Summary
Date Posted: Thursday, November 16 2023, Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Project Title Establishment and institutionalization of a Multi-Actor Partnership platform to improve agribusiness for economic viability and improved living standards for smallholder farmers in Teso sub-region in Eastern Uganda (The MAP Project).

Total Project Budget 1,500,000 EURO
Annual Project Budget 444,444 EURO

Hoffnungszeichen | 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 SOCADIDObeing the local implementing agency.

The goal of the project is to contribute to improving the socio-economic situation of smallholder farmers through establishing and institutionalising a multi-actor partnership and developing institutional capacities of key actors to sustainably maintain the established structure. Its main objective is to establish a functional multi-actor partnership and its dialogue structures that promote sustainable agricultural productivity and contribute to improving the socio-economic situation of smallholder farmers. This objective will be achieved through three interrelated results areas including;
1. Establishing Ateker Development Foundation (ADEFO) as a multi-stakeholder collaboration platform that is owned by local actors and mandated to actively contribute to and shape strategies in the agricultural sector;
2. Improved agricultural value chain production through ADEFO by establishing a joint platform for all agribusiness relevant actors and by doing so providing comprehensive support to the smallholder farmers; and
3. Strengthening the capacity of organisations directly involved in socio-economic development in the Teso sub-region, and its agricultural sector in particular, so that they can take over established ADEFO.

The project duration is 36 months (starting from 1 Dec 2021 to 28 February 2025) covering Kaberamaido, Kapelebyong, Katakwi, Ngora and Soroti districts and Soroti City. It will reach at least 24 organisations and a total of 3,600 households with 21,830 direct beneficiaries (6 persons per household). Actions undertaken by the actors through ADEFO are expected to reach 64,800 indirect beneficiaries*.*

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:
• An annual audit, with a detailed examination of all the supporting documents for 2023;
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 “Establishment and institutionalization of a Multi-Actor Partnership platform to improve agribusiness for economic viability and improved living standards for smallholder farmers in Teso sub-region in Eastern Uganda (The MAP Project)” for all funds received and expended by SOCADIDO from 1st January to 31st December 2023.

Additionally, the audit shall give recommendations on strengths, weaknesses, and required improvement in the project-related financial and human resources management systems of SOCADIDO.
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 SOCADIDO.

Expected Deliverables
The auditor is expected to produce an audit report, an audit certificate and a management letter, which will comprise the following:
1. Presentation of the scope and mandate of the audit, as well as the list of documents that formed the evidence for the audit,
2. An opinion whether financial statements (statement of accounts) are issued in accordance with the financial reporting framework of the project, BMZ requirements and an internationally recognised accounting standard,
3. Recommendations on identified shortcomings, and, if applicable, comments on the follow-up of audit observations and recommendations from previous years.
4. A checked, signed and stamped list of all project costs receipts, sorted by BMZ budget lines (list can be 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 SOCADIDO 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 SOCADIDO. Any expenses for field trips, postal and translation services and other expenses shall be included in the auditor’s proposed budget. SOCADIDO 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.




Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 60

Level of Education: Postgraduate Degree

Job application procedure
Please submit the following documents as PDF files with the subject line “Audit in DC-UGA22.01 (MAP project), Soroti, Uganda” to recruitment@sign-of-hope.org no later than 24th November 2023 23:59 EAT:
• Technical Proposal (as per Terms of Reference above), 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 SOCADIDO and SoH. Interviews with shortlisted candidates will be held online between 1st December and 8th December 2023.
The audit agreement will be set up by SoH and SOCADIDO. 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 %


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