Короткостроковий/а експерт/ка для впровадження реформи корпоративного управління для МінЕкономіки – Expertise France

Short term expert support in the frame of implementation of corporate governance reform: development of the concept of the centralized model of state ownership in Ukraine

Expertise France is the French international technical cooperation agency, with the status of public institution under the joint supervision of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) and the Ministries of Economics and Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty. It is the second largest technical cooperation agency in Europe. Expertise France designs and implements projects that strengthen public policies over the long term in developing and emerging countries.

Ukraine is a key partner for Expertise France, which has had a local presence since 2006 with a representative office and projects. Over the years, Expertise France has built up a relationship of trust with its partner administrations.

In the response to the existing situation and challenges, France has launched a coordinated assistance to Ukraine. The mAIDan Ukraine program is a multisector technical assistance facility as a part of the French support to Ukraine coordinated by the French Special Envoy for Ukraine Relief and Reconstruction. The program’s main objective is to identify needs and propose technical cooperation projects that support resilience, reconstruction, and the accession process in Ukraine.

Program sub-objectives include mobilisation of the technical solutions to meet the most urgent needs and initiate structuring cooperation, as well as financing or co-financing technical assistance projects during 2023-2026 including suppourt in SOE reform. 

SOEs play a crucial role in providing public services for the Ukrainian population – a role which is even more critical during the wartime period – but they also represent a significant budgetary and financial sustainability risk. In the last six years, Ukraine has taken several steps toward reforming corporate governance in the largest SOEs and aligning its practices with the OECD SOE Guidelines.

At the same time, corporate governance reform remains incomplete and hence remains one of the topics requiring reform following international recommendations. In the meantime, eighty-six per cent of the 3,300 centrally-owned SOEs still operate in the legal form of state unitary enterprise. The absence of a comprehensive ownership policy and decentralised ownership arrangements, with over 80 central executive bodies exercising ownership rights, result in diverging governance approaches and goal conflicts for individual SOEs, and an unclear role for the relevant ownership entities.

This creates systemic difficulties in managing the portfolio of strategic SOEs. Furthermore, the legal status of the SOE assets is not always clearly defined, which makes it difficult for them to attract market financing. Special legal form for state unitary enterprise is archaic and not understood by private investors. Current corporate governance structure of SOEs does not facilitate the attraction of strategic long-term investments. Due to difficulties in attracting financing, SOEs are undercapitalized and some are overleveraged.

Some of the key areas for improvement include optimizing the SOE portfolio and preparing the ground for privatisations and improving governance and performance of strategic SOEs. The corporate governance framework for SOEs requires harmonization with the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of SOEs. This involves strengthening accountability and expanding the mandate of supervisory boards, enhancing SOEs’ financial position through divesting non-core assets, ensuring public online auctions of sale or lease of assets of state enterprises. Following OECD SOE recommendations it is essential to:

• Address inconsistencies in legal and regulatory frameworks.
• Continue corporate governance reforms in the top-15 SOEs.
• Implement best practices in transparency and disclosure in economically important SOEs, and upgrade financial and non-financial reporting.
• Develop a comprehensive ownership policy with clear rationales for ownership.
• Establish a centralised ownership coordination entity.
• Ensure a level playing field with private companies.
• Continue strengthening anti-corruption framework applicable to SOEs.

The main objective of the assignment is to provide the expert assistance to Ministry of Economy or Ukraine in collaboration with other involved administrations/institutions regarding the preparation of the concept of centralized ownership model. The specific objective of this assignment is to draft the concept note in tandem with the international expert on the subject, as well as to facilitate the organization and implementation of the working group with national stakeholders with a purpose to elaborate a consensus model of centralized ownership.

Required expertise 

The contractor is required to have following set of expertise:

• Min 10 years of expertise in the field of corporate law and corporate governance;
• Strong understanding of the reform of corporate governance of state-owned enterprises in Ukraine;
• Strong knowledge of international standards of corporate governance, SOEs governance, and international obligations that Ukraine has to comply with;
• Proven experience in drafting strategic, conceptual and/or regulatory documents;
• Experience of advising boards and executives on a range of governance and strategy reforms;
• Former experience of working in the government, public policy sector, SOEs sector in Ukraine;
• Former experience of cooperation in the government, public policy sector in France, experience of working with international development agencies would be considered as advantage;
• Degree in political sciences or business or legal studies;
• Proficient level of English is mandator     

Reporting

The contractor is responsible to provide the deliverables in English in written form following the timeline agreed with Expertise France. The draft version of the concept note should be submitted by 30 October 2024. The draft legal act for the centralization is expected to be ready for the submission to the Parliament by the end of this year.

Timeframe of the contract

The assignment implementation is expected during the period of 1^st September – 31^st December according to the preliminary timeline in the Section 3. The timeline is a subject to discussion/modification based on the Expert’s agreement with Expertise France based on availability of Ukrainian and international stakeholders with whom coordination is required to develop a properly scoped and defined project intervention for the subsequent Phase.

Deadline for application: 2024/08/27 12:33

Please apply following the link: https://www.expertisefrance.fr/en/on-recrute?redirected=2#page-cv—upload—vacancy—11765