Afghanistan: International Procurement Legal Advisor

Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Capacity Building for Results (CBR) Facility Project

For National Procurement Authority under

Administrative Office of the President

Position Title: International Procurement Legal Advisor

Directorate: National Procurement Authority (NPA)

Duty station: Kabul, Afghanistan

Supervisor: Director of Legal and Procurement Dispute Resolution

Duration: One (1) year with possibility of extension

Number of Positions: One (1)

Vacancy Ref. No.

Deadline for Application: July 06, 2016

TERMS OF REFERENCE

General Background

After several decades of wars and civil strife, building an effective state – one that can provide security and services to the people – has been at the heart of the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. The government has made significant progress in many areas such as primary education, basic health services, irrigation, rehabilitation, and rural development. In spite of the Government’s best efforts to improve the service delivery in priority sectors like health, education and infrastructure, corruption remains a major obstacle in effective governance and thus efficient service delivery to the people of Afghanistan. The Government has taken many steps to ensure that corruption is dealt with a firm hand and is contained in the medium term and completely eradicated in the long term. One of the main areas of corruption is procurement.

As part of the ongoing system reforms by the National Unity Government, National Procurement Authority (NPA) has been established to act as the apex procurement organization, to formulate policies related to public procurement and to regulate the public procurement function in the entire nation. The NPA will consolidate the functions of above mentioned entities into a single central organization to oversee and facilitate all national procurement (goods, works and services) above a certain threshold and which are vital to economic development of Afghanistan. In addition, it will look after the policies and procedures to strengthen the procurement system and start e-procurement in Afghanistan, to bring about a completely transparent public procurement system. Other objectives of this directorate are to enhance budget execution, ensuring efficiency in public procurement system, recruitment of professional and honest procurement civil servants at different levels and various capacities.

In order to satisfactorily meet its procurement related legal obligations, the NPA requires highly experienced and competent international legal and procurement expert, to develop legal framework for efficient, accountable and cost saving procurement.

Duties and Responsibilities

The incumbent will work under the overall guidance and supervision of Director Procurement Policy and will be responsible to develop legal framework for efficient, accountable and cost saving procurement.

Specific responsibilities and duties include but not limited to;

· Review current procurement legal framework and examine its compatibility with existing rules and regulations.

· Develop policies and operational manuals for environmental consideration, SMEs development, dispute resolution, debarment of bidders and contractors/suppliers, appeal review and handling mechanism and any other policies and manuals required by the Procurement Law and Regulations and GoIRA.

· Develop standard bidding documents for plants/design, supply and installations, large works, framework agreements and any other SBDs required by the Procurement Law and GoIRA.

· Develop Procurement Operational Manual for Goods, Works and Services.

· Review the current developed standard bidding documents and provide recommendations and suggestions for the enhancement of the documents.

· Develop Policies and operational manual for domestic preference and development of domestic productions.

· Develop the capacity of the staff in the area of developing procurement SBDs.

· Assist and develop procurement training curriculum

· Develop operational manual and mechanism for review of the procurement documents

· Develop operational manual and mechanism for certification assessment

· Help and support relevant directorate in reviewing cases and contracts referred by PEs and detect legal flaws on them.

· Provide legal advice to the procurement enquiries.

· Closely work with the national counterparts to train and develop capacity in legal aspects of procurement, dispute resolution mechanisms and other related fields.

Deliverables

· Providing monthly reports to Procurement Policy Director on the performance carried out against the assigned tasks & responsibilities starting from the third month of the assignment;

· Review existing procurement legal framework and propose a reform and anti-corruption friendly legal framework for Afghanistan procurement system.

· Provide quality policy and legal advice for NPA on procurement legal/policy and execution related issues on day to day basis.

· Continuous capacity building of around 20 national counterparts through advising, provision of on the job training and mentoring.

· Submission of assignment final report for NPA management

Qualifications and Experience:

Education

Minimum Master Degree in Law, procurement or other relevant fields from an accredited and recognised university.

Work Experience

Minimum overall experience of 10 years, of which at least 5 years of progressively responsible work experience in legal field or relevant to public procurement

Experience with Government, World Bank funded project is essential.

Knowledge of government procurement rules and/or other internationally accepted procedures of procurement is an advantage

Key Competencies

Excellent working knowledge of English,

Good working knowledge of MS Office application (Word, Excel), email and able to easily navigate internet.

Knowledge Procurement Law of Afghanistan, UN or World Bank rules and regulations would be a distinct advantage.

Be able to uphold and respect procurement ethics and to conduct activities with integrity.

Be a team player who demonstrates patience, flexibility and honesty.

Be a self-starter, who is able to plan and manage their own work, takes initiatives and strives to meet deadlines.

Be able to work in a multi-cultural environment.