Background

The Office of Financial Resource Management (OFRM) supports UNDP in achieving its vision and objectives through maintaining the financial integrity of UNDP through providing financial leadership, supporting the efficient and effective management of its financial resources, promoting financial sustainability and responsible resource allocation. Operating within the Bureau for Management Services (BMS), OFRM’s key clients include UNDP executives, country offices and HQs leaders and managers.  The team works closely with colleagues in BMS team to ensure a seamless service to our clients

Financial Performance Management (FPM) is responsible for establishing financial performance framework, policy and parameters (e.g., KPIs, benchmarks, etc.), in line with the corporate goals and Strategic Plan, identifying financial risks, in collaboration with other units within and outside OFRM; designing and maintains tools (e.g. dashboards) for measuring financial performance against these goals and risks.  It works in close partnership with teams in OFRM and across BMS to provide a seamless, customer focused service of clients.

FPM is looking for a temporary resource to assist the unit perform its responsibilities including the roll of new performance indicators for country offices, roll out of a financial dashboard and risk performance framework that will inform a risk-based approach within OFRM..

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work

The incumbent will be conversant with financial performance management including designing performance indicators, risk management and possess advanced data analysis skills. The incumbent will work with the Office of Information Management and Technology (OIMT) in testing and rolling out desired solutions.

The incumbent will report to the Manager, FPM unit and work with other unit heads in OFRM.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance of the Manager, FPM the incumbent’s key duties and responsibilities will be:

• Compiles and interprets critical resource data and projections as inputs to performance assessment and management decision-making process
• Assess performance of the HQ Units and Country Offices against the financial dashboard and other financial indicators, identifying risks and areas of improvement
• Analyzes trends in resource plans, allocations and budgets to assess the organization’s direction against budgets & plans
• Assesses the utilization of all management resources (operating/staff) and development resources (regular/other), to confirm availability of resources, integrity of balances and provision for reserves
• Participates in indicators and target setting to establish reliable performance assessment criteria
• Coordinates, compiles, analyses and interprets performance related data for resources and results, to facilitate senior management’s review and assessment of such
• Supports the refinement and development of performance assessment tools to enhance the performance assessment process

Expected Deliverables and Timeline

The consultant will be responsible to produce the following deliverables:

*Target due dates will be discussed and agreed at the start and during the assignment.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Functional Competencies:

• Knowledge of UNDP Financial Regulations and Rules, policies and procedures.
• Able to assess risks and correctly analyze the likelihood of them occurring. Able to then prioritize action to the risks with the biggest business impact
• Understanding of the working of ERP, preferably PeopleSoft
• Continuously look for ways to enhance financial performance within the region, and reduce errors and wastage
• Operates in compliance with organizational regulations and rules
• Strong understanding of regulatory frameworks and instruments
• Strong financial management and accounting skills
• Strong analytical skills and sound judgment;
• Strong IT skills, knowledge of management support software applications.
• Must be able to manage a team of diverse nationalities to respond quickly to areas of concern

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced (Masters) University Degree in Business Administration, or Finance/Accounting or a professional accounting qualification certificate from an internationally recognized institute of accountancy

Experience:

• At least 7 years of experience in financial performance and risk management.
• Expertise in data analysis and visualization using ERP systems, preferably PeopleSoft;
• Previous experience with UN or UNDP field offices and HQ units is desirable

Language:

• Proficient in written and spoken English.

Application Procedure

The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):

• Online application with brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment; and

• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references.

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

• The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee (based on a 7 hour working day - lunch time is not included - and estimated 21.75 days per month).

• The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee; cost of travel from the home base to the duty station and vice versa, where required; living allowances at the duty station; communications, utilities and consumables; life, health and any other insurance; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions (e.g., personal security needs, etc.), when applicable; and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract.

• In the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should 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.

• If the 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 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.

The Financial Proposal is to be emailed as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to shortlisted candidates.

Evaluation process

Applicants are reviewed based on Required Skills and Experience stated above and based on the technical evaluation criteria outlined below.  Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring.  When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Being responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation where technical criteria weighs 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (70 points):

1. Number of years (more than 7) of experience in financial performance and risk management. Maximum Weight = 25% (25 Points) 
2. Experience in data analysis and presentation and in ERP systems, preferably. Maximum Weight = 15% (15 Points) 
3. Previous experience with UN or UNDP field offices and HQ units. Maximum Weight = 10% (10 Points) 
4. Interview. Maximum Weight = 20% (20 Points)

After review of the applications, the first four candidates subject to receiving satisfactory scores will be invited for interview.  Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (35 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria 1-3 shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

Financial evaluation - Total 30% (30 points)

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

• p = y (µ/z), where
• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated
• y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Contract Award

Candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.

Institutional arrangement

The consultant will report to the Manager, Financial Performance Unit and work closely with unit heads in OFRM.

Payment modality

• Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the actual number of days worked, deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager. The consultant will be able to submit one invoice at the end of each month for payment.
• The work week will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7 hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily.

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

• Annex 1 - UNDP P-11 Form for ICs
• Annex 2 - IC Contract Template
• Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions
• Annex 4 – RLA Template