Provision of Professional Services for the United Nations Financial Disclosure Programme

A. Background: 1. The UN Ethics Office was established by the Secretary General on 1 January 2006 in order to assist in securing the highest standards of integrity within the Organization. As part of its mandate, the UN Ethics Office is entrusted with administering the United Nations’ Financial Disclosure Program (FDP), which is an important component of the Secretary-General’s mission to maintain and enhance public trust in the United Nations. 2. The UN Financial Disclosure Programme, in its current format, was established by the Secretary-General in 2006 with the issuance of the Secretary General’s bulletin ST/SGB/2006/6. The United Nations General Assembly has underscored the importance of the financial disclosure programme as a means of identifying, managing and mitigating conflict of interest risks in order to strengthen public trust in the integrity of the Organization while safeguarding the confidentiality and privacy of personal information. B. Objectives: 1. The United Nations seeks to procure the services of an experienced and widely recognized independent consulting/risk management services firm with demonstrated expertise, preferably with public-sector experience, in the administration of financial disclosure and/or declaration of interest programmes. 2. The objective of the financial disclosure program is to identify, manage and mitigate conflict of interests risk arising from personal holdings, outside interests and non-UN activities and affiliations of staff member filers, their spouses and dependent children, taking into account the filer’s official duties and responsibilities, particularly discretionary authority and access to confidential and/or fiduciary information which he or she may have by virtue of his or her UN position. C. Responsibilities: The service provider/firm shall have the following main responsibilities: 1. Conduct the review of financial disclosure and declaration of interest statements; 2. Identify conflicts of interest by confidentially reviewing, analyzing and verifying (if/when required) all financial disclosure and declaration of interest statements submitted; 3. Provide advice and recommend action to be taken by filers in order to resolve and mitigate identified conflicts of interest; 4. Act as a point of contact and support for staff member filers with technical and/or substantive questions regarding the FDP; 5. Provide timely responses to queries from filers on both technical and substantive matters arising under the FDP or direct those queries to the appropriate responsible party; 6. Regularly meet with and provide periodic and on-demand reports and updates to the UN Ethics Office, including monthly status reports and a detailed annual report at the end of each filing cycle; and 7. Ensure the security, integrity and strict confidentiality of all UN data related to the FDP.