed candidates will then be further evaluated against the following criteria.
Desk review of technical criteria as evident in the submitted application:
- Demonstrated specialized expertise in the thematic areas the consultant has indicated - 15;
- Experience in conducting training and providing capacity development support related to tax auditing - 10 points
- Experience in preparing succinct, reports on tax audit issues - 10;
- The maximum points that can be achieved in the desk review are 35;
- Only those applicants obtaining a minimum of 25 points in the desk review will be considered for an interview. A total of 35 additional points (with same scoring breakdown as desk review) can then be obtained in the interview bringing the total points for the technical evaluation to a maximum of 70;
- Only those candidates who obtain a total technical score of 49 and above will be considered for the roster.
Contracting Arrangements:
Several successful individuals will be selected and placed on the technical expert roster for a period of up to three years. It is to be noted that inclusion in the roster does not guarantee a contract during the period of three years.
Rostered experts will be contacted when specific service requests arise and will be asked to indicate availability and interest against a specific Terms of Reference (ToR) outlining the outputs of the assignment.
Upon secondary selection, an Individual Contract (IC) or Reimbursable Loan Agreements (RLA) will then be awarded for these specific ToRs, incl. detailing the time frame.
Note:
For Individuals who will be represented on behalf of a organization/company/institution, a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) will be signed between UNDP and the organization/company/institution. Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA): A legal instrument between UNDP and a organization/company/institution, according to which, the latter makes available the services of an individual delivering time-bound and quantifiable outputs that are directly linked to payments.
Payments will be made as specified in the actual contract upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering against the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.
Annexes:
- Annex 1 - UNDP P-11 Form for ICs;
- Annex 2 – IC Template;
- Annex 3 - Individual Consultant General Terms and Conditions;
- Annex 4 – RLA Template.
These forms and templates can be found on the UNDP Procurement Notice website using the following link: UNDP Procurement notice # 33688