Integrity Assessment of Water Supply Enterprises in Mykolaiv and Chervonograd (Ukraine)

Description:
The European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI) in Ukraine is a joint EU and Government of Denmark financed programme aimed at supporting Ukraine to reduce corruption at the national and local level through the empowerment of citizens, civil society, businesses, and state institutions. This assignments falls under EUACI’s component 2, where partner cities are support4ed in their efforts to strengthen integrity, transparency, and accountability. 
Integrity and Municipally Owned Enterprises (MOEs)

Ukraine’s MOEs often have a significant economic and social impact in local communities and are among the largest employers, contributing to a substantial percentage of the workforce. Because of their role, structure, mandate, legal status, and many competing interests, they are often exposed to critical integrity risks. If compared with private companies, MOEs can face particularly heightened corruption risk owing, among others, to underlying issues in their ownership, regulatory and corporate governance arrangements, as well as shortcomings in the quality and credibility of corporate disclosure. Given the challenges, the cities' and MOEs' leadership are keen to pilot an assessment of the integrity situation and, subsequently, to follow up on its findings, probably through the development of an Integrity Plan based on the findings and recommendations of the integrity assessments.
The assignment

The EUACI is seeking a Consultant (Consulting firm) that can work closely with the EUACI and its partner cities to conduct an integrity assessment of two municipally owned water supply service enterprises (MoEs) in the cities of Mykolaiv and Chervonograd respectively, and provide practical recommendations (solutions) on how best to tackle identified risks to the enterprises integrity.

Purpose
The purpose of the assignment is to provide a sound technical foundation for the EUACI's support to its partner cities Mykolaiv and Chervonograd in the integrity assessment of the water supply MOEs.

Scope of Work
The integrity assessment to be conducted with the two MOEs should as a minimum cover the following three main areas and sub-areas:
1) Assessment of transparency and accountability of procedures and processes:
a. Evaluation of the MOEs internal procedures and their enforcement using as point of departure the best practices of transparency and accountability for water supply MOEs in Ukraine and international standards;
b. Evaluation of the MOE’s procurement cycle including in terms of its flexibility, quality, and efficiency.
c. Assessment of MOEs' compliance with the requirements of Article 78 of the Commercial Code of Ukraine.
2) Assessment of integrity risks:
d. Analysis and assessment of the legal, institutional, financial, procurement, and other factors to identify vulnerabilities within the operations of each MOE;
e. Advice on efficient, cost-effective strategies to mitigate the identified vulnerabilities or risks.
3) Corporate governance assessment:
f. Identification of the current status and ability to implement the OECD corporate governance principles  at the two MOEs.
g. Advice on the implementation of these principles. The specific industry standards shall be considered for implementation if not applied by the targeted MOEs.

Approach and methodology
The Consultant will pursue a respectful and participatory approach throughout the assignment with close attention to the needs of representatives in the MOEs and city corporations for understanding and subscribing to the assessment methodology, the findings, and the recommendations. 

The methodology will take point of departure in generally accepted international practices and guidelines (see background documents) so as to adhere to generally accepted standards for integrity assessments. 

The Consultant will need to pay special attention to the description of how international guidelines, practices and standards will be guiding the Consultant’s design of the integrity assessment in the specific context of municipally owned water supply enterprises.

The total contract value amounts to DKK 631 550,00 including reimbursable costs.

The contract is expected to be of a 24 weeks duration with a maximum of 480 person days distributed over the Team Leader and three experts. 

Deadline for applications: 24 April 2023, at 18:00, Danish time

Interested Consultants can request the documents for participation by email to the contact person stated below.

Contact Point: 
Name of Programme Officer: Taras Sluchyk, Component II Team Leader of EUACI
E-mail address, Programme Officer: [email protected]
Telephone of Programme Officer: +380 965598166

Criteria for selection:
A minimum of three and a maximum of five applicants with references best suited for this assignment will be invited to submit a tender.