Accompanying Consultant_P-19-358 Prevent corruption and improve governance within HORIZONT3000 and its project partners in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya

1) Summary of project profile:

Project Name

Prevent corruption and improve governance within HORIZONT3000 and its project partners in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya

Overall Objective

Contribute to the reduction of corruption in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania

Specific Objective

The project specifically shall contribute to prevent fraud, corruption and malpractice through strengthening governance and financial control mechanisms within HORIZONT3000 and its project partners.

Results

1. The employees of HORIZONT3000 in Vienna and Kampala are trained in the fight against corruption and apply the specific formats, procedures and standards

2. HORIZONT3000 develops and applies an anti-corruption policy including all relevant formats (due diligence checklist, financial traffic Light labelling system)

3. Project partners know about the destructive effect of corruption and initiate behavioural and attitude change amongst board members, management and staff

4. Project partners improve their financial management and control mechanism

Project partner,

Location of operation

HORIZONT3000 regional office in Kampala, Uganda

Plot 2100 Bonge Way, off Kiwafu Road

Muyenga-Heritage Zone

P.O.Box 9719, Kampala-Uganda

Project period

01.01.2020 – 31.12.2022 (36 months)

Contact, project officers

HORIZONT3000 Head Office Vienna

Friedbert Ottacher

Programme Coordinator Uganda, Ethiopia, South Sudan

HORIZONT3000, Wilhelminenstraße 91/ II f, 1160 Wien

+43 1 5030003 51, [email protected]

HORIZONT3000 Regional Office East Africa

Maureen Ndunda

Director Finance, East Africa

[email protected]

Consultancy Purpose

The primary objective of this consultancy is to support the HORIZONT3000 Regional Office East Africa in implementing various work-packages in order to achieve result 2 of this project.

The consultancy is foreseen but not limited to the following activities:

• Rework and update the existing due diligence checklist for local partners
• Apply due diligence checklist to partner organisations

· Develop an internal traffic Light labelling system for partners (green – yellow – red) based on clear criteria

· Assessment of Partner organisations according to new traffic light labelling system

· Develop manual on internal processes and responsibilities

· Develop & Apply strict financial monitoring standards for field visits

· Training of staff on new financial monitoring standards for field visits

· Training of selected HORIZONT3000 finance staff in Kampala on forensic auditing

Consultancy period

May 2022-December 2022

2) Background to the accompanying consultancy

About the project

Corruption, in its many guises, is a global phenomenon to be contended with in commerce, politics, and day-to-day life. In some countries, according to Transparency International (TI), it has become deeply embedded in the very fabric of society. The international lending community, including the World Bank and intergovernmental institutions such as the United Nations (U.N.), the African Union (AU), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has sought to combat the problem of corruption through a variety of mechanisms.

In recent years, HORIZONT3000 has faced multiple fraud and corruption cases and, as a result, project cancellations in Uganda. In response HORIZONT3000, specifically the management, the East Africa team at the Headquarters in Vienna as well as at the regional office in Kampala have decided to address this drawback by a separate project.

This project to combat corruption in East Africa will enable HORIZONT3000 to establish a common understanding of corruption and its effects and improve standards and formats (due diligence checklist, traffic light system for categorizing partner organizations, revision of monitoring standards for partner visits, etc.).

At partner level, the project will collect and document the current standards of partners regarding financial management, internal control system, etc. The understanding and the handling of corruption will be discussed in a “sharing event”. At this occasion “good practices” will be presented and an “Anti-Corruption Award” granted.

On an overall level HORIZONT3000 wants to contribute towards an environment where a culture of integrity is valued and corruption is rejected.

On outcome level the project will result in awareness raising on the topic amongst HORIZONT3000 national and international staff. This will lead to strengthened capacities to fight corruption internally and externally. However, the primary target group of this project will be the staff and board members of the partner organisations of HORIZONT3000 and selected partners of DKA.

The project is the first of its kind and contains several innovative elements such as sharing events on behaviour change, sharing of disastrous as well as positive experiences, rewarding of an “Anti-Corruption Champions” and developing and applying new formats such a revised due diligence checklist and a traffic light labelling system.

The project started on January 1 2020. Shortly afterwards the COVID19 crisis broke out and tied up all resources of the team. Consequently, the project came to a standstill. Visits and sharing events were not possible.

In 2021 in-house Trainings for HORIZONT3000 staff in Vienna and Kampala took place, moreover an institutional audit was done for a partner in Tanzania.

Due to several organizational processes within HORIZONT3000 that occupied the involved staff members the project could not be implemented as planned. Thus, the management decided in summer 2021 to focus only on implementing Result 1 and 2 until end of 2022 and shift Result 3 and 4 of the transparency project to second phase starting 2023.

About HORIZONT3000

HORIZONT3000 was established in 2001 through the merger of previously 3 separate Austrian non-governmental development-cooperation organisations. HORIZONT3000 is governed by the general assembly and the board formed of six out of its eight catholic member organisations. The organisation has its main office in Vienna as well as regional offices in Uganda for East Africa, in Nicaragua for Central America, and country offices in Senegal, Papua New Guinea and Mozambique.

HORIZONT3000 specialises in the assistance, coordination and monitoring of projects and programmes as well as in the provision of technical experts in countries of the global south. In 2019, the organisation assisted around 150 projects (through funding and experts) in 14 countries in Africa, Latin America and Oceania. Thematically, HORIZONT3000 focuses on three sectors: Civil Society and Human Rights, Rural Development and Natural Resources Management, and Education. Gender and Environmental Protection are cross-cutting issues.

HORIZONT3000 aims at targeting the most vulnerable population groups, such as smallholders, women, children and youth, human rights groups as well as indigenous population. Through its presence in the regional and country offices, HORIZONT3000 cooperates and engages through an open and constructive dialogue with local partner organisations and beneficiaries guaranteeing a participatory approach and ensuring relevance and sustainability. All projects and programmes are developed upon request and in cooperation with the partners.

HORIZONT3000 East Africa runs a Technical Cooperation Programme as well as a Financing Programme in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania with approximately 50 Partner Organisations. East Africa hosts on an average 35 Technical Advisors and co-operates with 25 finance partner organisations (Partners in the programmes do partly overlap) the share of the region roughly 30% or 3.5 Mio EUR of the global funding.

3) Purpose of the Consultancy

The overall objective for the consultancy is to support the HORIZONT3000 Regional Office East Africa in implementing various work packages in order to achieve result 2 of this project.

R2: HORIZONT3000 develops and applies an anti-corruption policy including all relevant formats (due diligence checklist, financial traffic Light labelling system, Code of Conduct)

A 2.2 Rework the existing due diligence checklist for local partners and apply it

· The checklist will be updated and drafted by the consultant after consultation with the teams in Vienna and Kampala. Once the checklist is finalized a due diligence check will be conducted to examine project partners internal governance structures and integrity. Some of the key areas to be examined will be the following:

• The existence of a governance structure with clear lines of accountability

• internal conflict of interest rules,

• specified operational policies and a financial management system that follows good

• Existence of accounting tools

• accounting practices

• Financial reporting and record-keeping

• Auditing practices

• Fraud prevention and anti-money laundering practices

• Existence of financial policies and a review of its applications

A 2.3 Develop an internal traffic Light labelling system for partners (green – yellow – red) based on clear criteria

· Clear criteria will be decided upon in order to develop an internal traffic light labelling system. These criteria will take into account findings of auditors and will be worked out by the Horizont3000 team in Kampala and Vienna with support of the consultant who will be responsible for compiling a first draft of the criteria list which will then be presented to other stakeholders such as the member organisations by Horizont3000.

· A simple traffic light labelling system using clear cut criteria will be developed HORIZONT3000. Together with colleagues from Member Organisations HORIZONT3000 will assess the partner capacities in terms of financial management and governance structure. Partner organisations labelled red or yellow will be informed and kept under close observation. Measures to improve will be jointly developed and applied within a given time. Partner labelled “Red” have to take immediate action to improve their systems under close monitoring.

A 2.4 Develop and apply strict financial monitoring standards for field visits

· HORIZONT3000 will develop standards and formats for financial monitoring during field visits. Local programme staff as well as financial staff will be trained by the consultant in these new standards, which will be tested and -based on first experiences- be revised and improved.

1) Expected Timeline and Outputs

The consultancy should start as soon as possible in May 2022. The consultant is expected to submit a detailed work plan in his/her technical offer, clearly stating number of days for this assignment. The assignment will be completed with the completion of the various work packages by the end of December 2022.

The expected outputs will include the following:

(1) an update of the existing due diligence checklist for local partners, the application of this due diligence checklist to partner organisations

(2) an internal traffic Light labelling system for partners (green – yellow – red) based on clear criteria (these criteria will be provided by HORIZONT3000 project staff)

(3) Assessment of Partner organisations according to new traffic light system

(4) Local programme staff as well as financial staff is trained on new formats on financial monitoring visits.

(5) Input and support of the project team in the Regional Office in Kampala for the development of a manual on internal financial processes and responsibilities

An initial Inception report shall outline the proposed methodology. Additional reports should include a training report on forensic auditing as well as a report on new financial monitoring standards.

The reports shall be in English.

HORIZONT3000 regards it as relevant for the consultant to work closely with the staff of HORIZONT3000 Regional Office for East Africa and participate regularly at exchange meetings with the steering committee consisting of project members from both HORIZONT3000 in Kampala and Vienna as this not only will enhance capacity of the staff, but the consultant shall receive support on contextual situations.

2) Experts profile

The consultant will be asked to submit a technical and financial proposal including a cost estimate for the stipulated activities.

The CV will be submitted along with the technical and financial offer from the consultant

Qualifications and skills

• The consultant must prove academic expertise and multiple years of professional experience in the given topic, namely Anti-Corruption, Transparency, Good Governance, etc…
• Strong analytical and writing skills;
• Proven organizational, interpersonal and communication skills. – Computer literacy (minimum MS Word, Excel).

Working languages

The consultant should be fluent in English.