Republic of Moldova

Local consultant in the area of anticorruption and integrity management in private sector

Vacancy Number: Pr16/01269

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	20 Apr 2016, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	27 Apr 2016, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	09 May 2016, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	02 May 2016
Reference to the project:	Strengthening the corruption prevention and analysis functions of the National Anticorruption Center Project
Expected Duration of Assignment:	May-July 2016
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted by by pressing the "Apply Now" button no later than April 20, 2016. Requests for clarification must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail olga.crivoliubic@undp.org. UNDP will respond by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.
Supporting Documents: Individual Consultant Procurement Notice Terms of Reference Personal History Form (P11) UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract

Contacts:

Ms. Olga Crivoliubic.

olga.crivoliubic@undp.org

Background

In Moldova corruption is usually perceived as a phenomenon characteristic to public sector, in particular justice, health, education, police, central and local public administration. However, a more comprehensive approach to this phenomenon demonstrates the involvement and destructive effects of corruption on private sector as well. 

Costs of corruption in private sector are huge and affect the quality of goods and services delivered to population, market competitiveness and economic rules, investment process, national public budget. Bribes paid by the economic agents for gaining public contracts determine a fraudulent increase of cost of such contracts and a decrease of quality. Public and business entities and political actors set illegal relations to gain public contracts and fund political parties. According to the Survey on Perception vs. Personal Experience with Corruption of Households and Business-people, conducted by UNDP in partnership with the Transparency International Moldova, the total value of bribes paid by businessmen in 2015 was estimated at MDL 381 mln.

Another research developed by the Transparency International-Moldova, The National Integrity System states that “a part of the private sector activates in shadow economy, in which tax evasion is committed, which makes it vulnerable to the control bodies. The private sector is poorly protected by the state. The ethical standards of small enterprises are low. The big enterprises usually do not apply norms of corporate management. The private sector is insufficiently involved in the activity of working groups/councils in the frame of state bodies, in monitoring economic and anti-corruption policies.”  

 The same tendency is demonstrated by several international ratings as well.  The “Index of Economic Freedom 2016”, developed by the Heritage Foundation, ranks Moldova as 117^th out of 178 countries with a score a score of 57,4, or 0,1 points less comparing to the last year. Corruption was highlighted as one of the major challenges, while bureaucracy and lack of transparency often make opening and running a business costly and difficult. According to the Global Business Bribery Risk Index, developed by the non-governmental business association TRACE International, Moldova occupies the place 130 out of 197. The highest risk score (70) was attributed for the Interaction with Government, Moldova being placed in the group of countries with a high level of corruption risks.

In spite of the fact that national legislation sets certain rules on the responsibility of legal entities of private law for a rightful, honorable and adequate entrepreneurial activity, incriminates corruption offences in private sector, including criminal liability of legal persons for corruption offences, application of the legal framework is unsatisfactory.

The UN Convention on Corruption (UNCAC), ratified by the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova by the Law 158/06.07.2007, provides that each State Party shall take measures, in accordance with the fundamental principles of its domestic law, to prevent corruption involving the private sector, enhance accounting and auditing standards in the private sector and, where appropriate, provide effective, proportionate and dissuasive civil, administrative or criminal penalties for failure to comply with such measures.  Moldova will be part of an external evaluation of this chapter in the next round of evaluation.

The Government of Moldova, acknowledging the need to fight corruption, adopted the National Anticorruption Strategy (NAS) in 2011. NAS is the main anticorruption policy document currently applied at the national level. The goal of the Strategy is to reduce the level of corruption in public and private sectors of the Republic of Moldova. National Anticorruption Center has a clear mandate to prevent corruption, including development of viable tools to prevent corruption in private sector. NAC is endorsed to take part in developing and improving legal framework on prevention and fighting corruption and corruption related offences, promoting international anticorruption standards.

UNDP, through its project Strengthening the corruption prevention and analysis functions of the National Anti-corruption Center (NAC) aims to strengthen the capacities of NAC in the analysis of corruption. To  strengthen the capacities of NAC in the analysis of corruption in private sector, the project intends to contract a local consultant, who working in team with an international consultant, will assess the conformity of national anticorruption system, including legal, normative and policy framework, to UNCAC and other international standards related to corruption and integrity in private sector and will deliver concrete recommendations for preventing corruption and integrity management in private sector (at legislative, normative, institutional and policy level) and a sample Code of ethics for small and medium enterprises.

 

Scope of work

Main objective of the assignment is to  strengthen the capacities of NAC in the analysis of corruption in private sector through developing a comprehensive assessment report on the conformity of national anticorruption system, including legal, normative and policy framework, to UNCAC and other international standards related to corruption and integrity in private sector and deliver concrete recommendations for preventing corruption and integrity management in private sector (at legislative, normative, institutional and policy level) and a sample Code of ethics for small and medium enterprises.

The local consultant will work in a team with an international consultant.

For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference.

Requirements for experience

Academic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, Finance, Law or other relevant field

Years and sphere of experience

• At least two years of relevant experience in consultancy related to corruption and integrity standards in private sector.  

Competencies

• Knowledge of the UNCAC, international standards and effective mechanisms for identifying and reducing corruption in private sector demonstrated by previous assignments;
• Knowledge of local regulatory and institutional framework on private sector demonstrated by previous assignments;
• Experience of work in private sector regulatory institutions (fiscal, competition, etc.) and/or anticorruption agencies, or other relevant institutions will be a strong advantage;
• Extensive demonstrated experience in developing analytical studies/reports related to regulation/corruption risks/ethics in private sector;
• Previous successful experience of working with UN agencies and/or other development partners is an advantage;
• Effective communication and strong analytical skills;
• Excellent knowledge of English, Romanian and Russian.

 Personal qualities

• Proven commitment to the core values of the United Nations; in particular, is respectful of differences of culture, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, language, age, HIV status, disability, and sexual orientation, or other status;
• Responsibility, flexibility, punctuality
• Capacity of collaboration and teamwork

Documents to be included

1. Proposal: explaining why they are the most suitable for this position and providing examples reflecting the competencies for each of the qualification requirements (particularly providing details on the previously implemented similar projects and assignments and previous experience in the fields related to this consultancy as described in the terms of reference);
2. Financial proposal: in (USD, specifying a total lump sum amount and the number of anticipated working days);
3. Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and the contact details of at least 3 reference persons.

Financial proposal

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables. Payment will be made upon the successful completion of the tasks assigned and submission of the assessment report.  Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals the financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including fee, taxes, communication costs, travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

Travel

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. 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.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

 No travel is envisaged under this assignment

 

Disclaimer In case of discrepancies between the text published on the website and the contents of the supporting documents, the provisions, instructions and conditions included in the supporting documents (published as Adobe Portable Document Format files) shall prevail. In case of discrepancies between the English version and the Romanian and/or Russian versions of text, documents or other content published on this webpage, the English version shall prevail.

Notice UNDP, as a matter of practice, does not charge any application, processing or training fee at any stage of the recruitment process. If you have any questions as to vacancy announcements you may have received, please refer to this website. UNDP is currently aware of fictitious vacancy announcements that are being circulated through the internet, the purpose of which is to get people to register for a training and send in a fee. If you believe that you have received such a notice, please forward it, and any other related information you have received, to scamalert@undp.org. Since logos, emblems, names and addresses can be easily copied or reproduced, you are advised to take particular care in applying for vacancies, including undertaking all appropriate measures to protect against the unauthorised use of any personal information you may have provided as a result of the scam.