Knowledge Management Specialist on Methodology of Specialisation of Prosecutors and Cases Assignment - retainer position

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) helps the United Nations (UN) and its partners provide peace and security, humanitarian, and development solutions. UNOPS services cover infrastructure, project management, procurement, financial management and human resources. 

In response to the request of the Government of Ukraine, UNOPS opened an office in Ukraine in 2017, which provides a broad spectrum of services to the Government and the people of Ukraine. Currently, the office is classified as a Country Office (UACO), with a portfolio of projects exceeding USD 100 million, in the areas of the rule of law, environment, energy efficiency, crisis recovery, good governance, human resources management, procurement, and logistics. 

The Support for Rule of Law Reforms in Ukraine (PRAVO-Police) is a project funded by the European Union that has the overall objective of supporting the strengthening of the policing, prosecution and civilian governance in Ukraine and of aligning them with the best European and international practices. On matters of substance, the Project relies on the EU Advisory Mission (EUAM) to Ukraine.

The Project is partnered with the following national agencies: the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, National Police of Ukraine, the Office of Prosecutor General (OPG), the State Bureau of Investigation. Activities include providing technical support tailored to the needs of each individual agency, while some interventions address larger scale and cross-cutting issues, including enhancement of human resources management systems and specific skills.  

One of the Project's actions aimed at supporting the Office of the Prosecutor General encompasses interventions that will increase the number of initiated pre-trial investigations and indictments in organised, other serious crimes and financial crimes. Furthermore, the duration of pre-trial investigations in these cases should become shorter, and more illicit profits confiscated and recovered. 

The current assignment relates to the scope of the Project’s support measures for the OPG aligned with the Justice Sector Reform Strategy, the Justice Reform Action Plan for 2015-2020. This activity aims to provide advisory services to the OPG on the development and implementation of the methodology and necessary tools for assignment of cases and specialisation of prosecutors. Currently, there is no internal specialisation of prosecutors in the local Public Prosecutors’ Offices (PPO) which have no structural units across the whole range of crime, with a few exceptions, while the PPO plays a key role in ensuring coordination between the prosecution and the law-enforcement agencies in combating crime. The absence of clear rules on specialisation is rather challenging, as it does not facilitate more efficient work amongst prosecutors. Specialisation would help to increase the professional skills of prosecutors and facilitate the management of their workload. Specialisation of prosecutors is an important tool to meet the demand for pre-trial investigations of crimes that are becoming more and more complex. Currently, cases are assigned by the OPG management (at departmental level), considering the caseload of a particular prosecutor, their experience and specialisation. There is no established internal procedure on specialisation; therefore, each of the OPG departments has its own approach, in most cases, by issuing internal rules concerning the distribution of tasks among staff members within the department.

Following recommendations from the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) as well as the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors, the introduction of specialisation of prosecutors is critical for many reasons – including avoiding non-transparency in case assignment, corruption and the need to allocate cases to individual prosecutors based on strict and objectively established criteria, coupled with adequate safeguards – including stringent controls against any possible manipulation of the system.

Such arrangements do exist in most of the EU Member States, in various forms, with specialisation, for example, in combating corruption, international and organised crime, security-related cases, domestic violence, asset confiscation, fraud and narcotics and also suspected offences committed by, e.g. police officers, prosecutors and judges. The prosecutors receive specialised training and have access to professional exchange programmes.       The development of skilled, educated units, according to the subject matter to be tackled, at the central and regional level, will contribute to the ability to focus on priorities. This attention to priorities is currently not visible to the management level within PPOs.

The PRAVO-Police project seeks to address this issue by: 

• assessment of the current model(s) of case assignment and of the need to establish specialisation amongst prosecutors in the prosecution service in Ukraine, 
• providing recommendations on a common model across all departments of the OPG dealing with procedural management,
• providing advice on the implementation of the model. 

Finally, this activity includes provision for expert support to the OPG for development and implementation of the agreed methodology and necessary tools for assignment of the cases and specialisation of prosecutors. Adoption of such a model and advice on its practical implementation will, in turn, enable an increase in the capabilities of prosecutors in combating all types of crime. Taking into account the specific role of prosecutors, who guide criminal investigations as procedural managers, the specialised prosecutors will also work closely with other law enforcement agencies on the cases within their thematic expertise, thereby sharing good practice.

The Knowledge Management Specialist on Methodology of Specialisation of Prosecutors and Cases Assignment (hereinafter - Consultant) will work under the supervision and guidance of the Project Manager of the PRAVO-Police Project and regular coordination of the EUAM experts. While performing the assigned duties, the Consultant will interact with the key stakeholders, primarily the OPG and EUAM. The Consultant will provide subject-matter guidance and practical solutions in the form of a report with recommendations within the scope of the interventions listed above.

At the first Stage, the Consultant will engage in consultation with representatives of the OPG, 1-2 regional and 2-3 local PPOs to identify how case assignment is being performed now, and will draft a short report with a summary covering the following: 

• Normative regulations and internal instructions which relate to: (a) the procedure for case assignment for prosecutors, (b) specialisation of prosecutors, (c) case distribution between structural units of the OPG, regional and local PPOs. 
• Feedback from the OPG, regional and local PPOs on the benefits and gaps in the current model.  
• Categories of crime which are most frequent or most significant/complex thus requiring being singled out as an area for specialisation. 
• Examples of solutions or similar issues in the EU Member States, relevant for the context of Ukraine; EU experience using the eCMS to assign cases and monitor the workload.
• Proposed recommendations to the OPG on Methodology of case assignment and specialisation of prosecutors.

The Consultant will proceed to the second Stage upon receiving approval of the report by the Project Manager of the PRAVO-Police, who will seek advice from EUAM on its quality.

At the second Stage, the Consultant will engage in discussion on this draft report with the OPG, regional and local PPOs and EUAM and will further elaborate the report based on feedback received. As an outcome to this Stage, the Consultant will develop a Final Report with recommendations which will include: 

• Specific actionable solutions to operationalise those recommendations at the institution. 
• Legal or internal regulations which need to be amended. 
• The concept of a procedure for case assignment, specialisation of prosecutors and tools to support it (possibly, draft Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and practical guidelines.   
• Areas for which specialised prosecutors' positions need to be established in the OPG, regional and local PPOs.
• The need to introduce professional training and the best approach and institution to train these prosecutors in the identified specialization.  

The Final Report will be approved by the Deputy Programme Manager of the PRAVO-Police Project, who will seek the opinion of EUAM experts on its quality.

The services are expected to be delivered according to the schedule, which will be agreed with the national partners. Specifically, the following outputs will be expected from the Consultant:

First Stage (up to 20 working days):

• The relevant Ukrainian legal and regulatory framework is analysed.
• Meetings with the representatives of the OPG, regional and local PPOs are organised in agreement with and with support from PRAVO-Police.  
• Following meetings with national partners and EUAM, the tailored practical advice is provided in the draft report.
• The Consultant presents the draft report to the OPG, EUAM and PRAVO-Police. 

Second Stage (up to 20 working days):

The Consultant will address the comments to the draft report and comments obtained from the consultations in the Final Report. The report should capture all aspects listed in section 2 above. Acceptance of the report will be confirmed by the Project Manager of the PRAVO-Police Project, who will seek the opinion of the EUAM experts on the quality of the report and whether it fits the purpose of the assignment. 

The consultations, discussions and meetings can take place either through personal meetings or through internet-based meetings.

All planned outputs will be delivered in English. PRAVO-Police will support with interpretation/translation into Ukrainian.

• Master's degree preferably in the Law, Criminal Justice or other related disciplines is required. 
• A relevant Bachelor’s degree in combination with additional two years of relevant professional experience would be accepted in lieu of Master degree

• With a Master's Degree a minimum of five years, or with a Bachelor's Degree a minimum of seven years of experience in drafting documents in the field of prosecution, justice, investigation, or rule of law is required. 
• Experience in applying relevant EU standards on specialisation of prosecutors and case assignment is required.
• Knowledge of specifics of Ukrainian prosecution and experience of relevant projects in Ukraine or EU countries will be an asset.

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required
• Working knowledge of Ukrainian and/or Russian will be considered as an asset

Contract type: International Individual Contractor Agreement (IICA) Retainer*
Contract level: I-ICA 2 (ICS10)
Contract duration: Up to 40 work days within 6 months

*If the selected candidate is based in a duty station where there is a national scale, s/he may be offered the local equivalent position. 

For more details about the ICA contractual modality, please follow this link:

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

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Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.