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International consultant to elaborate a study on the proportionality and demotivating character of the sanctions for corruption offences and the appropriateness of establishing specialized anti-corruption courts/panels.

Vacancy Number: Pr20/02074

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	25 Aug 2020, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	10 Sep 2020
Reference to the project:	Curbing corruption by building sustainable integrity in the Republic of Moldova
Expected Duration of Assignment:	September 2020- February 2021
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted online by pressing the "Apply Online" button, by August 25, 2020, 10 am EET. 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 Offeror's Letter confirming Interest and Availability Terms of reference

Background

The goal of the project „Curbing Corruption by Building Sustainable Integrity in Moldova” (further the UNDP Project) is to contribute to achieving a sustainable integrity and anticorruption system in the Republic of Moldova through the strengthened capacities of the public and private sector entities and the civil society for the efficient application and monitoring of national integrity instruments and standards. It will contribute to the progressive implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal 16 that calls for a substantial reduction of corruption and bribery in all their forms and for developing effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels. The Project is framed around the National Integrity and Anticorruption Strategy (NIAS) 2017-2020 and responds to the needs of its various actors and stakeholders in addressing the challenges for the effective implementation of NIAS, including insufficient capacities within central and local public authorities to ensure the uniform compliance with anticorruption and integrity standards; lack of mechanisms for enforcing integrity standards in private sector; and weak anticorruption demand-side explained by the limited awareness of men and women on the available anticorruption tools to be used and on the means of protection in the event of denunciation of corruption.

The National Anticorruption Center is the public authority specialized in preventing and combating corruption, corruption-related acts and corruptible deeds and is responsible for the coordination and monitoring of the NIAS implementation. One of the Center’s prevention measures is the improvement of the legal framework in line with the anticorruption international standards.

The Republic of Moldova has aligned its’ national regulations to the international standards in the area of fighting corruption through different legislative reforms. Nevertheless, certain difficulties are encountered in sanctioning corruption and corruption related acts due to the lack of proportionality and demotivating character of the sanctions for corruption offences.

A Study of the Court Decisions on Corruption Cases delivered during 2013-2017, commissioned by UNDP, revealed a reversed proportionality between the material object of the corruption crime and the fines established as punishments. The statistics analyzed by NAC every year point out the existence of the following trend: the bigger the bribe, the smaller the fine is, and as the bribe increases, the size of the fine becomes less significant.

Hence, in order to obtain results, the fight against corruption cannot be reduced only to carrying out combating activities. It also implies a set of actions meant to discourage perpetration of corruption acts. The capacity of the judicial system to impose dissuasive criminal sanctions plays a major deterring role and is a real evidence of an efficient policy of tolerance to corruption zero.

The second aspect which has proved to be o problem for the application of deterring sanctions in cases of corruption lies in the judicial trial phase. The lack of specialized judges and/or courts to review corruption acts, corruption assimilated and related acts does not allow a rapid change of the judiciary practice in relation to such cases; the corruption cases of resonance are not reviewed with celerity because of the overload of the common-law courts, and the sanctions applied in case of convictions – very rarely may be considered to be deterring.

The Action Plan for the implementation of the NIAS provides for “Establishing specialized courts/judge panels for examining cases of corruption acts and corruption-related acts and ensuring the specialized courts/judge panels for examining cases of corruption acts and corruption-related acts with sufficient human, technical, and financial resources”. As a result of determining certain challenges encountered in implementing the respective action, the monitoring body of the NIAS has decided that it is necessary to carry out a detailed analysis regarding the relevance and appropriateness of establishing specialized courts/judge panels to examine cases of corruption acts and corruption-related acts in the Republic of Moldova, considering the current legal and contextual aspects.

In this context, to ensure effective, proportionate, and deterring criminal sanctions for corruption cases and high efficiency and expertise during the judicial phase, the UNDP Project seeks to contract an International Consultant, who working in team with a national consultant, will carry out a comprehensive study on the conformity of the national normative framework with the international anticorruption standards, norms and good practice related to the framework of the sanctions for corruption offences and specialization of anticorruption judges/courts taking into account specific context of the Republic of Moldova.

Scope of work

Main objective/output of the assignment: to carry out a comprehensive study on the conformity of the national normative framework with the international anticorruption standards, norms and good practice related to the framework of the sanctions for corruption offences and specialization of anticorruption judges/courts, which will include two chapters:

1. Analysis of the conformity of the national normative framework with the international anticorruption standards, norms and good practice related to the framework of the sanctions for corruption offences;
2. Analysis regarding the relevance and appropriateness of establishing specialized courts/judge panels to examine cases of corruption acts and corruption-related acts in the Republic of Moldova, taking into account specific context of the Republic of Moldova;

and to provide concrete recommendations for amending the national legal framework to ensure the implementation and observance of the international anticorruption standards and good practice related to the proportionality and demotivating character of the sanctions for corruption offences and the appropriateness of establishing specialized anti-corruption courts/panels.

The international consultant will work in a team with a national consultant. The national consultant will provide both substantive (gather background documentation, inputs to the study) and logistical assistance (arranging interviews, providing brief translation and interpreting, etc.).

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

Requirements for experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent (5 years of University studies) in Law;

 Years and sphere of experience:

• At least 7 years of progressive international experience in the field of, research and/or consultancy in prevention and fight against corruption in the region of Europe and CIS;
• At least 5 years of proven professional experience involving legal drafting and analysis of normative acts related to justice and/or anticorruption;

 Competencies:

• Excellent knowledge of the international standards in the field of fight and prevention of corruption demonstrated by previous assignments;
• Experience related to the prosecution and/or judicial examination of corruption cases is a strong advantage;
• Demonstrated experience on the assessment of the effectiveness of implementation of specific legislation in the justice and/or anticorruption sectors related to criminal procedures will be a strong advantage;
• Previous work with UNDP and/or other development partners will be an asset;
• Strong communication and teamwork/coordination skills demonstrated by previous assignments;
• Excellent analytical and report-writing skills demonstrated by previous assignments;
• Proficiency in English, knowledge of Russian or Romanian will be an advantage.

 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, creativity, flexibility and punctuality, ability to meet deadlines

The UNDP Moldova is committed to workforce diversity. Women, persons with disabilities, Roma and other ethnic or religious minorities, persons living with HIV, as well as refugees and other non-citizens legally entitled to work in the Republic of Moldova, are particularly encouraged to apply.

Documents to be included

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Offeror's Letter confirming Interest and Availability;
2. Proposal: explaining why they are the most suitable for the work including previous experience in similar Projects (please provide brief information on each of the above qualifications, item by item);
3. Financial proposal (in USD, specifying a total requested amount per working day, including all related costs, e.g. fees, travel costs, phone calls etc. The travel costs to Moldova to participate in the presentation of the results of the study will be indicated separately and will be covered only if the travel will be allowed in the COVID19 context);
4. Personal CV and at least 3 references.

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.

The travel costs to Moldova to participate in the presentation of the results of the study will be indicated separately and will be covered only if the travel will be allowed in the COVID19 context. Alternately, the consultant will connect to the presentation via on-line tools.

One trip to Moldova is envisaged under this assignment.