Background

Afghanistan has achieved much in the seven years since December 2001 when the Afghan Interim Administration (AIA) was inaugurated in Kabul. Following the reconstruction, the government quickly took the initiative in formulating Afghanistan National Development Strategy-which outlined a strong agenda to rebuild institutions and implement structural reforms within a stable macroeconomic framework. The ANDS provides a framework to coordinate the Government’s Programs and Donor assistance and also provides the basis for preparing the National Budget. As the capacity to plan and implement reconstruction projects in the line ministries was weak, arrangements were required to provide ‘centralized’ technical assistance in critical areas of financial management, procurement, and auditing. To achieve these objectives, technical expertise in various fields was required. However, due to decades of conflict in the country, this capacity has been limited and most of the ministries have to depend on outside expertise for carrying out developmental activities. Also Ministries do not have much capacity to handle the selection process for appointment of consultants/advisors.

The Ministry of Economy developed a unit named Afghanistan Reconstruction and Development Services (ARDS) that is small and focused in providing procurement facilitation services in an equitable, efficient, and effective manner to the respective line ministries and other Government Institutions. The main goal of this unit is to provide the facilitation services in procurement of goods, works and services.

As mentioned above that since the capacity was limited in technical expertise and most of the ministries had to depend on outside expertise for carrying out developmental activities which was cumbersome and costly, therefore a need arose to hire local experts & experts with dual nationality which would be cost saving and preventing brain drain. Therefore Technical Assistance Project, unit of ARDS evolved that aimed to hire short term individual consultants who are local, experts with dual nationality and exceptionally expatriates thereby aligning the strategy of Ministry of Economy with the ANDS sector strategy.

The TAU project got approved in 43rd Cabinet Meeting with an initial budget of two million dollars for the year 2007& 2008. The main goal of this project includes

A well functioning structure that is focused in providing Recruitment & Selection consultancy services to the Line Ministries and other Government Institutions in a very transparent and efficient manner.

Building the capacity in order to upgrade the level of expertise in the government sector.

A budget that is affordable and sustainable on multi year basis and enables delegation of authority based on strong accountable mechanisms.

Objective

The overall objective of the TAU is to strengthen the capacity within the Government by hiring the national experts in an effective and transparent manner in order to achieve satisfactory outcomes. The project has a focus on building and strengthening the capacity in order to upgrade the level of expertise in Government sector. The TAU has developed

> A transparent regulatory framework for hiring the individual consultants/specialists
> Core systems for budget execution in a proportionate manner.
> An efficient HR team to effectively manage this project.

Description

TAU involves successfully attracting and selecting the right talent who in turn will provide technical advisory support to the Line Ministries and other Government institutions. The recruitment and selection process will involve hiring of local experts and experts with dual nationality to the Line Ministries and other Government Institutions as they fit their culture and share their vision.

The Ministries will be categorized into two parts named as Priority 1 and Priority 2. Those ministries which fall in priority 1 shall need the approval of the Director of ARDS for the position requested by the respective Ministry where as for Ministries falling in Priority 2, a committee comprising of Minister of Economy, Budget Director of Ministry of Finance, Director of ARDS, HR Coordinator of TAU, and one representative from the concerned Ministry shall approve the position requested from the respective Ministry before proceeding for the procedure.