Historique

Background
The project under the supervision and guidance of the HJPC and UNDP will classify, and digitalize judicial case and non-case records to include, but not limited to, hard copy documents, photographs, audio and video media, investigator’s notes, various hand written documents, maps, diagrams and sketches, etc. The key purpose is to provide ease of access, archival preservation, effective dissemination and retrieval of information via the internet, intranet and/or other internal applications by judicial authorities for use in criminal and civil proceedings before the courts in BiH and internationally.
In 2009 the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH initiated activities aimed at creating an exhumation database to manage massive amount of complex data from over 28 locations, namely from cantonal and district prosecutor’s offices and the Brcko District Prosecutor’s Office, police and other law enforcement agencies.  However, there has been very little movement in this area up to date, specifically related to the lack of criteria for indexing and access related issues.

Purpose
The project aims to establish a user-friendly and compatible solution to ensure efficient and secure administration of judicial records pertaining to exhumations, site investigations related to war casualties of the 92-95 conflict in BiH.   

Objective
The primary focus of the consultancy will be to provide a situation analysis report on technical capacities and requirements of the prosecutors’ offices; to design and maintain a database of 92-95 conflict related exhumation processes. The Consultant will also prepare detailed technical specifications to serve as blueprint for the future development of interoperable database systems to include all records linked to the 92-95 conflict related exhumations.

Devoirs et responsabilités

According to estimations, approximately 800 exhumations or up to a million pages of different hardcopy and electronic documents require indexation, scan and electronic upload. Required tasks are as follows:

  • Conduct a survey of user needs and identify the scope of the project;
  • Provide descriptions of the collection(s) including suitability for digitization;
  • Explore software and hardware capacities and system interoperability;
  • Evaluate indexation and data processing according to existing criteria, legislation and mandated procedures for maintaining the “chain of custody of evidence”;
  • Provide assessment of conservation requirements of sensitive originals, artefacts and other physical evidence;
  • Assess the creation of user-friendly and compatible database system in accordance with HJPC guidelines and judicial practices;
  • Recommend relevant solutions based on analyses and findings.

Scope of work
The first step would be initial assessment and detailed analysis of software requirements and existing state of the PO BiH hardware infrastructure (local and wide area network, workstations, peripheral devices such as scanners, etc). It is currently not possible to set up project time frame as well as cost effectiveness and operating expenses prior to completion of this detailed assessment and analysis of requirements.
Initial assessment, research and analysis phase could take up to two months to complete. This depends on a number of factors: availability of relevant PO BiH staff, who could be consulted and interviewed in order to collect all necessary information and relevant details; accessibility of information required for system design; the number of staff assigned to this project, etc.


After completing the initial assessment and analysis, the project staff will be able to define the time frame for completing other project phases:

  • software and database design;
  • application implementation;
  • application testing;
  • application deployment.

It is also essential to address the issue of future maintenance and administration of such application. PO BiH has no planned and predetermined position for these tasks. However, application of this kind would require constant supervision, maintenance and administration performed by expert(s) in the field of software engineering and/or database administration. This requirement is important for the reasons of network security and data consistency collected and stored on PO BiH servers due to high sensitivity of data that would be recorded by such application.
It is also necessary to take into consideration other parameters such as selection of possible development environment for this project (for example Java vs. Microsoft .Net environments), legal agreements and current hardware infrastructure of the PO BiH. Another important point is: if current hardware infrastructure does not meet the requirements to support this application, what would the possibilities of upgrading it to meet at least the minimum criteria be.

The user group meeting will follow the receipt of the letter from the Chief State Prosecutor, Mr. Goran Salihovic by way of which he expresses the need for a centralized database of all exhumations and excavations relevant to 1992-95 period in BiH. Centralized exhumations data collection is to be accessed by the Prosecutor’s Offices of BiH, RS, Brcko District and FBiH processing war crimes cases in BiH. In addition, the Chief State Prosecutor also requested provision of access to this database by regional and international Courts, processing war crimes cases and collecting data on persons missing in the conflicts of the 1990s. 
Development of this centralized database would also involve a detailed review of all existing data on past and future cases and scanning all material to be entered into an electronic database.
The initial phase of this process also encompasses organizing a user group meeting in order to discuss and present requirements and prerequisites for development of a centralized exhumations database. The meeting should also be attended by parties who would be ultimately provided access. It would be recommendable for specific donor country representatives to attend this meeting in order to provide information and enable participation in this phase of the process.
Following the user group meeting, UNDP will prepare a report, which will be distributed to all concerned parties, including the donor country representatives, who decide on available funds for this project.
Should the user group meeting be successful, it will provide the first step in the process of development of a centralized exhumations database, which would be of significant assistance for state and entities prosecutors’ offices as well as state, regional and international courts processing war crimes and missing persons’ cases.
Development of exhumations database will enable all exhumation and missing persons data to be stored in a centralized place and available for use to relevant stakeholders. It would provide a time efficient and quick access to pertinent information on exhumations and excavations in BiH.
Long term, this database would remain accessible to POs for processing war crimes cases in the near or distant future and in case of need for information on excavations, exhumations and missing persons. The tasks encompassed by this assignment, targeting state, entity and Brcko District POs as primary recipients, are:
 

Deliverables and timelines

The consultant is responsible for the following deliverables:

Deliverables (outputs) Deadline

  • Situation analysis, 40 working days
  • Development of technical specifications and terms of reference for database development, 15 working day

Compétences

Core values

  • Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modelling UN values and ethical standards;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;

Core competencies

  • Demonstrates professional competence to meet responsibilities and post requirements and is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results;
  • Results-Orientation: Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals, generates innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations;
  • Communication: Excellent communication skills, including the ability to convey complex concepts and recommendations, both orally and in writing, in a clear and persuasive style tailored to match different audiences;
  • Team work: Ability to interact, establish and maintain effective working relations with a culturally diverse team;
  • Client orientation: Ability to establish and maintain productive partnerships with national partners and stakeholders and pro-activeness in identifying of beneficiaries and partners’ needs, and matching them to appropriate solutions.

Qualifications et expériences requises

  • University degree in computer information systems, computer science or other relevant field.
  • Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in similar software development projects;
  • Theoretical knowledge and practical experience in the area of forensic database-system application design and development, database management and data analysis;
  • Management of exhumation and excavation data and development of process driven software systems;
  • Exhumation and excavation data mining and custom report generation;
  •  Electronic communications expertise and experience;
  • Extensive content management system expertise and experience;
  • Analytical skills and ability to produce clear and concise written reports;
  • Excellent organizational and management skills on large scale projects;
  • Fluency in official languages in BiH;
  • Excellent knowledge of English language. 

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the Cumulative analysis. The award of the contract will 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 (70%) and financial (30%) criteria specific to the solicitation.


Applicants are required to submit the following documents:

Please scan all above mentioned documents and upload as one attachment only online through this website.

Note:

  • For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 62 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
  • Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.