Job Vacancy: tSSd - talent Sourcing for Sustainable development Antigua and Barbuda

tSSd talent sourcing for sustainable development

We are looking for 2 TA Experts to assist the Government of Antigua and Barbuda in efforts to improve fiscal discipline by enhancing transparency and efficiency of tax administration, from April 2019 for 440 days, deadline 29.10.2018, contact: tssd.service@gmail.com

LOCATION	Antigua and Barbuda
STATUS/REFERENCE
AGENCY/DONOR	EU-EDF
REQUIRED EXPERTS	KE1 – PFM Expert - Team Leader APPLY
	KE2 - Tax Administration Expert APPLY
COMMENCEMENT	April 2019
PROJECT DURATION
NUMBER WORK DAYS	1	440 work days
	2	440 work days
LANGUAGE SKILLS	He /she must have command of Spanish as a working language and preparation of the products foreseen for this contract. English proficiency will be considered an asset.
DEADLINE	29/OCT/2018 23:59:00 Recruitment starts immediately upon publication of this vacancy announcement; posts may be filled already before the indicated application deadline. Pre selected experts will be asked to fill in a grid.
ELIGIBLE NATIONALITIES	Any
OBSERVATIONS	• Only short listed consultants will receive the ToR and will be replied to. • Please apply only if you fulfill all requirements for the vacant position. • Eventually, we will ask you to fill in and return to us a GRID. • All experts must have at least regional experience • CV templates download at http://wp.me/p1sHoW-5D
CONTACT tssd.service@gmail.com Please apply in English language
How to Apply: Only short listed consultants will be replied to. If you wish to submit your candidature, please send us: 1 - Your up dated and position-adjusted CV in EU AID format, in the language of vacancy and as word.doc detailing qualifications, experience in similar assignments. CVs in other than EU format will not be evaluated. 2 - The country, no of position/field (s) you will apply for in the subject line of message 3 - Your expected daily fee. In addition you would receive the official per diem and airfare in economy class 4 - Your communication details (Mobil, phone, etc.) in case we need to contact you during the tender process 5 - Include the months, as well as years in past experience of your CV 6 - To enhance your CV, please bold the items most relevant to this project and its requirements. Suggestions: Please make sure, that the experience requested is also shown "Description" section 14 of your CV. As the selections are very strict and paper based, we request you to prepare your CV in the right format and detail all the relevant experience under the Professional experience table as much as possible. There is no problem if your CV is long, the most important is to prepare so that it describes clearly your experiences relevant to the mission. (Your CV has to sell you!) Restrictions: In case consultants are short listed, they must be able to provide documentary evidence for educational and professional items in their CVs (copies of diplomas, copies of employers' reference letters, etc.). Documents those are not available in English have to be accompanied by a faithful translation. This is mandatory requirement for Europe Aid tenders.
DESCRIPTION
Antigua and Barbuda: Technical Assistance to assist the Government of Antigua and Barbuda in efforts to improve fiscal discipline by enhancing transparency and efficiency of tax administration I. Qualifications and Experience requested for the Position It is foreseen that the following experts will be working as long-term experts on a full time basis in Antigua and Barbuda for most of the Project implementation. All experts must be independent and free from conflicts of interest in the responsibilities they take on. Key expert 1: Team Leader (for a total of a maximum of 440 working days) Qualifications and skills • The Expert must have a master degree, or equivalent, in a relevant, directly related discipline (e.g. economics, public financial management, law or other field relevant to this contract). Alternatively, relevant professional experience of at least 5 years in projects pertinent to this contract could replace an advanced degree; • The Expert must be fully proficient in written and spoken English; • The Expert must be fully proficient in the use of common word and data processing programmes. General professional experience • Preferably 10 years of professional experience, but a minimum of 5, in the management and implementation of aid programmes; • At least one proven professional experience in the management and supervision of a team of experts. Specific professional experience • A minimum of 5 years of professional experience in public financial management including legal / financial framework review of public financial management legislation; • A minimum of 3 years professional experience in Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability; • A minimum of 3 years professional experience in institutional capacity development, including demonstrated experience in providing on the job or classroom based training, coaching and mentoring; • Demonstrated professional experience in public sector reforms; • At least one proven professional experience in applying European Development Fund's procedures; • Completed at least 3 assignments in developing countries; professional experience in Small Islands Development States (SIDS) will be considered an advantage. Key expert 2: Tax Administration Expert (for a total of a maximum of 440 working days) Qualifications and skills • The Expert must have a master degree, or equivalent, in a relevant, directly related discipline (e.g. public financial management, tax administration, or other field relevant to this contract). Alternatively, relevant professional experience of at least 5 years could replace an advanced degree; • The Expert must be fully proficient in written and spoken English; • The Expert must be fully proficient in the use of common word and data processing programs. General professional experience • Preferably 10 years of professional experience, but a minimum of 5, in public financial management. Specific professional experience • A minimum of 3 years of professional experience in tax administration reforms; • A minimum of 3 years professional experience in legal drafting / review of tax codes; • Demonstrated professional experience in using tax administration software including SIGTAS, for e-registration, e-filing, e-payments and reporting; • Demonstrated professional experience in public sector reforms; • Demonstrated professional experience in providing on the job or classroom based training, coaching and mentoring; • Completed at least 2 assignments in developing countries; professional experience in Small Islands Development States (SIDS) will be considered an advantage. II. Description of the Assignment 2.1. Overall objective The overall objective of the Project of which this contract will be a part is as follows: The overall objective of the Project is to assist the Government of Antigua and Barbuda in its efforts to improve fiscal discipline by enhancing the transparency and efficiency of tax administration. This Project will build on the progress achieved and lessons learnt under the 10th EDF PFM and Revenue Reform Project, and will pursue the PFM and revenue reform objectives outlined in Antigua and Barbuda's new PFM Reform Action Plan (funded under the 10th EDF) and Medium Term Development Strategy (MTDS). 2.2. Purpose The purpose of this contract is to improve the availability of tax information and increase the efficiency of operations of the Inland Revenue Department.\| This 11th EDF Project will focus first on consolidating recent reforms, and then seek to contribute to the necessary upgrades to hardware, software and work processes, and requisite training to ensure the proper functioning of Government PFM and revenue administration systems. It will also contribute to build the foundations for gender-responsive budgeting and for the integration of a gender perspective into sectoral strategies. The donor coordination efforts will continue throughout the life of the Project to identify synergies and maximise results, in light of limited resources and staff capacity. 2.3. Results to be achieved by the Contractor Result 1: Improved legal framework for PFM Result 2: Adherence to a Fixed Budget Calendar and preparing for the 2019 PEFA Result 3: Improved comprehensiveness and availability of information on taxpayer obligations, and better means of enforcing these payments. Result 4: Introduced foundation for the automation of tax collection 2.4. Project description PFM reform is a continuous process, taking place over a long horizon. Therefore, despite the achievements under the 10th EDF Project (e.g. improvements in SOE oversight and in cash management, strengthened internal audit capacity, better budget preparation and fiscal reporting, and progress in revising PFM legislation), many of the reforms are still in progress, and Antigua and Barbuda still lacks many of the features of modern tax, customs and PFM processes, systems and institutions needed to raise sufficient resources and implement sound expenditure policies effectively, efficiently and transparently. In 2014 the IMF carried out an EU-funded PEFA assessment which found that the PFM system has slightly improved since the 2010 assessment, and many of its basic functionalities are not yet in place. Ongoing reforms are required in order to ultimately achieve the desired outcomes. The 2014 assessment showed that there is a lack of commitment controls and effective monitoring of SOEs, which creates substantial fiscal risks and causes significant deviations in actual expenditure from the budgeted. The strategic allocation of resources has also been hampered by weak revenue forecasting and the absence of a medium term fiscal framework. This, combined with weaknesses in the procurement system, internal audit and external scrutiny, adversely affects the efficiency of public service delivery. The Government of Antigua and Barbuda therefore still requires technical support for these reforms in fundamental areas of PFM: • Annual budgets should be aligned with the development and sector strategies and a mediumterm fiscal framework; • The budget process should be strengthened to address shortcomings in the legal and regulatory framework (particularly to ensure adherence to a budget calendar and more transparent treatment of in-year budget adjustments), introduce mid-term reviews, and improve the budget virement policy; • The macro-fiscal policy function should be strengthened with particular emphasis on enhancing financial programming, and improving the capacity to estimate the cost of current commitments over the medium term (baseline forward estimates); • The institutional arrangement for effective oversight of SOEs should be further strengthened to ensure SOEs operate in line with the government's objectives of keeping fiscal risks under control and making more strategic investment decisions; • More effective commitment control is needed to reinforce fiscal discipline, keep spending in line with revenue estimates and ensure better compliance with the PFM regulatory framework; • Areas such as treasury management (in particular bank reconciliation procedures) and the improvement of financial statements remains a challenge and one of the priorities of the government; • Enhancing the institutional, legal and regulatory arrangements for Government procurement and contract administration will require significant effort; • Developing the audit function requires the completion of the internal and external audit framework including components required by international standards; • Finally, revisions to the PFM legislation need to be completed. Although the Government has successfully introduced a value added tax (Antigua Barbuda Sales Tax) there are issues with the effectiveness of the tax administration. There is a need to develop a more comprehensive agenda for reforming the tax administration institution, including organizational reform, business processes and ICT. An in-depth assessment has been carried out on the ICT systems in PFM and revenue administration of all 11 SEMCAR countries, which showed that in Antigua and Barbuda there are still gaps and areas for improvement. On ICT, there is little integration of the budget execution and the revenue management system. The country has been upgrading its customs system to the latest web-enabled version (ASYCUDA World) with support from the EU, which among other things, should allow the government to improve collection of duties and contribute to enhancing VAT refunds. The challenge in the customs area is to ensure that business processes are re-engineered to increase administrative efficiency, reduce compliance costs, and take full advantage of the functionality offered by the most up-to-date technology. The Customs Department benefits from technical assistance under SEMCAR Phase II which started in 2017. As discussed in the 2014 CDB Gender Assessment, there is limited integration of gender inequality issues into government policies and interventions, while women in Antigua and Barbuda continue to be adversely affected by systemic, institutional and socio-cultural, political and economic inequalities. For instance, there is under-representation and under-participation of women in productive sectors. Therefore proposed government strategies to promote growth and development are likely to exclude them, and further widen gender wage gaps and other inequalities. This Project will contribute to build the foundations for gender-responsive budgeting and integration of a gender perspective into sectoral strategies. With donor support in various areas, notably in the fields of macro-fiscal forecasting, medium-term strategic and sectoral planning and budgeting, and cash planning and monitoring to improve budget execution which are to cover some of the above identified needs, this Project will focus on improving the comprehensiveness, accessibility, and enforcement of taxpayer obligations and liabilities, as well as the introduction of electronic systems to enhance the effectiveness in collection of tax payments. A gender perspective will be taken into account during implementation of each activity.