UNDP Jobs - 67636- International Consultant on functional review of c

International Consultant on functional review of civil courts

Location :

Home based with 2 visits to Tashkent, UZBEKISTAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

14-Aug-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

28 days (over 3 months period) between September – November 2016

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

Project Title/Department: Rule of Law Partnership in Uzbekistan

The overall goal of the Rule of Law Partnership (ROL) Project is to strengthen public trust in and increase public access to the judiciary. The project will work towards this goal through a primary partnership with the Supreme Court and, as appropriate, other justice sector stakeholders, building on these institutions’ political will to strengthen public trust and achieve greater alignment with internationally-recognized standards of accountability and performance.

The ROL project will identify concrete challenges and implement corresponding activities that can measurably improve judicial functionality. Through agreed upon interventions, this project will help strengthen judicial independence and accountability, a critical step towards improving the rule of law in Uzbekistan and ensuring the nations’ further progress towards a democratic society. The project will work on improving services, making citizens feel invested in the court system and increasing citizen access to the courts (civil and economic). This will be achieved through improving judicial system performance, enhancing the knowledge and technical skills of judges, lawyers and court personnel and increasing responsiveness to citizen feedback regarding the judicial process.

While the project envisions the Supreme Court as its primary point of contact, it will also closely collaborate with the Research Centre under the Supreme Court; the Judicial Department under the MOJ; the MOJ Training Centre; the Tashkent State University of Law; the High Economic Court; the Legal Problems Research Centre and other justice sector reform champions which possess the political will to implement reforms. Through working with a number of partners, the project can ensure that maximum impact is achieved, as well as a strategic, coordinated and holistic approach to increasing public access to and trust in Uzbekistan’s judicial system. The approach will not only include GOU partners, but will also cooperate with international organizations and donors, to provide for a coordinated response to national development needs. Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the project will closely work the USAID Mission to the Central Asian Republics.

Judicial system of the Republic of Uzbekistan consists of Constitutional court of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan and High economical court of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan is the higher instance of courts of general jurisdiction, which includes criminal courts, martial courts and civil courts. As per legislation of Uzbekistan, civil courts have jurisdiction over cases involving a physical person (for the exception of corporate disputes involving physical persons as shareholders).

System of civil courts contains of namely district (inter-district) courts (75 courts), regional courts (14 courts) and Supreme court of Republic of Uzbekistan (1 court). In total 252 judges are seated in district courts on civil cases, 110 judges are seated in regional courts on civil cases. In procedural terms, a civil case can go through three instances: first instance, review instance and supervisory instance. While district (inter-district) courts can only hear cases as court of first instances, regional courts and Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan can also hear civil cases as courts of first instance.

First instance courts:

Judges of district (inter-district) courts:

Civil cases are heard by inter-district (district) courts on civil cases, for the exception of cases that are referred to competence of other courts on civil cases (article 141 of the Civil Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan)

Judges of regional courts:

Civil cases referred to competence of regional courts (i.e. civil cases on adoption by foreign citizens).
Civil cases that were withdrawn from inter-district (district) courts on civil cases in accordance with legislation of Uzbekistan (article 142 CPC)

Judges of Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan:

Civil cases referred to competence of Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan (i.e. civil cases arising out of legislation on elections).
Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan are authorized to withdraw any civil case from any civil court of the Republic of Uzbekistan (article 144 CPC)

Review instance:

Appeal instance:

Judicial boards of regional courts

Review appeals on:

decisions of courts inter-district (district) courts;
determinations of courts inter-district (district) courts;
decisions on civil cases heard by regional courts as first instance courts.

Judicial board of the Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan on civil cases

Review appeals on:

decisions on civil cases heard by Supreme court as first instance court.

Cassation instance

Judicial boards of regional courts

Review appeals on:

decisions of courts inter-district (district) courts;
determinations of courts inter-district (district) courts;
decisions on civil cases heard by regional courts as first instance courts.

Judicial board of the Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan on civil cases

Review appeals on decisions on civil cases heard by Supreme court as first instance court.

Supervisory instance

Presidiums of regional courts

Supervisory protests on:

determinations of regional courts issued on appeal instance;
determinations of regional courts issued on cassation instance.

Judicial board of the Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan on civil cases

Supervisory protests on:

resolutions of Presidiums of regional courts;
determinations of appealing instances, on cases heard by regional courts as first instance;
determinations of cassation instances, on cases heard by regional courts as first instance.

Presidium of the Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Supervisory protests on:

Determinations of Judicial board of the Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan on civil cases issued as review instance;

Determinations of Judicial board of the Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan on civil cases issued as supervisory instance.

Plenum of the Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Supervisory protests on resolutions of Presidium of the Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Civil courts are considered to be the most heavily overloaded courts. For instance in 2013, in average a judge heard and settled 1 325 disputed cases and 1 145 601 undisputed cases (evidence based, fast track proceedings). In 2014 in average a judge heard and settled 1 387 disputed cases and 957 010 undisputed cases (evidence based, fast track proceedings). With such excessive workload, efficiency of civil courts and their ability to deliver justice in timely manner is being questioned. For instance, in 2015 Uzbekistan received 0.49 points (out of 1.0) in “Civil justice” factor of Rule of Law Index (World Justice Project), ranking 66 out of 102 countries. Within Uzbekistan applicants to civil courts (parties to disputes) also criticize civil courts for a) inefficient mechanism of delivering court summons and court correspondence, b) adjournments of the court hearings, c) inefficient mechanisms of enforcing court decisions, d) quality of the adopted court decisions, etc. These and other arguments clearly show that there is a strong need for reviewing and improving civil courts and civil proceedings.

In order to prepare high quality proposals on further improvement of civil courts and civil justice (as well as to conduct some preliminary assessment of the justice sector of Uzbekistan), ‘Rule of law partnership in Uzbekistan’ project is planning to conduct functional review of separate functions of the civil court system in line with para 15 of annual action plan for Y2016..

A functional Review (FR) is broadly recognized as a public sector reform tool to assess capacity and as a tool for helping to build more effective, efficient and accountable public administration models and practices. A FR enables countries to analyze public administration functions and actions and compare them to ideal functions and practices – thus forming the basis for the development of a comprehensive administrative reform strategy. Taking into account that functional review usually can cover broad variety of topics related to policy reform and organizational reform, Research Center under Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan proposed to reduce the scope of the functional review. After series of discussions it was decided that functional review will cover civil courts systems only and cover following areas of civil procedural legislation:

mechanisms of paying and collecting court fees as well as mechanisms of sending summons and court notifications to parties;
conducting pre-trial preparation to case hearings;
hearing complaints against actions (decisions) of state and other bodies as well as workload of courts;
hearing appeal (protest) over the court's decision which was filed after the appeal (cassation) instance reviewed case based on other appeal (protest), as well as powers of the court of appeal and cassation;
hearing supervisory protests, as well as powers of courts hearing the supervisory protests;
mechanisms of generalization (summarization) of court practice.

Since functional review is a new methodology, the ROL project is planning to recruit and international consultant on functional review of civil courts as well number of local consultants who will be responsible for collecting data, analyses and preparation of reports for the Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The international consultant on functional review of civil courts will be responsible for elaboration of methodology, conducting training for local consultants on the elaborated methodology, provide consultations to local consultants and ROL project team as well as other concerned stakeholders during data collection and analyses as well as during drafting the initial report (upon request) and provide recommendations and suggestions on improving the final report.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the ROL Project Manager and in close coordinate with Task Manager on Court Administration, the international consultant on functional review of civil courts will perform the following duties and will be responsible for providing following deliverables:

Tasks:

1. Prepare methodology on conducting functional review of identified activities of the civil courts - 5 days (home-based)

2. Prepare training materials for training on methodology of conducting functional review. Training will be conducted for local consultants, as well as employees of Research center under Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan and employees of other interested government agencies - 5 days (home-based). Training materials should include at least followings:

- brief description of the methodology of the functional review of civil court system;

- purpose and goals of the functional review;

- types of functional review applicable in justice sector;

- main principles and peculiarities of the functional review;

- methodological approaches of the functional review;

- description of the main stages of functional review;

- advantages and disadvantages of functional review compared to other methodologies;

- brief description of previous experiences of conducting functional review in foreign countries with description of the recommendations and results of the conducted functional review etc.

3. Conduct series of meeting with representatives of government agencies involved in conduction of functional review to provide brief overview of the functional review methodology, identify expectations of national partners of the functional review etc.

4. Conduct training for local consultants, as well as employees of Research center under Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan and employees of other interested government agencies on the elaborated methodology of conducting Functional review - 2 days (1st mission to Tashkent)

5. Provide online consultations to local consultants and ROL project team related to gathering and analyses of data within conducting functional review - 10 days (home-based).

6. Analyze the draft final report prepared on the basis of the conducted functional review and provide proposals and recommendations (with regards to format and style of the reports as well as with regards to content of the report) on improving the draft final report - 4 days (home-based).

7. Conduct presentation for representatives of interested government agencies and ministries of the outcomes and proposals of the conducted functional review - 2 days (2nd mission to Tashkent).

Duration of assignment:

Total working days: 28 days in September – November, 2016

The core product of the consultancy will be as following:

Methodology of functional review and presentation and training materials - 20% September 5, 2016
Report on conducted meetings with representatives of government agencies and training for local consultants, as well as employees of Research center under Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Supreme court of the Republic of Uzbekistan and employees of other interested government agencies on the elaborated methodology of conducting Functional review- 20% September 25, 2016
Report on provided online consultations to local consultants related to gathering and analyses of data within conducting functional review- 10% October 20, 2016
Report on the conducted analyses and review of the draft final report prepared on the basis of the conducted functional review including proposals and recommendations - 20% November 5, 2016
Presentation for representatives of interested government agencies and ministries of the outcomes and proposals of the conducted functional review - 30% November 25, 2016

The final schedule will be agreed upon in the beginning of consultancy assignment.

The payment conditions:

This is a lump sum contract that should include all costs of consultancy and travel costs required to produce above mentioned deliverables. Payment will be released in five instalments: Deliverables 1-2 - 20%; Deliverables 3-4 - 20%; Deliverable 5 - 10%; Deliverable 6 - 20%; Deliverable 7 - 30% upon satisfactory provision and acceptance of respective outputs by the Project Manager and by focal point at UNDP Good governance unit.

Competencies

Strong communication skills, client-orientation, ability to work in a team;
Initiative, analytical judgment, ability to work under pressure, ethics and honesty;
Ability to use ICT as a tool and resources are required

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

University Degree in Law/Legal Studies

Experience:

At least 4 years of progressively responsible work experience in consulting governments in the area of justice sector reform and reforming judiciary is a strong advantage;
Successful experience in conducting functional review is required;
Relevant and demonstrated experience in CIS region especially in Central Asia region would be a strong advantage;
Proven up-to-date knowledge of international standards and practices of administration of civil justice in continental law (Roman legal tradition) system;
Experience in conducting trainings for judiciary would be an advantage.

Language Requirements:

Excellent command of English, both oral and written;
Working command of Russian will be a strong asset

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

P-11 form and Offeror’s Letter, UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Proposal explaining why they are the most suitable for the work and providing proposal with samples of previous work results
Applicants are required to fill and sign a P11 Form and Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and submit it to the online application;
Above mentioned documents can be obtained at http://www.uz.undp.org/content/uzbekistan/en/home/operations/jobs/

Application process:

To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

Download and complete the UN Personal History Form (P11) and Offeror’s Letter;
Merge your P11, Offeror’s Letter and Proposal into a single file;
Click on the Job Title;
Click “Apply Now” button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and click “Submit Application”;
Upload your forms

You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

Note:

Only shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide a financial proposal.

Financial Proposal:

This is a lump sum contract.

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount. Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

The payment will be made in five installments to be issued upon completion and submission of Performance Evaluation Form (PEF) on the works performed as indicated in the terms of reference:

The first instalment of 20% will be paid after the successful submission and successful evaluation of the Outputs No.1 and 2: September 5, 2016;
The second instalment 20% will be paid after the successful submission and successful evaluation of the Outputs No.3 and 4: September 25, 2016;
The third instalment 10% will be paid after the successful submission and successful evaluation of the Output No.5: October 20, 2016;
The forth instalment 20% will be paid after the successful submission and successful evaluation of the Output No.6: November 5, 2016;
The fifth instalment 30% will be paid after the successful submission and successful evaluation of the Output No.7: November 25, 2016;

Travel:

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP does not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Evaluation:

The individual consultants will be evaluated based on the Cumulative analysis methodology.

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

Responsive/compliant/acceptable;
Having received the highest score out of the 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 for the Technical Criteria will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.