Background
UNDP Global Mission Statement:
UNDP is the UN’s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP is on the ground in 166 countries, working with national counterparts on their own solutions to global and national development challenges.
UNDP Afghanistan Mission Statement:
UNDP supports stabilization, State-building, governance and development priorities in Afghanistan. UNDP support, in partnership with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIROA), the United Nations system, the donor community and other development stakeholders, has contributed to institutional development efforts leading to positive impact on the lives of Afghan citizens. Over the years UNDP support has spanned such milestone efforts as the adoption of the Constitution; Presidential, Parliamentary and Provincial Council elections; institutional development through capacity-building to the legislative, the judicial and executive arms of the State, Ministries, Government agencies and commissions at the national and sub-national levels. UNDP has played a role in the management of the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan (LOTFA), which supports the Government in developing and maintaining the national police force and in efforts to stabilize the internal security environment. Major demobilization, disarmament and rehabilitation and area-based livelihoods and reconstruction programmes have taken place nationwide. UNDP Programmes in Afghanistan have benefited from the very active support of donors. UNDP Afghanistan is committed to the highest standards of transparency and accountability and works in close coordination with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN system to maximize the impact of its development efforts on the ground.
Organizational context:
UNDP Afghanistan’s Governance for Peace (G4P) Programme Unit supports the Afghan Government in implementing its strategies for Governance, Rule of Law, developing its institutional capacity and providing services to the Afghan population. This includes supporting the implementation of the Afghanistan National Strategy for Combatting Corruption.
Following the successful implementation of the Project Initiation Plan (PIP) for Anti-Corruption “Development Plan for a Nation-Wide Anti-Corruption Project”, implemented from January 2018 to June 2019, UNDP is now managing and delivering the Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Integrity Openness National (ACTION) Project. The ACTION project contributes directly to the targets of the broader Governance, Rule of Law and Human Security portfolio and works in close coordination with other projects in this pillar and other development actors.
ACTION programmatic engagement includes technical support to the Anti-Corruption Justice Centre (ACJC). The ACJC has been established by Presidential Decree No. 53, dated 30 June 2016 in order to enhance the fight against major corruption crimes through achieving a more efficient way to expedite, integrate and co-ordinate detection, investigation, prosecution and implementation of court decisions. The jurisdiction of the ACJC is focused on the most serious crimes of corruption either by the amount involved or by the rank of the state official alleged offender.
The ACJC is a joint centre which includes:
Major Crimes Taskforce - Reports to Ministry of Interior
General Prosecution Directorate - Reporting to Attorney General’s Office
Primary and Appeal Courts - Assigned by the Supreme Court
Executive Directorate - Reports to the Attorney General’s Office
The ACTION Project overall objectives are:
Increased public trust in Rule of Law in Afghanistan, improved transparency, accountability and integrity, and better restoration of the social contract between the Afghan state and its citizens, especially vulnerable groups, including women;
Assist in the Restoration of the Afghan Social Contract: One of the main objectives of this project to facilitate collective action against corruption, and work towards a corruption-free environment. Corruption damages the social fabric and contributes to a vicious cycle of poverty and conflict. Raising awareness among all actors that everyone is collectively responsible for systemic corruption, and that everyone needs to work together to address it and creating options for collaborative engagement can contribute to a restoration of the social contract between citizen and state.
Improve Development Effectiveness: This project will also help to achieve the broader objective of tackling corruption to improve development effectiveness. Corruption within Rule of Law institutions affects reforms across the sector. Improvements to processes that improve transparency and accountability are likely to have additional positive effects, such as improved accessibility and affordability for citizens, but also less wastage of resources, and improved aid effectiveness for donors.
The ACTION Project includes the following output:
“The Anti-Corruption Justice Centre (ACJC) has improved technical and operational capacities to effectively adjudicate Corruption Cases”
By the end of the project period, police, prosecutors and judges co-located at the Anti-Corruption Justice Centre will receive measurable improvements to their technical capacities and ability to investigate violations. ACJC administrative and management staff will be better able to provide core office functions. In addition, by the end of this project, critical equipment and logistics gaps will have been filled, in support of sustainable long-term ACJC operations.
Between July 2019 and October 2019, a strategic need assessment of the ACJC was conducted to assist in increasing the capacity to investigate, prosecute, adjudicate and administrate cases under the jurisdiction of the ACJC. The need assessment identified criminal justice needs; administrative and logistics needs; security and infrastructure needs; communication needs; and policy and legislative needs.
Organizational context of the position:
In response to the needs identified within the assessment, UNDP is implementing a training and support plan. The training plan includes support to the judges assigned to the ACJC in sharing international best practices and process for judicial investigation, trial preparation, conduct and handling of trials and conduct of post-trial matters, when in the context of complex corruption and financial crime cases.
Under the overall supervision of the G4P Chief a.i. and under the direct supervision of the ACTION Project Manager, the international consultant/s will be responsible for delivering a five-day retreat and workshop, focused upon adjudicating complex corruption and financial related prosecutions. The five-day retreat and workshop will be preceded by work from home and site-visit to prepare a tailored workshop for the specific needs of the Afghan judiciary.
Duties and Responsibilities
Objective of the assignment
The international consultant/s will support the sharing of international best practice in the adjudication of offences of complex corruption and financial related complex prosecutions to a total of 14 judges assigned to the ACJC, including the two chief judges of the Primary and Appeal Courts. The workshop will be delivered by 3 judges simultaneously and following the methodology of a professional retreat. The methodology for a retreat workshop style delivery is through discursive discussions on a number of themes as opposed to didactic training in the form of classroom learning. The retreat workshop is to be a combination of international consultant(s) led discussions, individual judges’ experience sharing and plenary discussions in order to identify international best practice, current national practice, and future development of national practice to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency for the handling and adjudication of serious and complex corruption and financial crime cases.
Deliverable 1: Inception report and materials for the workshop and training (20%) – 10 days – home based
The international consultant(s) will design a 5-day workshop that will be conducted in the manner of a professional retreat. The workshop content should be adapted to the specific context of Afghanistan and therefore prepared through literature review of the legislative and policy framework of Afghanistan and a series of key informant interviews to be facilitated and organised by the ACTION project team. It will be the responsibility of the selected consultants to coordinate between one another to organise the workload and agree on the plan forward. The bidder will submit a detailed inception report including: summary of the literature review and key informant interviews, workshop delivery modalities, workshop content and materials, suggested methodology for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the training to be designed in close collaboration with the other two consultants. The materials should be shared at least two weeks ahead of the training with the ACTION Project Manager for review and feedback.
Deliverable 2: Workshop delivery (70%) -5 days – Dubai
Delivery of the 5-day workshop to the 10 judges of the ACJC. The following themes are to be incorporated into the retreat workshop delivery (non-exhaustive list – may be expended upon deliverable 1):
Judicial investigation and trial preparation of serious and complex corruption and financial crime cases, including ancillary proceedings such as pre-trial custody, asset tracing, freezing and seizure.
Judicial conduct and handling of substantive trial process in relation to serious and complex corruption and financial crime cases, including ancillary proceedings such as custody during trial, defendants’ attendance at trial, asset tracing, freezing, seizure and confiscation.
Judicial conduct of post-trial matters in relation to serious and complex corruption and financial crime cases, including ancillary proceedings such as enforcement of court orders (imprisonment and fines etc), asset tracing, freezing, seizure and confiscation.
- Payments under the contract shall be delivery-based and the payment will be upon receipt, acceptance and approval of deliverables as per ToR’s specific milestones indicated above and shall be deemed
Deliverable 3: Post-delivery report (10%) - 2 days – home-based
Compilation of comprehensive post-delivery report including the training materials, documenting achievements, M&E of the trainings, lessons learned and recommendations for next steps.
Payment Modality: Payments under the contract shall be delivery-based and the payment will be upon receipt, acceptance and approval of deliverables as per ToR’s specific milestones indicated above and shall be deemed delivered upon the approval of the ACTION Project Manager in close collaboration with the G4P Chief a.i..
Institutional Arrangements: The International Consultant/s will work under the overall supervision of the G4P Chief a.i., under the direct supervision of the ACTION Project Manager in close collaboration with the ACTION project team.
One five-day workshop will be conducted in Dubai, UAE. The workshop will be delivered in English with simultaneous or consecutive translation (which will be provided by UNDP).
The consultant/s will be held to the highest level of confidentiality regarding the information he may encounter on pending cases at the ACJC.
Duration of the Work:
The contract shall be delivered between February and May 2021 with a total of 17 working days.
Duty Station
The consultancy will combine a mission in Dubai, UAE, with home-based work to develop the deliverables.
Competencies
Core competencies:
Promotes ethics and integrity and creates organizational precedents;
Builds support and political acumen;
Builds staff competence and creates an environment of creativity and innovation;
Builds and promotes effective teams;
Creates and promotes environment for open communications;
Leverages conflict in the interest of UNDP and sets standards;
Shares knowledge across the organization and builds a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.
Functional Competencies:
Job knowledge/technical expertise:
Expert knowledge of adjudicating complex criminal investigations and a broad knowledge of related disciplines and in-depth knowledge of relevant organizational policies and procedures;
Applies knowledge to support the Project´s objectives and to further the mandate of UNDP;
Keeps abreast of new developments in the area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself;
Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
Demonstrates expert knowledge of the current programme guidelines and project management tools and manages the use of these regularly in work assignments.
Conceptual innovation in the provision of technical expertise:
Conducts programme assessment to improve development of models and methodologies;
Designs policy models to support comprehensive interventions linking UNDP´s policy objectives to programme delivery and capacity development objectives;
Ensures that the design of policies are appropriate to country social and development context;
Demonstrates the ability to engage development partners at all levels in conceptual and methodological innovation that is pertinent to the context.
Advancing a policy-oriented agenda:
Advocates for inclusion of UNDP´s focus areas in the public policy agenda;
Brings visibility and sensitizes decision makers to relevant emerging issues;
Builds consensus concerning UNDP´s strategic agenda with partners on joint initiatives;
Leverage UNDP´s multidisciplinary expertise to influence policies and programmes;
Demonstrates political/cultural acumen in proposing technical sound, fact-based solutions/approaches;
Dialogues with national counterparts and other stakeholders to strengthen advocacy efforts, incorporating country, regional and global perspectives;
Demonstrates cultural sensitivity, political savvy and intellectual capacity in handling; disagreements in order to promote and position UNDP in complex environments.
Required Skills and Experience
Qualifications:
Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in law, criminology, economics, finance, development, international relations or a related area is required.
A first-level university degree or equivalent academic education, professional training with certification from a recognized international/national legal, police, customs or other staff training institution, with specialization in criminal justice, crime prevention, criminal investigation, law enforcement, in combination with two additional years of relevant professional experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
Certification or other qualification in training design and delivery is an advantage.
Required experience:
A minimum of seven years of relevant, progressively responsible professional experience as a judge or senior prosecutor with conduct of financial crime cases is required. At least one of the consultants selected for this assignment must be from a civil law jurisdiction.
Experience in the investigation, prosecution and/or adjudication of serious and complex financial crimes, including corruption, bribery and money laundering, is required.
Experience in development, management and delivery of financial crime technical assistance and providing advice at operational and policy levels is required.
Experience in training/advising prosecutors, judges and/or other officials in matters relating to serious and complex financial crimes, including corruption, bribery and money laundering, is highly desirable.
Experience with working in developing countries is highly desirable.
Experience of working in Afghanistan is highly desirable.
Language:
Excellent written and verbal English skills is a necessary requirement
PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS
The individual contract shall submit a price proposal as below:
Daily Fee. The Consultant shall propose a daily fee which should be inclusive of his/her professional fee, local communication cost, insurance (inclusive of medical health and medical evacuation), The number of working days for which the daily fee shall be payable under the contract is 17 working days.
DSA/Living Allowance - The Consultant shall be separately paid the DSA as per applicable UNDP rate for Dubai, Afghanistan. The consultant need not quote for DSA in Financial Proposal.
Travel and Visa. The Consultant shall include lumpsum cost of travel for Home-Dubai-Home and visa expenses within the Financial Proposal.
Payment. The total professional fee shall be converted into a lump sum contract and payments under the contract shall be made on submission and acceptance of deliverables under the contract in accordance with the above mentioned schedule of payment.
EVALUATION METHOD AND CRITERIA
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:
Cumulative analysis; the award of the contract shall 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.
• Technical Criteria weight 70%
• Financial Criteria weight 30%
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the
Financial Evaluation.
Technical Proposal (20 marks)
Technical Approach & Methodology (20 marks) – This explains the understanding of the objectives of the assignment, approach to the services, methodology for carrying out the activities and obtaining the expected output, and the degree of detail of such output. The Applicant should also explain the methodologies proposed to adopt and highlight the compatibility of those methodologies with the proposed approach.
Qualification and Experience (50 marks) [evaluation of CVs for shortlisting]
Experience relevant to the assignment (10 marks).
General Qualification (10 marks)
Interview (30 marks)
Financial Evaluation (30%):
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
Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications merged into one single PDF document:
Personal CV or P11, 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.
Technical Proposal (can be attached with CV or response can be provided to mandatory question on jobs site):
Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment and work plan as indicated above.