Background

UNDP Global Mission Statement:

The 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.  We are on the ground in about 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion. We help countries to develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and build resilience to sustain development results.

 

UNDP Afghanistan Mission Statement:

UNDP supports stabilization, state-building, governance, and development priorities in Afghanistan. UNDP support, in partnership with the Government, the United Nations system, the donor community, and other development stakeholders, has contributed to institutional development efforts leading to a 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, and key ministries, Government agencies, and commissions at the national and sub-national levels. UNDP has played a key role in the management of the Law and Order Trust Fund, 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 programs 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 and the UN system to maximize the impact of its development efforts on the ground.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall objective of the consultancy:

The overall objective of this consultancy is to provide support to the Finance Disbursement unit, solely responsible for proper filling and managing of all Finance unit documents;

Under the overall guidance and supervision of Finance Analyst – Disbursement, the National Consultant ensures effective execution of financial services and processes and transparent utilization of financial resources, the consultant promotes a client-oriented approach consistent with UNDP rules and regulations.

Scope of Work: (Duties and Responsibilities)

  • Submitting the payment requests for voucher processing;
  • Verify and determine the appropriatenes of disbursement requests and the supporting documentation for compliance with UNDP rules and regulations, policies, and procedures.Ensuring the expenditures comply with the UNDP financial rules and regulations and adhere to the CO program and projects’ annual work plan (AWP).
  • Review documentation for accuracy and completeness in line with UNDP rules and regulations, policies and procedures as well as the SLA between the RBAP and GSSU on the provision of financial services along with respective SOPs
  • Ensure the disbursement requests are in line with the internal control framework.
  • Liaise with GSSU on clarifications and queries raised
  • Resolve issues on CoA, matching exceptions, erroneous entries, incomplete documentation as required
  • Obtain signatures on banking instructions and cheques; deliver banking instructions to the bank; distribute cheques to cheque beneficiaries; Follow-up with projects or vendors on un-presented cheques;
  • Answer the projects team, clients, vendors, and stakeholders’ queries regarding disbursement requests.
  • Maintain and file supporting documents for record in compliance with the document retention policy
  • Perform any other related duties assigned by the direct supervisor.

 

Payment Modality:

Payments under this contract shall be made monthly upon receipt of approved COPs and timesheets per UNDP procurement formats for individual contractors certified by the head of Finance Disbursement Team.

 

Working Arrangements Institutional Arrangements:
The consultant shall work under the overall supervision of the Finance Analyst - Disbursement and shall work in the Finance Disbursement unit. UNDP shall provide office space, necessary equipment and internet facilities to a consultant. Costs to arrange meetings, workshops, travel costs, and DSA during field visits in the country and outside of duty station (if any) shall be covered by UNDP Afghanistan and subject to approval by the Supervisor.

 

Duration of the Work

Contract duration for the consultant will be Three months with maximum 66 Working days.

 

Duty Station

The duty station for the consultant is UNDP Country Office Finance Unit Kabul, Afghanistan for the entire duration of the contract. 

Competencies

Team Work and Communication skills

  • Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
  • Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

 

Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing

  • Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member.
  • Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms;
  • Knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

  • Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Business, or Public Administration is required; specialized certification in Accounting and Finance is desirable, but it is not a requirement.

 

Years of experience:

  • Two years of work experience in finance and At-least 1 year of progressively experience in finance-disbursement is required.
  • Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and advance knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems and ERP financials, preferably PeopleSoft;

 

Language requirements:

  • Fluency in English and local languages of Dari/Pashtu is required.

 

PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

The applicants must submit a Financial Proposal along with thier CV, in accordance with the below:

  1. Daily Fee – The contractor shall propose a daily fee, which should be inclusive of his professional fee, local communication cost and insurance (inclusive of medical health insurance and evacuation). The number of working days for which the daily fee shall be payable under the contract of 66 working days.
  2.  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 schedule of payment linked with deliverables and at the end of assignment.

UNDP reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines.

 

Evaluation Method and Criteria:

Individual consultant will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

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

  1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
  2. 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 Evaluation (70%)

Qualification, Experience and Technical Proposal (70 marks):

  1. General Qualification (20 marks);
  2. Experience relevant to the assignment (50 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 international Consultant must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

  • Duly accomplished Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II);
  • Personal CV or P11, indicating all experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

 

All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNDP Afghanistan.  UNDP Afghanistan will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

 

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

Note: Incomplete application will result in automatic disqualification of candidate.