Researcher(s) To Develop Public Expenditure Tracking System Methodology for the sectors of power and social affairs

The Lebanese Transparency Association - No Corruption (LTA) was established in 1999 with the aim of reducing rampant corruption in Lebanon, promoting the principles of transparency and accountability, establishing the rule of law and respecting the fundamental rights inaugurated in international laws and the Lebanese Constitution, by focusing on systematic improvement, building alliances, and encouraging civil society organizations to take measures towards transparency and accountability. LTA later became the national chapter of Transparency International (TI).

LTA has worked to enhance transparency in the public and private sectors in Lebanon for more than a decade, by implementing a number of projects that ranged from contributing to the development to lobbying the anti-corruption laws (such as the draft law on the Right to Access to Information, the Whistleblowers Protection Law, the Asset and Interest Declaration and the Punishment of Illicit Enrichment Law etc....), and the monitoring of parliamentary and municipal elections since 2009, in addition to other projects aimed at empowering youth and municipalities on issues related to good governance.

LTA was chosen as a member of the first Independent Oversight Board (IOB) for the Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Framework (3RF), which was launched in response to the aftermath of the Beirut Port explosion.

Strengthening Accountability Networks among Civil Society (SANCUS) – aims to contribute to enhancing democratic accountability of public institutions, specifically by empowering civil society organizations (CSOs) to push for a fundamental change to address accountability and anti-corruption discrepancies.

SANCUS project sheds the light on the opacity and lack of accountability in budget formulation, execution and oversight due to the absence of robust national budgeting process coupled with weak oversight of public funds and lack of transparency, enhancing risks of embezzlement, bribery and personal profit and resulting in growing citizen mistrust in the Lebanese state. Some of the sectors most affected by poor budgeting and corruption are power and social affairs.

Therefore, the main objective of SANCUS Lebanon is to improve the responsiveness of duty bearers by pushing for reform in the power, health and social affairs sectors, as well as encouraging greater citizen participation in budgetary processes through four components:

1. Network Building: CSOs and rights holders are more effectively mobilised to demand greater accountability and integrity through increased visibility, strategic advocacy, and broad networks. A network of CSOs undertakes sustained peer-to-peer sharing of expertise, knowledge, and collective advocacy strategies.
2. Vertical Accountability Actions: CSOs meaningfully engage duty bearers in consultations, redress mechanisms, as well as in the monitoring and scrutiny of their responsiveness throughout the policy and budget cycles. Such engagement will lead to strengthened protections, knowledge, tools and technical capacity of CSOs to demand accountability and fight against corruption of duty bearers as well as strengthened relationships between public sector and civil society.
3. Horizontal Accountability Actions: CSOs more strongly advocate for enhanced parliamentary oversight, as well as stronger democratic accountability institutions and mechanisms, based on systematic monitoring and public reporting on their performance, using digital technologies. For this purpose, enhanced standards, guidelines and monitoring tools/systems are in place to regularly report on parliamentary oversight and oversight agencies’ performance.
4. Digital Tools: LTA will develop a Public Expenditure Tracking System (PETS) based digital tool that will help CSOs to follow the money and conduct thorough monitoring of the states’ spending and reform progress.

Under this project, LTA aims to establish a monitoring unit composed of PETS. For this purpose, LTA seeks to recruit Researcher(s) who will follow an impact evaluation approach to conduct the following activities:

1. Conduct Literature review on Public Expenditure Tracking Systems (PETS) and benchmarks and identify their relevance to Lebanon.
2. Develop PETS methodology (using an impact evaluation) focusing on the Power Sector and the Social Affairs Sector.
3. Develop CSOs resource kit on PETS based on TI Donor’s kit.
4. Collect data and information from the sectors of power and social affairs
5. Review data and information collected
6. Analyze data and summarize findings
7. Develop user-friendly factsheets via website and social media every 3 months to report the latest data on state budget processes.

These factsheets will be disseminated via LTA’s website and social media.

Based on international benchmarks compiled by TI-S and based on the findings resulting from data collection and analysis from the sectors of power and social affairs, the Researcher will provide policy recommendation to improve budget formulation, implementation and oversight.

In order to accomplish this task, LTA and TI-S will provide the Researcher(s) with supporting knowledge resources necessary to address the Public Expenditure Tracking Methodology.

LTA will award the Contract to the Candidate whose proposal has been determined to be substantially responsive to the documents of the Request for Proposal and which has obtained the highest overall score.

The Researcher(s) should have the following knowledge and experience:

• Master Degree in economy or finance
• Experience in budget related issues
• Familiar with PET surveys processes and implementation