UNDP Jobs - 73620- Consultancy – Legal Consultant (Administrative Law

Consultancy – Legal Consultant (Administrative Law), Corporate Oversight, UNDP Legal Office

Location :

Home based

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Sep-2017

Application Deadline :

06-Aug-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

3 Years LTA subject to satisfactory performance

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

The UNDP Legal Office (LO) is part of the Bureau for Management Services (BMS) and is the exclusive source of legal advice to the Administrator and all UNDP business units.

The Administrative Law Practice Group (AL) within LO is responsible for:

Advising senior management in Headquarters, Country Offices and of affiliated funds and programmes on legal issues of the status and conduct, the formulation of policies and procedures and the resolution of claims, with respect to staff members and UN volunteers.
Representing the Organization in cases and settlements within the internal justice system.

The UNDP Legal Office is seeking one or more consultants to support ongoing review of Administrative Law matters based on Long Term Agreement.

The purpose of this procurement exercise is to engage two individual consultants as a Primary and Secondary vendors on Long Term Agreement to support ongoing review of Administrative Law matters and to assist the Senior Legal Adviser of the Administrative Law Practice Group with the legal research, analysis, drafting logistics and coordination associated with pending matters

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ANALYTICAL WORK
Expected outputs and deliverables:

The consultant is required to, inter alia, assist the Senior Legal Adviser of the Administrative Law Practice with the legal research, analysis, drafting, logistics and coordination associated with pending matters. In particular, and in connection with these matters, the consultant’s duties will include:

Reviewing investigation reports and advising on an appropriate course of action as well as preparing drafts of appropriate correspondence in relation to cases involving allegations of misconduct in accordance with the UNDP Legal Framework. Responding to interim issues in relations to such matters including administrative leave.
Reviewing and advising on requests for management review, and preparing draft responses to such requests in accordance with the UN Staff Regulations and Rules, and applicable UNDP policies.
Work with the Senior Legal Advisor to advising UNDP senior management, headquarters units and country offices and other funds and agencies, on legal issues arising with respect to the administration and management of staff on a global basis, rights and obligations of staff, legal status of staff and their dependents, financial recovery, and insurance issues. Liaison with UNDP OHR and UN/OLA as appropriate.
Reviewing legal issues arising with regard to draft policies and procedures in UNDP as well as those arising on an inter-agency basis related to matters affecting UN agencies.
Preparing briefs related to submissions on behalf of UNDP and other funds and agencies, representing the administration before the UN Dispute Tribunal, and assisting UN/OLA in its representation of UNDP before the UN Appeals Tribunal.
Preparing legal opinions and perform extensive legal research and analysis on complex or novel legal issues for the Director and/or the Senior Legal Advisor.
Work with the Senior Legal Advisor and advice on UNV matters including allegations of misconduct, requests for administrative review and other matters arising in the administration of UN volunteers.

Competencies

General:

Motivated by a willingness to respond rapidly and effectively to client needs.
Strong analytical and judgmental skills.
Use initiative to deliver required outputs and planned results.
Excellent communication.
Independent assessment and integrity.

Management Competencies: Judgment/Decision-making

Good judgment and initiative, imagination and resourcefulness, energy and tact;
Ability to ensure an effective work structure to maximize productivity and achieve the goals and objectives of the UNDP.

Building Trust:

Reputation for dealing honestly and openly with issues and staff;
Recognized and respected by peers, clients and staff.

Communication:

Excellent oral and written communication skills;
Listens actively and responds effectively.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

Master’s Degree in Law is required.
Admittance to the bar of a Member State or equivalent qualification to practice law in a Member State is desirable.

Years of experience:

A minimum of 6 years’ practical experience in the practice of law with a law firm, a government and/or an international organization is required.
Practical and substantive familiarity with the UN system internal administration of justice is required.
At least two years’ experience in handling issues related to the personnel/administrative law issues of United Nations system organizations is required.
Practical experience in litigation or managing cases before the UN Tribunals is an asset.

Language:

Fluency in written and spoken English is required.
Knowledge of other UN official languages is an asset.

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% (700 points):

Criteria 1. Additional experience in the practice of law with a law firm, government or international organization legal office, with experience in UN system especially a UN Fund or Programme, handling legal matters relevant to requirement. Weight: 20%; Maximum: 200 points;
Criteria 2. Experience in reviewing investigation reports, providing advisory roles on an appropriate course of action, preparing drafts of appropriate correspondence in relation to cases involving allegations of misconduct. Weight: 20%; Maximum: 200 points;
Criteria 3. Experience in providing advisory role on legal issues arising with respect to the administration and management of staff, have good understanding of privileges and immunities, rights and obligations of staff, legal status of staff and their dependents, financial recovery, taxation and insurance issues. Weight: 20%; Maximum: 200 points;
Criteria 4. Experience in drafting policies and procedures and reviewing legal issues arising with regard to draft policies and procedures, experience preparing legal opinions and performing extensive legal research and analysis on complex or novel legal issues. Weight: 5%; Maximum: 50 points;
Criteria 5. Experience in litigation or managing cases before the UN tribunals, practical experience with personnel/admin law issues of UN, knowledge of UNDP legal framework, UNDP HR policies and procedures Weight: 5%; Maximum: 50 points.

Having reviewed applications received, UNDP will invite the top three shortlisted candidates for interview. Interview will be scored as Pass/Fail. Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (490 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (700 points) and passing the interview, shall be considered for the financial evaluation.
Financial evaluation - Total 30% (300 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. Offers will be made following consideration of candidate’s performance at an interview and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.

Institutional arrangement

The consultant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of the Senior Legal Advisor and will provide daily oral reporting and participate regularly in departmental weekly case status meetings. The consultant will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above.

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 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.

Framework Agreement:

UNDP plans to enter into the Long-Term Agreement (LTA) with TOP ranked successful Individual Contractors as Primary and Secondary LTA holder to assure resources availability at the required timefame and/or increased demand for services requested. The service of who will be used on an intermittent and repetitive basis when needed and based on the fixed daily rate. Other prospective applicants that are not contracted, at the UNDP discretion, will be placed in the roster of consultants to be used based on call basis for similar services.

Please note that the LTA does not form a financial obligation or commitment from UNDP at the time the LTA contract is signed, and that such an agreement is non-exclusive. When a specific need arises, the successful Individual Contractor/s will be approached and be provided with a specific TOR and deliverables (and time frame) but still within the scope of the responsibilities stated in the LTA. The successful Individual Contractor/s is expected to provide Confirmation of Interest on the specific services required. Financial commitments will only be established each time a Purchase Order for the specific services/TOR for Individual Contractor is committed. The purchase order will be based on the agreed LTA Daily Rate Consultancy Fee.

This LTA has a cumulative ceiling amount that may accrue to the individual contractor during the life of the LTA, but said amount shall remain as an upper limit, and must not and cannot be interpreted nor understood as neither a financial commitment nor guarantee of business volume.

The duration of LTA is for 3-year period subject to satisfactory contract performance.

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

Any request for clarification must be sent by email to cpu.bids@undp.org.

The UNDP Central Procurement Unit will respond by email and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.