Junior Operator for e-Legislation (4 positions)

Background:
The “e-Legislation Support for Albania” project builds upon the work carried out under the “Support to Parliament and Civic Education” Project (PACEP) implemented by the OSCE Presence in Albania (the Presence) to improve core functions of the Parliament through innovative technology solutions. The project will consolidate the progress made by PACEP, complete the components for the e-Legislation system and ensure that the Albanian Parliament starts to operate with a functioning and integrated e-Legislation system. The Project seeks to address the challenges in accessing consolidated legislative acts without considerable effort to manually compile laws and their amendments with the inevitable occurrence of mistakes. The Project will engage a Junior Local Expert in the capacity of Junior e-Legislation Operator to support the Assembly of Albania with the digitalization of the archive, supporting the scanning, categorization and marking up of the archive legal folder of the Assembly of Albania. The Junior Operator will work closely with the Expert Operator/s, and in coordination with the Project Team and Project’s Expert, will support the scanning of at least 9000 pages of laws and markup of at least 2 Laws to bring them into their consolidated form to be published in the e-Legislation Search Engine/Portal. Engagement is foreseen during the period 10 Feb – 10 Jun 2025 for a maximum of 80 working days. 

Objective of Assignment: 

The Junior e-Legislation Operator will be working in the premises of the Assembly of Albania and in close collaboration with the Expert Operator/s, the Junior e-Legislation Operator will lead the scanning of at least 9000 pages of laws and markup of at least 2 Laws to bring them into their consolidated form to be published in the e-Legislation Search Engine/Portal. The digitalization’s final documents in XML format will comply with the scanned document contents, therefore ensuring accuracy and providing credibility of the data uploaded to the e-Legislation repository. The role involves handling sensitive legal documents and ensuring their accurate representation in digital form. Therefore, the Junior e-Legislation Operator should ensure the security and confidentiality of digitalized legal documents.

Duration of Assignment:
This consultancy position is envisaged to last for a period of 4 months, starting from February to June 2025.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

Technical assistance for digitizing the Assembly’s archive and generating consolidated legislative texts with the new e-legislation system:

•    Scanning: Perform high-quality scanning of archived legal documents while ensuring the integrity of the originals. Use installed scanners effectively and care for the handling of sensitive documents. Applying the Albanian language optical character recognition (OCR) software to the scanned pages, already installed on the workstations, and will process the conversion of the scanned documents to Microsoft Word. The automatic reading done by the system must be checked and any errors must be manually corrected by the operator, to ensure the accuracy throughout the digitalization process.
•    Document Conversion and Editing: Apply OCR software to convert scanned pages into editable text formats. Manually correct any conversion errors to ensure the accuracy of the text. Saving Microsoft Word version of the scanned document within their workstation drive and sent/upload/share the set for each legal act on a daily basis following the instructions provided by superiors (containing all the procedural acts issued on each archive folder), for the mark-up and inclusion in the e-Legislation system.
•    Categorization: Organize and categorize scanned documents according to the Assembly’s formal classification system. Maintain accurate records of document types and categories.
•    Data Management: Upload edited documents to the designated workspace. Share the completed sets of legal acts as per the daily instructions provided by supervisors.
•    Progress Tracking: Keep detailed records of scanning and categorization activities in an Excel file. Submit regular updates to the Archive Service Directory and e-Legislation Focal Point, outlining the volume and status of work completed, including identified and resolved errors.
•    Markup and Consolidation: Lead the markup and consolidation process of legislative documents using Lime Editor to ensure they conform to the required structure and standards for publication. The list of laws/legal acts to be marked up and consolidated will be provided by the Project Team, in close consultation with the Assembly of Albania. Using the credentials provided to access the Lime Editor, upload the Microsoft Word version of the legal act and verify and correct the automated markup done by the system to the structure of the act. Existing tools available on the Lime Editor shall be used for the markup. The end-stage review and error check process prior to the upload into the e-Legislation system will be performed by an experienced user/outside expert.

Deliverables:

At least 9000 pages of legislative documents are scanned and processed and 2 Laws in their consolidated form are published in the e-Legislation Portal:

In close collaboration with the Expert Operator, lead the scanning and processing of at least 9000 pages, ensuring each page is ready for the next steps in the Mark-Up process by the Expert Operator/s.  This includes manual review and correction of OCR results from scanning to match the original documents precisely, minimizing errors and discrepancies and attain 100% accuracy in the text conversion process from scanned documents. 

In close collaboration with the Expert Operator and Project Experts, lead the markup and consolidation process of at least 2 Laws to bring them in their consolidated form, ready to be published in the e-Legislation Portal. 

Develop weekly and periodic reports to the National Project Officer and Assembly’s e-Legislation Focal Point detailing the number and types of documents scanned/processed, highlighting any procedural enhancements and pinpointing areas needing improvement. This report should also track progress against project milestones.

Develop a final report outlining the step-by-step process, including the number of pages scanned and marked up, description of the laws marked up, the methodology, key challenges, critical issues for consideration, proposed solutions, and a log of any errors encountered and resolved, providing transparency and accountability in the digitization process. As part of the final report, provide details of the training/mentoring sessions received, including lessons learned and skills/knowledge attained. 

Necessary Qualifications:

•    Degree in Law/IT or demonstrated proof on completing studies by July 2025.
•    Preferred are candidates who demonstrate previous experience in the Legal/IT field.
•    Previous working or engagement experience with the Assembly of Albania in similar roles is an advantage. 
•    Previous experience with document scanning and OCR technologies is an advantage.
•    Previous working experience with the OSCE or similar international organizations in similar roles is an advantage. 
•    Computer literate with good knowledge of MS Word and scanning tools.
•    Good writing and communication skills and IT skills, especially with Microsoft Word and Excel.
•    Proficient in Albanian, with a good working knowledge of English.
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Remuneration Package:

Remuneration will be based on the selected consultant's/expert's qualifications, experience, the tasks and deliverables for this position and in accordance with the OSCE established rates.

If you wish to apply for this position, please use the OSCE's online application link found under https://vacancies.osce.org/.

The OSCE retains the discretion to re-advertise/re-post the vacancy, to cancel the recruitment or to offer an appointment with a modified job description or for a different duration.

Only those candidates who are selected to participate in the subsequent stages of recruitment will be contacted.

The OSCE is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all religious, ethnic and social backgrounds to apply to become a part of the Organization. 

Candidates should be aware that OSCE officials shall conduct themselves at all times in a manner befitting the status of an international civil servant. This includes avoiding any action which may adversely reflect on the integrity, independence and impartiality of their position and function as officials of the OSCE. The OSCE is committed to applying the highest ethical standards in carrying out its mandate. For more information on the values set out in OSCE Competency Model, please see https://jobs.osce.org/resources/document/our-competency-model.

Please be aware that the OSCE does not request payment at any stage of the application and review process.