International Consultant to Develop IT solutions for the Visualization of the State Budget

Background

The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral initiative aiming to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. The initiative aims to assist governments in being more transparent, efficient, and responsible. The Action Plan for implementation of OGP initiative was adopted by the Government of Montenegro in April 2012. The Action Plan envisages activities aimed at achieving OGP goals in the following categories: enhancing public services, increasing public integrity, efficient public resources management, creating safer communities and boost corporate responsibility. A particular focus of this Action plan is committed to more transparent State budget. In order to increase transparency of use of public funds, the Government of Montenegro will amend the organic Law on Budget to define in a more precise manner dates in the budgeting calendar, aimed at providing sufficient time to all participants in the planning process, including also the parliamentary procedure. Furthermore, introduction of specific fiscal rules and medium-term budgeting is also planned, which will increase significantly the transparency, accountability in planning and implementation, as well as precision in planning of the budget. In parallel to that, the Ministry of Finance plan to introduce, as a standing practice, a presentation of the annual budget in a visually comprehensible and simple manner, in order to ensure better understanding and increase public interest for budget operations. The purpose of this activities will be to make the budget understandable to the general public (both revenue and expenditure side) and break it n down into categories, items, etc. The visualization of the State budget aims to increase public awareness on the budgetary issues and provide the tools to citizens to influence the Government policy. Also this activity will assist the Government (and in particular Ministry of Finance) in increasing the transparency and accountability of the Government. The visualization of the budget will create environment for the public to influence the government budgetary priorities. Thus, the citizens will have enhanced capabilities and useful tools to influence the state budget that needs to be allocated for the implementation of the national priorities. The visualization of the budget is envisaged as IT solution, a web based, dynamic presentation of the annual budget in a visually appealing, comprehensible and simplified manner, in order to ensure better understanding and increase public interest for budget operations. The Ministry of Finance plans to develop specific IT solutions for visualization of state budget. The purpose of budget presented in such way is: To serve as a resource for students and experts who could use it for research or utilize the budget calculator in an attempt to come up with a better solution or create scenarios; To make state budget more friendly for ordinary citizens and thus to increase overall openness and transparency of the state budget; To develop tools (simple and inexpensive) that will provide citizens information on public finances and enable them to be more actively engaged in development of government policies; The Ministry of Finance will use innovative approach in defining budgetary categories/ questions for which IT solutions (prototypes) will be developed. Possible visualizations tools may include, but are not limited to: Bubble trees; Combined bubble trees and map views (in case of geographic dimension of data); Tree maps for hierarchical breakdowns; Data tables to present both listings of aggregates per sectors/departments/ministries; Time series bar charts and comparisons of over and under-spending: Display a bubble-tree breakdown of expenditure by an agreed set of breakdowns and filters, whilst providing a selector for different types of breakdowns (e.g. by function, ministry, sector); Visualization of budget execution by sector (e.g. Health, Education. Etc.); Visualization of budget execution of spending In order to provide support to the Ministry of Finance for the visualization of the state budget, the Capacity Development Programme will engage one international consultant.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the assignment: The objective of the assignment is to develop IT solutions for the visualization of the state budget, producing prototypes for the defined budgetary categories/ questions. Job content: Under the direct supervision of the CDP Programme Manager, the selected consultant will be responsible for the following: Review existing data and propose IT solutions for specific budgetary categories; Develop at least three IT solutions (prototypes) for visualization of the state budget; Explore possibilities for „real time“ vizualization and propose IT solution for it; Prepare report /presentation that provides quick, easily and clear reference for visualization of the state budget. The expected results: At least three prototypes for visualization of the budget developed , finetuned according to inputs from UNDP and the Ministry of Finance. Timing and reporting: The assignment will last 20 working days. The overall tasks should be conducted from September till end of November 2012. The assignment will be combination of home work and one field visit to Podgorica, Montenegro for two working days. The rest of time the consultant will work on production of outputs from home, but in close cooperation with the CDP Programme Manager.

Competencies

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards; Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UN/UNDP; Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability; Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting; Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback; Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude; Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills; Demonstrates ability to manage complexities and work under pressure, as well as conflict resolution skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: University degree in Economy, Technical Science, ICT and other related fields. Experience: Minimum of 3 years of professional experience is required, longer professional experience is advantage; Proven expertise in development of web presentations and visualization; Proven knowledge of budgetary issues; Excellent social, communication, advocacy and presentation skills; Previous work experience with UN/UNDP or other international organizations will be considered as an advantage. Language Requirements: Fluency in English (written and spoken); Knowledge of local language will be considered as a distinctive advantage. Application Process: Interested applicants are requested to submit their applications to UNDP Office in Podgorica by e-mail to consultancy.me@undp.org by September 11th, 2012. Interested applicants should clearly state concrete subjects/topics from the list which they will cover with training. The applicants will submit the financial offer according number of classes that they will provide. The application should contain: Duly completed Personal History Form (P11) can be downloaded from http://www.undp.org.me/files/jobs/index.html Cover/Motivation Letter The short-listed candidates only would be requested to submit a letter of interest including a price quotation indicating the lump sum (in EUR) requested for the work and travel envisaged in the section "Duties and Responsibilities". UNDP is an equal opportunity employer. ************** The procurement note related to this vacancy can be found on: http://www.undp.org.me/files/jobs/2012/12-062%20notice.pdf .

International Consultant to Develop IT solutions for the Visualization of the State Budget