TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR IT DEVELOPER EXPERT
Project “Standard Municipal Integrity Planning practice expanded across municipalities” STAR III/UNDP
I. Background Information
Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) is implementing the project “Improving integrity at the local level” since December 2021. The project aims to strengthen institutional integrity management systems at the local government level.
Integrity of local government units is a highly valued principle in the intersectoral strategy of decentralization and local governance 2023-2030. Integrity is key to improve public services and citizens’ trust. Particularly, it reinforces the critical importance of a sustained process of integrity assessment as a preventive tool for integrity violations in the local government sector, that contributes to its strategic objective “Strengthening local democracy by providing access comprehensive good governance at the local level”. This stipulation comes in line with the definitions of the government’s crosscutting strategy of anti-corruption in force and as well as with the definitions of the conceptual framework of the new draft strategy. The Agency for the Support of the Local Government (ASLG) is the public entity responsible for the developing process of the integrity plan at local government units and for the monitoring of the implementation of the integrity plan.
IDM has assisted the integrity planning process at local level since 2019, by developing the methodology for the integrity risks assessment, the piloting process in 6 municipalities. Further IDM facilitated the process of integrity planning and contributed to the drafting of integrity plans in 23 municipalities.
Integrity plans were handed over to ALSG, as the public entity responsible for this process, IDM experts offered guidance and capacity-building to ASLG staff as well to the administrative staff of some municipalities that had not been engaged integrity planning process before. IDM dedicated a team of experts who have a thorough understanding and knowledge and specific practical experience in public integrity planning at the local level.
Risk to integrity assessment, integrity plans and instruments to monitor integrity are introduced as new practices in the local administration. They aim to introduce systemic changes able to strengthen integrity and prevent corruptive and non-ethical actions among local administration. Integrity is a change in the institutional mindset, and as such demands time and persistent efforts to be absorbed by the rigidity and routinized of institutional practices.
- Overall goal
The proposed interventions aim to strengthen the institutional capacity of local governance in absorbing and internalizing integrity as a practice of preventing corruptive and non-ethical actions. More specifically these intervention objectives are to:
(i) Build institutional capacities of ASLG and municipal staff to engage in integrity plans;
(ii) Five municipalities put in place a coherent and effective integrity system based on the integrity plans and its monitoring,
(iii) ALSG and municipalities (five municipalities) promote integrity management practices at the local level and monitor the effect of integrity plans in improving the level of transparency and accountability of local self-government units towards citizens.
III. Specific Objectives
The project team will begin work on preparing a monitoring system for integrity plans implementation, focusing on a result-based monitoring framework, following the methodology of integrity plans progress report prepared and endorsed by the Ministry of Justice. (add reference)
In this context, IDM is seeking to engage an IT platform developer expert. The IT expert, using the integrity plans and making reference to the methodology of integrity plans monitoring and reporting will develop an easy to use application to digitalize the process of integrity planning monitoring and reporting. The application will supporting
(1) digitalization of the integrity plan monitoring process, including identification of specific measures included part of the integrity action plan, identification of responsible implementing structures and designing/endorsement by each municipality of result and impact indicators;
(2) digitalization of the data collection process
(3) digitalization of the report preparation phase
Municipalities are required to report twice a year on the integrity plan implementation while lacking capacities and know-how. The digitalization of this process would help municipalities tackle the problem of constraint capacities while ensuring efficient monitoring.
IV. TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The expert is required to use the Unified Modeling Language and create the architecture of the application using the methodology of integrity plan monitoring[1]
- The application needs to be integrated with Excel for the information-gathering phase and word for report preparation.
- The application needs to be functional without the need to buy extra features on the basic word/excel programs
- The application must be functional on local drivers, with no need to be dependent on network connectivity
- Output is easily saved and transformed through USB/hard discs
- The application needs to have security access features (users/passwords)
- The architecture of the application will be designed in collaboration with the project team and experts;
Timeline
- The assignment shall be completed by the end of end of June 2024.
Qualifications and experience
Bachelor and master’s degree in IT or software engineering, doctoral studies are an advantage
- At least 5 years of experience in developing applications or programming
- Have at least developed an app or platform applied in monitoring and evaluation of project/program
- Show a general understanding of the monitoring and reporting processes
- Have a general understanding of anti-corruption strategic and policy framework
VII. Application Process
Interested candidates are invited to submit the following documents:
- Curriculum Vitae
- A technical proposal including a time frame and methodology for piloting
- Financial Offer
- One reference
All applications must be submitted electronically to [email protected]; [email protected] in English no later than 5 June 2024.
Terms of Reference: Unified Modeling Language (UML) Diagram
- Based on the identification of key roles and the logic of action flow, a UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagram can be defined to clarify the structure and architecture of the application.
Key Processes
- Data Handling:
- Adding, editing, modifying, and searching data via a Data Entry form with automatic updates to the database.
- Report Generation:
- Automatic population of Word templates using references and generating reports in various formats.
Application Advantages
- The application is seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Excel and Word.
- No need for additional libraries or programs to be installed.
- The Office suite is a well-known and widely used platform.
- The application functions locally on the computer, with no need for network connectivity.
- Comes with a user manual for guidance (can also be included as a support menu in the form).
- The existing versions of Office on computers do not affect the application’s functionality.
- The material is lightweight and can be easily transferred via external memory (USB, hard disk, etc.).
Security and Validity
Data Entry Form-Database
- The file can be accessed only with a password.
- The Database sheet in the file will be in Protected Mode, ensuring that changes can only be made through the Data Entry form.
- The Data Entry form will combine multiple fields to create a unique key, preventing duplicate entries.
- Data Entry fields will include appropriate validations (allowed values), such as listing alternatives, adding text, dates, number formats, etc.
Database-Word Reporting Form
- The Word document can be accessed only with a password.
- The constructed template can be edited only in the required fields, with other data being sourced from the Excel database.
[1] https://www.drejtesia.gov.al/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/METODOLOGJIA-E-MONITORIMIT-TE-PLANIT-TE-INTEGRITETIT.pdf
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