Organisation: Hoffnungszeichen tendersglobal.net Sign of Hope e.V.
www.hoffnungszeichen.de, www.sign-of-hope.org
Position: Auditor
Type of Contract: Short-term consultancy
Type of Audit: In depth- Final Project Audit
Location: Home-based with field mission travel to Amudat and Nabilatuk districts, Uganda.
Languages Required: English
Application Deadline: 5th April 2024
Starting Date: 15th April 2024
Auditing Period: From 1st December 2020 to 30th April 2024
Project Title: Improving access to water, sanitation facilities and hygiene practices in disadvantaged rural communities of Karamoja
Total Project Budget: Euro 888,573
Annual Project Budget: Euro 260,572 (1st January 2023 to 30th April 2024)
Hoffnungszeichen tendersglobal.net Sign of Hope e.V. (SoH) is announcing an open tender procedure for external independent financial audit services in Uganda.
Background and Organisational Setting
SoH is a Christian motivated organisation for Human Rights, Humanitarian Assistance and Development Cooperation. Based in Constance, Germany, SoH is dedicated to helping those in distress and exploited people worldwide.
An audit is commissioned under the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) funding guidelines for development projects run by private German executing agencies.
SoH will be the private German executing agency and the contracting party, with Caritas Moroto (CM)being the local implementing agency.
CM is a local faith-based organization that has many years of experience in implementing complex development projects at the grass root level in Karamoja region. The organisation has extensive experience in WASH, health and nutrition, infrastructure development, livelihood diversification and integrated water resource management.
The goal of this project is to contribute to improvement of health and living conditions of disadvantaged rural communities of Karamoja. More specifically, the project will do this by targeting the population in the most vulnerable rural communities in the districts of Amudat and Nabilatuk in Karamoja to use the newly constructed sanitation facilities, hand washing facilities, water points and new knowledge. The project will also strengthen administrative capacities of the local authorities and water management structures
This project will be implemented in Uganda’s Karamoja region, Moroto Diocese in Amudat and Nabilatuk districts targeting 40 villages with 12,000 households (55,200 direct beneficiaries). Among the direct beneficiaries, includes 9,000 beneficiaries who will benefit from rehabilitated hand pumps, 1,500 beneficiaries from 5 new drilled hand pumps, 3,000 beneficiaries from the 4 rehabilitated boreholes, 240 beneficiaries from 4 valley tanks for surface Rain Water Harvesting (RWH), 2,500 beneficiaries benefiting from 10 RWH tanks that will be installed in 10 health and educational facilities. The project will also ensure that 8,280 people have access to a sanitation facility as a result of construction of 1,200 improved latrines. Majority of the remaining beneficiaries will benefit from hygiene promotion activities, including information provision and health education on various WASH related topics. Additionally, additional 44,160 indirect beneficiaries mainly from the 32 villages surrounding the project implementation area will also be reached
Audit Objectives
The purpose of the in-depth audit is to provide SoH with a sound basis for its accountability, transparency and accuracy in the financial disclosure towards the funding agency BMZ. The tasks of this recruitment relate to:
FINAL AUDIT:
- An annual audit, with a detailed examination of all the supporting documents for 01.01.2023 – 30.04.2024;
- A conclusive examination of the complete project duration (1st December 2020 – 30th April 2024). Thereby, the auditor can refer to the last annual audit reports to be available at that time.
This in-depth audit will verify the compliance with standards of the funding agency BMZ, SoH, national regulations and the international accounting standards (ISA).
The auditor will review the project’s financial documents, receipts lists, records of transactions, all vouchers and receipts disbursed, and relevant project documents in order to come up with a professional, independent opinion on the financial accounting of the project “Improving access to water, sanitation facilities and hygiene practices in disadvantaged rural communities of Karamoja” for all funds received and expended by CM from 1st December 2020 to 30th April 2024.
Additionally, the audit shall give recommendations on strengths, weaknesses, and required improvement in the project-related financial and human resources management systems of CM.
The audit will support the project quality assurance measures implemented by SoH and contribute to the decision-making process with regard to the project management and monitoring of finances by SoH and CM.
Expected Deliverables
The auditor is expected to produce an audit report, an audit certificate and a management letter, which will comprise the following:
- Presentation of the scope and mandate of the audit, as well as the list of documents that formed the evidence for the audit,
- An opinion whether financial statements of accounts for the year being audited and the complete project duration are issued in accordance with the financial reporting framework of the project, BMZ requirements and an internationally recognized accounting standard,
- Recommendations on identified shortcomings, and, if applicable, comments on the follow-up of audit observations and recommendations from previous years.
- A checked, signed and stamped list of all project costs receipts, sorted by BMZ budget lines (list is provided by the local implementing partner).
Audit documents can be issued in English or German.
Scope of the Audit
The audit should focus on the following:
- The correctness and completeness of the accounting records,
- The financial report, showing all project related income and expenditure structured by budget lines,
- Deviations of expenditure by budget lines. The expenditure, which exceeds or falls below the budget appropriations by more than 30 %, shall be explained separately, if the approval of the BMZ has not previously been obtained,
- That receipts and relevant supporting documents are available for all project related income and expenditures,
- The management of the funds made available, which includes the transfer of project funds, all interest earned from the project funds during the reporting period and further income generated by the project,
- Reviewing the appropriate use of funds according to the project objectives,
- Evaluation of the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the usage of funds,
- Budget adherence through the comparison between budgeted and actual costs in the currency in which the expenditure was incurred. The audit report will not convert the examined amounts into the Euro amounts,
- Reviewing if personnel costs and social security contributions conform to the regulations in the project country and are locally comparable,
- The economical use of the project equipment and assets,
- The inventory and the use of capital items, their whereabouts and their purposive usage,
- Compliance with the legal framework of the project (project agreements and annexes, contracts, etc.) and the donor requirements,
- Compliance with the policies of the local implementing partner regarding procurement, financial administration, human resources management and travel.
Procedures and Communication
The auditor will be given access to all necessary documents in the project offices through the local implementing partner CM as well as relevant donor documents through SoH.
The auditor will be responsible to set up a schedule in agreement with the local implementing partner CM. Any expenses for field trips, postal and translation services and other expenses shall be included in the auditor’s proposed budget. CM will support the auditor with logistics and arrangements, however, all payments of the contract will be made directly by SoH.
Qualifications and Experience
- Necessary qualification to serve as a recognized independent auditing authority,
- Minimum of five (5) years of experience conducting external independent audits of projects funded by international institutional donors in Uganda,
- Experience in conducting audits for BMZ-funded projects is beneficial.
How to apply
Application Process
Please submit the following documents as PDF files with the subject line “Final Project Audit DC-UGA21.01, Uganda” to recruitment@sign-of-hope.org no later than 5th April 2024 23:59 EAT:
- Technical Proposal (as per Terms of Reference above), including approach and methodology to be used,
- A financial proposal (MUST BE IN EUR),
- A qualification certificate of a recognized independent auditing authority as confirmed by a relevant institution in the project country (for example, a chamber of commerce, national association of auditors or another relevant organisation),
- A reference list of three previous customers.
Companies as well as independent auditors are invited for this tender. Female and differently abled candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
Please note that due to a large number of applications we may limit establishing contact to shortlisted applicants.
Bids received after deadline will not be considered. If offers are incomplete, bidders may be able to hand in missing documents within a deadline upon request by SoH.
The selection of the auditor will be conducted jointly by CM and SoH. Interviews with shortlisted candidates will be held online in the week of 8th to 12th April 2024.
The audit agreement will be set up by SoH and CM. Audit agreements set up by auditors won’t be accepted.
Criteria and weighting for the evaluation of the submitted proposals:
- Essential and desirable competencies, proposed methodology: 40 %
- Financial proposal (fee): 30 %
- Performance during interview: 20 %
- Minimum amount of years of relevant experience: 5 %
- Language skills: 5 %