Auditor EAB-ER-KEN23.01

Countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan

Organization: Sign of Hope

Closing date: 4 Feb 2025

Organization Hoffnungszeichen | 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

Location Kenya, South Sudan and Ethiopia; Field mission travel to Turkana Isiolo and Marsabit counties in Kenya, Rumbek North & Tonji North Region in South Sudan and South Omo region and Borena zones of Oromia region in Ethiopia

Languages Required English

Application Deadline 4th February 2025

Starting Date 17th February 2025

Auditing Period From 1st July 2023 to 31st December 2024

Project Title Multi-Country Cross Border Humanitarian Emergency Lifesaving Project (HELP) for severely food insecure population in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

Total Project Budget Euro 3,888,604

Annual Project Budget-01/07/2023 Euro 2,568,793

Annual Project Budget-01/01/2024 Euro 1,319.811

Hoffnungszeichen | Sign of Hope e.V. (SoH) is announcing an open tender procedure for consultancy services for a final evaluation in Kenya, Ethiopia (including travel to the field) and South Sudan (without travel to the field).

Background and Organisational Setting

Hoffnungszeichen | Sign of Hope e.V. (SoH) is a Christian motivated Organisation for Human Rights, Humanitarian Assistance and Development Cooperation. From its base in Constance, Germany, SoH is committed to helping those in distress and exploited people worldwide.

This final Audit is commissioned under the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) budget for humanitarian assistance and humanitarian mine action projects run by private organizations.

SoH is the private German executing agency and the contracting party, working with Caritas Marsabit, Merti Integrated Development Program (MIDP), Ethiopian Catholic Church- Social and Development Commission/Caritas Ethiopia (ECC-SDCO), Spiritan Community Out Reach Ethiopia (SCORE) and the Catholic Diocese of Rumbek (CDOR) as the local implementing partners.

The Multi-Country Cross Border Humanitarian Emergency Lifesaving Project (HELP) aims to ensure that critical lifesaving and protection needs of the most vulnerable drought and flood affected, severely food insecure communities in Northern Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan are met through improved access to Multi-purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA), food assistance, WASH, protection services, and capacity building. The project which runs from July 1, 2023 to December 31, 2024 is being implemented in Turkana and Marsabit counties in Northern Kenya, Lakes and Warrap States in South Sudan (Rumbek North and Tonj North Districts respectively), and South Omo of Southern Nationalities People (SNNP) region and Borena zones of Oromia region in Ethiopia. SoH is cooperating with local partners in the various regions who collaborate with local governments and community committees to implement the HELP project. The beneficiaries in the areas are mainly households affected by disasters such as drought and floods, those with poor developmental indicators, and those affected by frequent communal and resource-based conflicts. The interventions are designed to have long-term positive effects in the community including rebuilding a community that has been devastated by prolonged drought, directly supporting the local economy through cash transfer programme, enabling the community to safeguard and make use of their productive assets and, preventing the community from adaptation of negative coping strategies such as distressed selling of productive assets or taking children out of school.

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 GFFO. The tasks of this recruitment relate to:

• An annual audit, with a detailed examination of all the supporting documents for 01.07.2023 – 31.12.2023,
• An annual audit, with a detailed examination of all the supporting documents for 01.01.2024 – 31.12.2024,
• Conclusive examination of the complete project duration (1st July 2023 - 31st December 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 GFFO, 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 “Multi-Country Cross Border Humanitarian Emergency Lifesaving Project (HELP) for severely food insecure population in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan.” for all funds received and expended by Caritas Marsabit, SCORE, ECC-SDCO,MIDP, CDOR & SOH from 1st July 2023 to 31st December 2024

Additionally, the audit shall give recommendations on strengths, weaknesses, and required improvement in the project-related financial and human resources management systems of Caritas Marsabit, SCORE, ECC-SDCO, MIDP, CDOR who are the implementing Partners.

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 implementing Partners (Caritas Marsabit, SCORE, ECC-SDCO, MIDP, CDOR & SOH).

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 (statement of accounts for the year being audited and the complete project duration) are issued in accordance with the financial reporting framework of the project, GFFO requirements and an internationally recognized accounting standard,
• A checked, signed and stamped list of all project costs receipts, sorted by GFFO budget lines (list is provided by the local implementing partner).
• Recommendations on identified shortcomings, and, if applicable, comments on the follow-up of audit observations and recommendations from previous years

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 20 %, shall be explained separately, if the approval of the GFFO 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 partners (Caritas Marsabit, SCORE, ECC-SDCO, MIDP, CDOR) as well as relevant donor documents through SoH.

The auditor will be responsible to set up a schedule in agreement with the local implementing partners (Caritas Marsabit, SCORE, ECC-SDCO, MIDP, CDOR). Any expenses for field trips, postal and translation services and other expenses shall be included in the auditor’s proposed budget. SCORE, ECC-SDCO, MIDP, CDOR 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 Kenya, Ethiopia & South Sudan.
• Experience in conducting audits for GFFO-funded projects is beneficial
• Active Practicing Certificate.

How to apply

Submit the following documents as PDF files with the subject line “Audit in Kenya (SOH, Caritas Marsabit in Marsabit County, MIDP (Merti Integrated development Programme) in Isiolo County, South Sudan (Catholic Diocese of Rumbek), Ethiopia (SCORE & SDCO), EAB-ER-KEN23.01” to recruitment@sign-of-hope.org not later than 4th February 2025 23:59 EAT.

• Technical Proposal (as per Terms of Reference above) of no more than 2 pages, including approach and methodology to be used,
• A financial proposal (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 implementing Partners (Caritas Marsabit, SCORE, ECC-SDCO, MIDP, CDOR) and SoH. Interviews with shortlisted candidates will be held online.

The audit agreement will be set up by SoH and the implementing Partners (Caritas Marsabit, SCORE, ECC-SDCO, MIDP, CDOR). Audit agreements set up by auditors won’t be accepted.

Criteria and weighting for the evaluation of the submitted proposals:

1. Essential and desirable competencies, proposed methodology: 40 %
2. Financial proposal (fee): 30 %
3. Performance during interview: 20 %
4. Minimum amount of years of relevant experience: 5 %
5. Language skills: 5 %