TERMS OF REFERENCE
Analysts to assist in conducting integrity checks for the selection of the Director of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (3 positions) 

Background

Since the Revolution of Dignity in 2013/2014, Ukraine has been on a path of enhanced reform towards democratization and increased ties with the European Union. The fight against corruption has been a cornerstone of Ukraine’s transformation, laying a foundation for economic growth and further democratization.
The Bureau of Economic Security (BES) in Ukraine was established to combat financial and economic crimes. Its creation reflects Ukraine’s broader strategy of developing specialized institutions to address corruption, fraud, and economic misconduct. The BES is tasked with investigating crimes related to public finance, taxes, customs, and other economic sectors, aiming to protect the state's economic interests.
The BES operates under a legal framework that defines its mandate and governance structure. It was established to centralize the fight against economic crimes, previously scattered across multiple agencies, thereby improving efficiency and reducing the overlap of responsibilities. The agency is designed to work independently but remains accountable to the Ukrainian government.
The selection process for the Director of BES follows a transparent, merit-based approach. The Selection Commission, responsible for overseeing the process, is composed of six members—three nominated by the Ukrainian government and three by international partners. This system aims at ensuring an independent and credible appointment process, much like the structures used for anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine, such as the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP).

Objectives and results

The objective of this assignment is to provide assistance to the Secretariat of the BES Director selection commission regarding integrity checks of the candidates for BES Director, focusing on information from open sources and other support needed for facilitation of the merit-based selection process of the BES Director.
Scope of work:

The analyst is expected but not limited to:

• Carry out integrity (background) checks of candidates for BES Director, including but not limited to the analysis of candidates’ asset declarations and relevant open-source data;
• Provide an individual file for each candidate with the information gathered (the expected number of candidates will be defined by the selection commission)
• Draft individual integrity questionnaires to be sent to the relevantcandidates and collect and analyze candidates’ responses for BES Director selection;
• Provide assistance to the Head of the Secretariat in drafting letters, answers to the request, etc;
• Participate in the meetings of the selection commission (if needed);
• Other tasks defined by the Head of the Secretariat.

Deliverables:

• Hight-quality individual portfolios for each candidate according to the timeline  requested by the Head of the Secretariat are delivered;
• Hight-quality individual questionnaires to be sent to the relevant candidates and collect and analyze candidates’ responses for the BES Director selection process;
• Time-sheets indicating time spent on the assignment;
• Short final report (max 2 pages) with a description of provided services and methodology used.

Start date and period of implementation of tasks

The intended commencement date is the date of signature of the contract by both parties and the period of implementation of the contract will be up to 6 months, with a maximum duration of 50 working days starting from November 2024 – April 2025.
 
Requirements for the Service Provider

The assignment requires the services of 3 national legal experts with the following qualifications:

• Master’s degree in law, public administration or political science.
• At least 3 years of experience regarding writing of legal documents, research and analysis of data.
• Previous engagement with international projects in the sphere of judicial/ anti-corruption reform would be considered an advantage.
• Skills to conduct information search in databases and analyze other online resources to produce balanced and credible situation descriptions based on multiple data sources;
• Excellent organizational skills to meet deadlines;
• Skills to work with personal data;
• Language: Fluency in written and spoken Ukrainian and English.

Monitoring and evaluation

Definition of indicators

The performance of the Service Provider will be judged upon reaching the purpose of this contract as well as obtaining its results, as indicated in the section” Objective and results" herein, respectively. Moreover, the performance of the Service Provider will be judged upon the successful implementation of all the specific activities indicated in the section" Scope of work” of the present document.
The deadline for proposal submission is 12 November 2024, 17:00 Kyiv time.

How to apply

Provide the CV and expected daily rate in EUR and a short description of the relevant activities indicating your role (if any) within the above deadlines to the Anti-Corruption Expert Viktoria Popyk, the e-mail: [email protected] with the title Legal analysts for BES selection process.

Bidding language: English.

Clarification questions:

Questions for the Request for Bid should be addressed to  [email protected]  no later than 8 November  18:00 Kyiv time.