Background

Pacific Islands countries (PICs) boast “big ocean” economies, with young and mobile populations and highly resilient and adaptative societies. Past and recent investments have however fallen short of developing diverse economies offering inclusive services and opportunities, resilient to external shocks and the increasing pace of climate disasters. While the scale of Pacific economies does not allow them to respond to all these challenges alone, public investment and revenues would gain from empowered officials accountable to keep basic service delivery and development priorities in mind while driving fiscal decisions.

The “Accountable Public Finances to serve Pacific people – Vaka Pasifika” project (hereafter Vaka Pasifika project) targets documented challenges in the oversight and accountability of public finance in the Pacific. It aims at providing a platform for Pacific experts, decision-makers and thinkers to design tailored solutions. These solutions can then be supported by the project through funding and technical assistance. The project also provides opportunities for civil society and the media to better understand and engage with public finance cycles and for governments (central/local) to consult and engage with citizens on the budget. The Vaka Pasifika project is funded by the European Union until 2026. The project builds on the results of the “Strengthening Public Finance Management and Governance in the Pacific” (PFM) project implemented between 2018 and 2022.

The Vaka Pasifika project is about to embark in a design process for a number of activities and there is a need to ensure that the activity design (led by professional facilitators) is informed by sounds experience of Pacific auditing. The consultancy seeks a few technical advisors to ensure the design process takes into account the reality of public audit in the Pacific.

One of the major assets of the Vaka Pasifika project is the Vaka Pasifika training, the training is available here: https://t.co/Ati0ZTSZYw This training equips all our partners with basic knowledge required to get over the technical barrier of Public Finance. The aim is not to turn everyone into a PFM expert but to ensure some foundations are common to all the people we work with. This course is expected to constitute a basis for our work going forward in the coming five years and the consultant will be expected to deliver

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

Reporting to the UNDP Vaka Pasifika PFM Project Manager, the Audit Advisor consultants will be in charge of provide sound technical advice on the design of activities for the Vaka Pasifika project and support the delivery of training as required. Specific responsibilities will include:

  • Technical advisory on the design of the activities under outcome 1 of the Vaka Pasifika project;
  • Delivery of two Vaka Pasifika trainings with individual assistance to participants;

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

 

Deliverables

Indicative No. of days / due date

1

Advisory services. The Vaka Pasifika project is developing a number of activities in the second half of 2022. The consultant will be expected to: brainstorm and review concepts and proposals from a technical audit perspective and ensure they align with lessons learnt globally, provide insights on technical feasibility and provide alternative recommendations where needed. This is notably in link with: development of the fellowship programme (activity 1.1.), publication on artificial intelligence and audit in the Pacific, and technical assistance programme to SAIs (1.2.). The advisory support might take the form of background research, facilitating events, drafting of recommendations or review of concepts and document.

10 days/ Mid-October 22

2

Training 1. Tailor (country specific/audience specific) using the Vaka Pasifika moodle resource, a PFM training for the agreed audience. The training is design to last 2days (which can be delivered in multiple ways). The .consultant is then expected to remain available to participants to provide additional budget analysis, quality assurance review and feedback on follow-up activities.

5days/Mid-November 22

3.

Training 2. Tailor (country specific/audience specific) using the Vaka Pasifika moodle resource, a PFM training for the agreed audience. The training is design to last 2days (which can be delivered in multiple ways). The consultant is then expected to remain available to participants to provide additional budget analysis, quality assurance review and feedback on follow-up activities.

5 days/June 23

Institutional Arrangement

The Consultant will report to the UNDP PFM Project Manager Effective Governance.

The Consultant to provide their own IT equipment and access (computer and internet connection).  

Duration of the Work

The consultant will be required to work for a period of up to 20 days between August 2022 and June 2023.

Duty Station home based.

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modelling UN values and ethical standards;
  • Demonstrates professional competence and is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results;
  • Display cultural, gender, nationality, religion and age sensitivity and adaptability.

 

Functional Competencies:

  • Demonstrated ability to work harmoniously in a multi-cultural environment;
  • Ability to work on own initiative as well as a member of a team and to work under pressure;
  • Excellent relationship management;
  • Excellent communication, facilitation, presentation and reporting skills;

Required Skills and Experience

Education

  • Bachelor’s or certification in audit, public finance or related field.

Experience

  • 10 years of experience in the public, governance or development sector.
  • Experience delivering technical advisory services in the accountability, audit or public finance sector.
  • Experience working in the international development sector.
  • Experience designing and delivering trainings, experience delivering trainings and building networks for a Pacific audience an advantage.
  • Experience delivering technical services to non-technical audience or producing guides/simplified versions of technical PFM documentation
  • Experience managing and delivering project activities in the accountability and/or PFM sector, experience managing consultants and delivery technical advisory activities on behalf of international or regional organisations and advantage

Language requirements

  • Fluency of English language is required;
  • Fluency in any Pacific language is a strong advantage.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

Receipt and clearance of Deliverable 1. Advisory services

60%

Receipt and clearance of Deliverable 2. Training 1

20%

Receipt and clearance of Deliverable 3. Training 2

20%

 

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall 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 set of weighted technical criteria (70%). and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

 

Technical Criteria for evaluation (max 70points)

Criteria 1. Years of relevant professional experience (audit + advisory services)

20

Criteria 2. Relevance of technical specialisation (delivering to non-technical audience, designing trainings…)

30

Criteria 3. Evidence of ability to deliver practical output (research, publication, understanding of development context)

20

UNDP may interview the technically qualified candidates as a means to validate the technical evaluation.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Documentation required

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications  to the link provided .

  • Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability for the duration of the assignment using the template provided in Annex II.
  • CV indicating all experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
  • Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II (in USD)

Note: Successful individual will be required to provide proof of medical insurance coverage before commencement of contract for the duration of the assignment.

Incomplete, joint proposals and proposals sent to the wrong mailing address will not be accepted and only candidates for whom there is further interest will be contacted.

Individuals interested in this consultancy should apply and will be reviewed based on their own individual capacity. The successful individual may sign an Individual Contract with UNDP or request his/her employer to sign a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) on their behalf by indicating this in the Offerors letter to Confirming Interest and Availability using Annex II.

Annexes

Women applicants are encouraged to apply