UNDP Jobs - 72948- Good Practices in Public Sector Excellence to Prev

Good Practices in Public Sector Excellence to Prevent Corruption: A Lessons Learned Study in Support of the Implementation of UNCAC

Location :

Home-Based

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

10-Jul-2017

Application Deadline :

29-Jun-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

30 days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

30 days

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

Corruption has long been recognized as one of the main obstacles to development. It corrodes the rule of law and democratic institutions. It hinders economic development by distorting markets and damaging the integrity of the private sector. It may destroy people’s trust in the political leadership; and, ultimately, in the fundamental principles of democratic governance. Recognizing these problems, UNDP has been a leading provider of technical assistance aimed at tackling corruption. UNDP helps countries to develop national anti-corruption policies, strategies and laws, and to enforce international conventions; and to establish national integrity bodies and to aid them in their advocacy efforts.

Hosted by the UNDP Global Centre for Poublic Sector Excellence, Singapore, UNDP’s global anti-corruption project entitled “Anti-Corruption for Peaceful and Inclusive Societies” (ACPIS), provides policy and program support to participating countries in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of Australia and in coordination with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The overall objective of the ACPIS project is to contribute to strengthening national capacities to integrate anti-corruption measures into development processes and enhance integrity in service delivery in order to contribute to the implementation of the SDGs 2030 Agenda, in particular Goal 16 (Targets 16.5 and 16.6) on “Building Peaceful and Inclusive Societies” and the links between these targets and other SDGs.

This consultancy, “Good Practices in Public Sector Excellence to Prevent Corruption: A Lessons Learned Study in Support of the Implementation of UNCAC”, supports Objective 2 of ACPIS: strengthening state/institutional capacity to implement UNCAC, in particular with regard to the prevention of corruption. Specifically, it contributes to Output 2.1 of the ACPIS workplan:

UNCAC and anti-corruption integrated in national development processes, including the mainstreaming of SDGs at national and sub-national levels, to prevent and tackle corruption.

UNCAC provides a unique opportunity to integrate and mainstream anti-corruption in ongoing governance reforms and development processes, especially in countries that have ratified UNCAC and are undergoing the second cycle of UNCAC review. UNDP, as the coordinator of the UN resident systems in many countries, will work together with UNODC to support multiple stakeholders to encourage their participation in the UNCAC review process and its follow-up in-country, particularly in developing and implementing the national action plans and strategies.

Many governance and anti-corruption surveys and indicators suggest that numerous countries in the world sit at the bottom of their indices (e.g., Corruption Barometers) - and, therefore, there is an urgent need to prevent corruption in public sectors by increasing transparency and accountability to ensure the delivery of essential services to citizen users in diverse sectors such as the health, education, water, infrastructure, and justice sectors. In particular, attention needs to be paid to vulnerable and marginalized communities - such as women, children and youth, labor migrants and refugees, indigenous peoples and other minority groups - accessing services without the threat of having to pay illegal and unaffordable bribes for their delivery.

UNCAC, the comprehensive global instrument in the fight against corruption, recognizes the importance of public sector excellence in preventing corruption. UNCAC contains several provisions that are dedicated to preventing corruption in the public sector and public officials:

Article 7 – Public sector;
Article 8 – Codes of conduct for public officials;
Article 9 – Public procurement and management of public finances; and,
Article 10 – Public reporting.

The key elements of public service excellence include building commitment, enhancing capacity, measuring effectively, and communicating effectively at every stage of service planning and delivery. National adoption and implementation of UNCAC’s corruption prevention provisions supports realizing public service excellence in the multiple ways:

Codes of conduct for public officials builds commitment through defining integrity for leadership and ensuring internal/external accountability;
Recruitment, retention and promotion provisions enhance capacity by rewarding innovation, introducing flexibility, encouraging training;
Strong public procurement and financial management systems and procedures involves linking public purchasing and spending to goals and plans; and,
Lastly, public reporting requires effective communications that increases transparency and therefore accountability.

To support the UNCAC implementation through a multiple sectoral approach, UNDP has published a number of tools to fight corruption in three essential services sectors (education, health and water) as well as two other sectors involving public officials (extractives, forestry).

Duties and Responsibilities

The objective of this study is to draw together national cases of good practices from all regions in the following thematic areas of public sector excellence in line with UNCAC articles on preventive measures:

Systems for the recruitment, hiring, retention, promotion and retirement of civil servants (and other non-elected public officials);
Political party financing;
Conflict of interest;
Code of conduct for public officials;
Public procurement and management of public finances; and,
Public reporting and transparency in public administration

In particular this study will compile case studies (at least two case studies per thematic area) on these six topics and answer three key questions in relation to each case study:

Why were the good practices successful in their national context?
How did these good practices contribute to preventing corruption?
What guidance might be offered to apply them in other contexts?

Further, it will contribute to the wider discourse and work on corruption prevention in the context of public sector excellence, including the forthcoming Conference of State Parties on UNCAC in November 2017, and the second cycle of the UNCAC implementation review mechanism (2015 – 2019), which will cover Chapter II on Preventive measures.

Methodology:

The consultant(s) will work closely with UNDP anti-corruption team in Singapore, as well as regional centres and country offices if appropriate. S/he will undertake a comprehensive desk-based literature review to collect and analyse available evidence, and draft and finalise accurate and robust case studies.

Deliverables and Time Frame:

The consultant(s) will deliver the following:

A detailed outline of the study and work plan (1 working day from the commencement of the consultancy);
A first draft for review (next 21 working days);
Second draft incorporating comments from the technical working group (next 5 working days).
Final draft (next 3 working days).

Payments:

The consultant(s) will be paid in three tranches upon submission of the agreed deliverables

Upon submission of outline (20% of the agreed fee);
Upon submission of first draft (30% of the agreed fee);
Upon satisfactory submission of final draft (50% of the agreed fee).

Reporting:

The consultant(s) will report directly to UNDP anti-corruption team in Singapore.

Competencies

Excellent knowledge of anti-corruption and democratic governance issues;
Proven ability to carry out of complex research and gather qualitative and quantitative data;
Good knowledge of UNDP anti-corruption work;
Excellent writing and research skills, and ability to produce knowledge products with minimal supervision;
Demonstrated ability to effectively manage competing demands and time, and adhere to deadlines, and work flexibly.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in public administration, law, political science, international relations, development studies, or related field.

Experiences:

At least 5 years of working experience in anti-corruption or democratic governance.
A prior record of producing research studies (preferably in anti-corruption).

Language:

Strong writing skills in English.

How to Apply:

Kindly download the Letter of Confirmation of interest and availability, Financial Proposal Template, P11 form and General Terms & Conditions mentioned below;
Completed Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability;
Personal CV or a P11 Personal History Form, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
Read and agree to the General Terms & Conditions;
Click the ‘apply’icon and complete what is required;
Brief description of approach to work/technical proposal of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a proposed methodology on how they will approach and complete the assignment; (max 1 page);
Financial Proposal (Annex II) that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. The term "all inclusive" implies all cost (professional fees, international travel costs, living allowances etc).
If an applicant 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 Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the applicant must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.
For duty travels, the UN’s Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) rates should provide?indication?of the cost of living in a duty station/destination.
Scan all documents into 1 pdf folder and then upload;
For clarification question, please email to procurement.my@undp.org. The clarification question deadline is three (3) days before the closing. When emailing for clarification questions, please put "MyIC/2017/021" as the subject matter.
Incomplete applications will be excluded from further consideration.

Forms and General terms & conditions to be downloaded:

The UN Personal History Form (P11) is available at:http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/P11%20for%20SC%20&%20IC.doc?download
Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability at: http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/Letter%20of%20Interest%20_Annex%201.docx?download
The Financial Proposal Template at: http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/Financial%20Proposal%20Template.doc?download
The General Terms & Conditions for Individual contract is available at:http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/General%20Conditions%20of%20Contract%20for%20IC.pdf?download
The General Terms & Conditions for Reimbursement Loan Agreement is available at:http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/Reimbursable%20Loan%20Agreement%20_%20Terms%20&%20Conditions.pdf?download

Important Note:

This Consultancy position is only accepted online. Email submission is not valid;
Applicant must READ and ACCEPT the General Terms and Conditions;
The system DOES NOT accept multiple document upload. Please scan all the documents and save into one (1) PDF file and upload.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:

The award of the contract will be made to the consultant(s) who has obtained the highest Combined Score of interview and the financial proposal of fees (e.g., daily rates or total proposed amount for the study) and accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions. Only those applications that are responsive and compliant will be evaluated. Offers will be evaluated using the “Combined Scoring method” where:

The interview results including educational background (10%), substantive knowledge of anti-corruption/democratic governance (30%) and relevant research and case study experiences (30%) will be weighted a maximum of 70%. The financial proposal (a lumpsum or daily rate) will weighted as 30% of the total score.