Terms of Reference for Annual Audit 2021 of the Strengthening an accountable governance that Protects and delivers children’s Rights at Coalition Umwana ku Isonga (Deadline:13th December 2021 at 05:00 pm)

Terms of Reference for Annual Audit 2021 of the Strengthening an accountable governance that protects and delivers children’s rights

 INTRODUCTION

 The Coalition “Umwana ku Isonga”(CUI) is a nongovernmental organization registered under n^o219/RGB/NGO/LP/04/2018.  It has been created with the purposes of networking and alliance building with a mandate to assess and report on the implementation of the United Nations Child Rights Convention (CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) on the one hand, and to coordinate activities carried out by individual member organizations within the parameters of advocacy, implementing and reporting on mentioned treaty bodies on the other hand. CUI strives to get all the children, male and female, living in full enjoyment of their rights and fulfill all their duties without hindrance, and exempted from any form of discrimination.

The Coalition “Umwana ku Isonga” wishes to engage the services of an audit firm for the purpose of auditing the “Strengthening and accountable governance that protects and delivers children’s rights”, as stipulated in the agreement between Save the Children Rwanda and Coalition Umwana ku Isonga. The audit shall be carried out by an external, independent, and qualified auditor. In addition to auditing the financial report, the assignment also includes an assessment in accordance with a special agreement described under section II.

1. Objectives of the audit

The objective is to audit the financial report for the period 1^st January 2021- 31^st December 2021 and to express an audit opinion according to ISA 800/805 on whether the financial report of “Strengthening an accountable governance that protects and delivers children’s rights” is in accordance with Save the Children requirements for financial reporting as stipulated in the agreement between Save the Children Rwanda and Coalition Umwana ku Isonga.

2. Tasks of the Auditor during the Audit period

2. Follow up whether salary costs debited to the project/programme are recorded throughout the duration of the year in a systemized way and examine whether the salary costs can be verified by sufficient supporting documentation.
3. Examine whether the financial report includes a comparison, for every budget item, between the actual costs/expenditures of activities and the budgeted costs/expenditures as approved by Save the Children for the period.
4. Based on materiality and risk the auditor shall examine whether there is supporting documentation related to incurred costs.
5. Follow up whether CUI complies with the applicable tax legislation with regard to taxes (e.g. Pay As You Earn (PAYE)) and social security fees.
6. Follow up whether the CUI has adhered to the procurement guidelines.
7. Verify the unspent balance at the end of the financial year.
8. Regardless of materiality of the findings, the auditor shall quantify the amount for costs lacking sufficient supporting documentation.
9. The auditor will analyse the respect of agreement in terms of financial records of activities realized by the Coalition and check if separate books of account and other financial records are well kept so that the payments and expenditures made under this Agreement can be easily identified according to their budget lines.
10. The auditor will verify the CUI level of the respect of accounting standard for financial records are properly maintained so that he/she provides advises for improvement where necessary.
11. The auditor will analyze the existing General Administrative laws and policies that contribute to the governance and management of the execution poof the activities of the project.  He/she will contextualize the findings for the audit and review of both cash and Bank books of account with all their financial records relevant to this Agreement, and in any other reasonable examinations or investigations into Project activities.

3. The reporting

The reporting shall be signed by the responsible auditor (not just the audit firm) and shall include the title of the responsible auditor.

The reporting from the auditor shall include an independent auditor’s report in accordance with the format in standard ISA 800/805 and the auditor’s opinion shall be clearly stated. The independent auditor’s report shall clearly stipulate that the audit has been conducted in accordance with ISA 800/805.

The reporting shall also include a Management Letter that discloses all audit findings and weaknesses identified during the audit process. The Management Letter shall include both significant and other findings. The auditor shall also make recommendations to address the identified findings and weaknesses. The recommendations shall be presented in priority order.  The financial report that has been subject of the audit shall be attached to the audit reporting. If the auditor assesses that no findings or weaknesses have been identified during the audit that would result in a Management Letter, an explanation of this assessment must be disclosed in the audit reporting.

Measures taken by the organisation to address weaknesses identified in previous audits shall also be presented in the Management Letter.

The additional assignment according to agreed upon procedures ISRS 4400 under section II, shall be reported separately in a Report of Factual Findings.

If the auditor performs additional assignments and finds that the observations described in the Report of Factual Findings contain the information that would have been stated in the Management Letter, a Management Letter does not need to be issued. In such cases, it must be stated in the Report of Factual Findings that a Management Letter has not been issued for this reason.

The organisation shall produce a Management Response including an Action Plan to the findings in the Management Letter and/or Report of Factual Findings.

4. Expected Outcomes

Inception report: The consultant will be expected to produce and submit an inception report for review by CUI team within 5 working days after signing the contract. The inception report is expected to highlight a clear matrix that shows the key information points that will be explored during the audit period. The inception report will be preceded by a meeting with CUI team to outline expectations for the assignment, including the key deliverables.

5. Draft work plan and report

The Consultant will submit a draft audit report for discussion to CUI. The Consultant shall incorporate changes and develop a final Audit work plan and report.

6.  Methodology

Methodology: an updated timeline; detailed methodology, a report should be produced just before starting the Audit. The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest priced proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion

7. Duration of the Audit 

The audit is expected to start by 20^th December 2021 and will take maximum 10 calendar days from the day the contract will be signed between Coalition Umwana ku Isonga and the Consultant.

8. Management and supervision of the Audit

Coalition Umwana ku Isonga

• The Coalition Coordinator and CUI Secretariat will provide the non-cost support to the consultant throughout the course of the audit.
• CUI will verify that the minimum standards of the document have been met and will review the quality of work and ensure that the ToR expectations are met before payment.

9. Timeline

This External Audit report is expected to be done by 7^th February 2022^. The consultant should provide a detailed timeline in his/her technical offer.

10. Expected qualifications for the bidders

This assignment requires a sound knowledge of taxes, financial, managerial, organizational development skills and experience to be able to do a holistic institutional audit.

Interested bidders should be the companies and /or individual consultants.  The companies will be required to clearly indicate the person who will be leading this work, hereby known as the Lead Consultant. The lead Consultant must have the following key competencies:

• Advanced university degree in accounting, audit, or related field; or a first-level degree combined with a professional accounting, auditing or related designation (CA, CPA, CIA, CISA, CFE, ACCA).
• Minimum of five years of audit experience, preferably in internal/external audit, or other directly relevant experience, after professional certification is required.
• Experience of internal audit at the international level would be an advantage.

• Evidence of similar works done previously for Nongovernmental Organizations in Rwanda. At least five years of experience in designing programs related documents.
• Familiar with the work of CSOs
• Fluent in English, ideally with the excellent  level of Kinyarwanda

11. Contact

The applicant to this work must put the full contact of his/her company and clearly show the qualification of his /her team

12. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSAL
The Consultant is expected to submit a detailed proposal with the following components:

a) Administrative documents
Each bidder shall submit the following documents
(i) Copy of Registration certificate
(ii)  VAT Registration
(iii) RRA and RRSB clearance
b) Technical proposal to include: 
A one-page Consultant’s understanding of the TOR;
Two pages of the proposed methodology, activities, and expected outcomes;

• A detailed activities schedule/work plan with a time frame (including a Grant chart);
• A profile of the consulting firm including the full names, physical addresses, telephone numbers, and contact person of the firm/company;
• Copy of CVs of the lead consultant who will undertake the proposed work;
• Two previous examples of similar work or carried out by the Consultant.

b) Technical proposal to include: 

• Itemized consultant’s fees;
•  Itemized field data collection expenses ;
• Itemized administration expenses;
• The validity period of the quotation;
• Expected payment plan and method;

13. Deadline for Application 

The proposals should be submitted in hard copies (1 original and 3 copies) at the Reception desk at Coalition Umwana ku Isonga (CUI) Office, in Gasabo District, Remera Sector, Rukiri II Cell in Kigali City in RUBIS B PLAZA 1st floor, along KG 11 Av 16 not later than  13^th December 2021 at 05:00 pm Kigali Time.

Technical and financial bids must be sealed separately and placed in 2 Envelopes which also shall be sealed and clearly marked: ‘TENDER FOR THE EXTERNAL AUDIT OF CUI FOR the YEAR 2021.

For any clarification, you can send an email to the following e-mail addresses: cuirwanda@gmail.com. Only successful bidders will be notified and Coalition Umwana ku Isonga reserves the right to reject any of the bids.

Coalition Umwana ku Isonga Secretariat