National Legal Consultant to Support the Audit Chamber of RA

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National Consultant contracts.

Background

The “Modern Parliament for a Modern Armenia” Project (MAP Project) is designed to strengthen the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia (NA) in its new and fundamentally enhanced role within the governance system in carrying out its key functions - legislation, oversight, and representation. With a long-term goal of enhancing the overall effectiveness of the NA as a policy-making institution, the Project is designed to support the NA in taking advantage of modern governance tools and mechanisms with a focus on improved operational quality, transparency, and inclusiveness of parliament and enhanced parliamentary capacity for gender-responsive policymaking.

The Project has a three-stage approach to addressing the enhancement of capacity, transparency, and responsiveness: (i) a catalytic stage of a needs assessment, strategic agenda-setting, and piloting of designed approaches; (ii) full-fledged implementation of the strategic agenda, tested approaches and activities; and (iii) evaluation of the implementation, policy recommendations, and Project closure.

UNDP MAP Project is supporting the NA to enhance its role and functions in law-making, policymaking, and oversight, in particular: enhancing capacity in law-making, policymaking, and oversight; increasing the transparency and inclusiveness of the legislature and responding to the needs of constituents and strengthening interaction with them.

UNDP seeks a National Consultant – Legal Consultant for technical support to the Audit Chamber of the Republic of Armenia in the compilation of the final package of legal reforms.

The draft set of legal reforms as well as the Concept Paper of the Legal Reforms for the Audit Chamber has been developed according to the Audit Chamber’s Strategic Development Plan for 2020-2023 (Activity 1.1.2).

The Legal Consultant will support the Audit Chamber to develop the final package of legal revisions and recommendations for legal amendments for final submission to the NA, based on the Concept Paper of Legal Reforms adopted by the Audit Chamber.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant shall:

• Ensure the compatibility of legal revisions envisaged by the Concept Paper to acting legislation, as well as international best practice in the field of independent oversight bodies, particularly public audit institutions.
• Develop a set of recommendations for the Legal Reforms Package: a review of the acting law on RA Audit Chamber, recommendations for possible revisions compared and referred to other laws and legal acts.
• Contribute to the discussions and consultations organised by the Audit Chamber with participation of line ministries and agencies, MPs, SCs, facilitate the exchange of experience and good practice in the relevant area of practice;
• Compile the final set of recommendations or ameliorations and amendments in relevant regulatory acts submitted and validated by key stakeholders for the Legal Reforms Package for the RA Audit Chamber.
• Provide technical inputs towards the Legal Reforms Package for the RA Audit Chamber and its design and monitoring framework.

Expected Outputs and Deliverable

Deliverables/Outputs

Target Due Dates

1. Inception report (including detailed work plan and possible recommendations for the Legal Reforms Package) submitted and approved

15 September 2022

2. Report on acting regulatory framework (including key findings on contradictions and overlaps, and recommendations to address those) submitted and validated by key stakeholders in the NA

15 October 2022

3. Recommendations for ameliorations and amendments in relevant regulatory acts submitted and validated by key stakeholders

15 November 2022

4. Final report (including recommendations for the Legal Reforms Package according to the Concept Paper adopted by the Audit Chamber) submitted and approved

15 December 2022

Payment Terms:

The payment will be made upon successful completion of the tasks, submission, and duly acceptance of the deliverables by MAP Project team. Payment will be made in a lump sum based on submitted and approved deliverables by the UNDP MAP Project Team:

Payments will be made only upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner in the following installments:

• Deliverable 1: 10 % of the contract amount
• Deliverable 2: 20 % of the contract amount
• Deliverable 3: 40 % of the contract amount
• Deliverable 4: 30 % of the contract amount

All the deliverables shall be cleared and approved by the UNDP according to the following criteria:

• Quality of the documents delivered
• Technical competence
• Validation by the key stakeholders
• Timeliness of the delivery

Languages of Deliverables:

Deliverables shall be submitted in Armenian. The brief final implementation report on the activities and results shall be submitted in English.

Institutional Arrangement

• The Contractor will liaise with the UNDP MAP Project team and the Audit Chamber while performing the work.
• The UNDP MAP Project will provide support services for the organization of meetings and any other logistical support if needed for the arrangement of discussions and debriefings within the assignment.

Competencies

• Knowledge and expertise in Armenian legislation.
• Solid knowledge of acting legislation regulating the Audit Chamber and related legal acts.
• Knowledge of how to contribute to building national capacities.
• Strong interpersonal skills, and ability to establish and maintain effective work relationships with people of different social and cultural backgrounds.
• Strong analytical judgment and a demonstrated ability to handle confidential and sensitive issues responsibly and maturely.
• Demonstrates strong intellectual and operational capacity in providing consultant y services to the Audit Chamber
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.
• Excellent knowledge of the functions of independent oversight bodies and their relations with parliaments
• Excellent team working skills; aptitude in consulting and involving others, as well as building trust, among others.
• Demonstrated ability to multitask under pressure and to meet strict deadlines often under challenging conditions.
• Ability to deliver and reach the planned targets without undermining proper operational processes.
• Creativity, flexibility, and an innovative approach to problem-solving.
• Excellent skills in the use of computers and office software packages, good knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in Law with specialization in public law, constitutional law, administrative law or public administration, and local self-government or a combination of professional training and certification and experience in relevant areas. A first-level university degree, in conjunction with qualifying experience, is accepted in place of an advanced University Degree.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of work experience as a legal expert including in academia, public administration, legislative field
• At least 5 years of work experience with engagement in legislation drafting
• Experience in working with parliaments, and specifically with the Audit Chamber of the Republic of Armenia, is an asset·
• Experience in providing practical advice to policymakers

Languages:

• Written and oral fluency in English and Armenian.

CANDIDATES WILL BE EVALUATED BASED ON THE FOLLOWING METHODOLOGY:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants' technical qualifications, experience and financial proposal.The contract will be awarded to the candidate whose offer has been evaluated and determined as technically responsive/compliant/acceptable to the requirements of the ToR and received the highest cumulative (technical and financial) score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation - max. 70 points

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation - max. 30 points.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE APPLICATION.

• Financial Proposal and Availability form: OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP (A total lump sum option is applicable for this assignment)
• CV shall include Education/Qualification, Processional Certification, Employment Records /Experience

General Conditions of Contract is available here: GENERAL CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT

Note: Please note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents that should be included in the application in one single PDF file and upload it).