Audit for the project “Improving educational opportunities for children living in Palestinian camps in Lebanon, in an inclusive perspective"

 

Terms of Reference

Audit for the project Improving educational opportunities for children living in Palestinian camps in Lebanon, in an inclusive perspective"

 

Project:

Improving educational opportunities for children living in Palestinian camps in Lebanon, in an inclusive perspective

Donor/s

BMZ (German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development)

&

Terre des Hommes Germany

Location of implementation:

Lebanon

Period of Audit

As soon as possible - report to be sent not later than 15th February 2019

Vacancy to be posted from/until

To be posted from 17 January 2019 (or asap) – to be closed  on 27th of January 2019

Volume of project expense:

Ca. 250.000 USD

Expected consultancy fee:

Max. 3.000 USD

To apply:

Please include the profile/CV of the Auditing Firm, detailing the relevant experience in auditing NGOs in Lebanon.

 

Previous auditing of BMZ / JIZ / Embassy of Germany-funded projects will be considered an asset.

Kindly note that the selected Firm will be subject to final approval of the Embassy of Germany in Lebanon.

 

The project “Improving educational opportunities for children living in Palestinian camps in Lebanon, in an inclusive perspective, funded by the BMZ and TDH Germany and implemented in Lebanon by Terre des Hommes Italia, aims to enhance the availability and quality of Non-Formal Education provided to Palestinian and Syrian out of school or at risk of drop out refugee children by a Consortium of NGOs in Palestinian camps in Lebanon.

The project duration is 8 months, from the 01st of September 2018 to the 30th of April 2019. The present Audit has to be conducted on the first 4 months of project implementation, from the 01st of September 2018 to the 31st of December 2018.

The total volume of expenses incurred in ca. 250.000 USD.

 

1) Tasks of the chartered accountant

A chartered accountant will check all project-related financial documents (bank account, cash-book, list of expenditures, vouchers, additional documents). S/He will then set up a financial statement giving the exact expenses for each budget-item in local currency and compare the planned amount to the real amount spent.

The chartered accountant cannot just give an arithmetical check to the books and confirm the correctness of figures.

The chartered accountant has to confirm:

  • that the funds received by the donor for a specific project have been spent for the purpose of the project
  • that the fund has been spent according to the criteria of the funding organisation
  • that all items agreed on in the contract between TDH Germany and TDH Italy have been respected by the local partners
  • that the fund has been used strictly according to the guidelines of the co-financing institution (BMZ) and that all financial criteria of the co-financing structure have been observed

A transparent, correct and detailed book-keeping of all project-related incomes and expenses, the preparation of lists of expenses, the documentation of modifications from the costplan and the reason for modifications and the preparation of vouchers for each expenditure is a pre-condition for the chartered accountant to be able to check and confirm the correct use of the funds.

 

 

2) Selection of the chartered accountant

 

Important criteria for the selection of the chartered accountant / auditing firm are:

  • That the chartered accountant has already experience in working with non-profit or non-government-organisations in Lebanon.
  • That his/her qualification is confirmed by the German Embassy in the respective country or by an internationally acknowledged institution like the Chamber of Commerce of the respective country. In case the Accountant or Firm has never previously worked on BMZ/JIZ projects, a validation for the contract will have to be confirmed by the German Embassy in Lebanon.
  • If more than one chartered accountant fulfils these criteria, the most economic offer shall be selected.

 

3) Audit report and deliverables

There has to be a chartered accountant report for each year of project duration.

The audit report of the chartered accountant shall consist of:

  • Financial statement, audit certificate and the annexes

 

A. Financial Statement

  • The original expenditure plan for the project has to be the base for the financial statement of the chartered accountant.
  • The financial statement has to give detail on exact expenses with each item of the expenditure plan in local currency.
  • There has to be a comparison between expenditures plan for the respective year
    and real expenditures.
  • There has to be detail on the exact amount and dates of funds received from the donor and the interest from the project bank account (list of each instalment received with amount and date).
  • It has to be reported if the balance in bookkeeping corresponds to the effective cash (bank account a cash box).
  • For each item of the expenditure plan there has to be a comparison between planned budget and real expenses. The deviation between planned and real expenses has to be expressed in figures and in percentages.
  • In case of deviations by more than 30% (lower or higher costs!!!) the chartered accountant has to report about this and the explanation given by the project in his/her certificate.

 

For the financial statement you should use the format “Quantitative documentary proof” (see Annex 1) for the quantitative documentary proof, added by further requirements mentioned above.

 

B. Auditor's certificate

With the financial statement the auditor has to submit a certificate, in which he shall:

  • confirm that he/she inspected the books according to internationally accepted
    auditing standards.
  • confirm that there is a voucher list about all expenditures regarding the project.
  • state precisely what kind of books, documents etc. for which time period have been
    checked.
  • make clear in his/her audit certificate, which were the terms of reference and the
    base of the audit (reporting all documents and commissions he/she has received
    from Tdh and the local partner)
  • give an opinion on the correctness of the financial statements in material aspects (means: the figures are correct, the balance reported corresponds to the balance on the bank account and in cash, there are no arithmetical faults)
  • include interest rates into the statement
  • give his opinion, if the expenditures correspond to the financial planning for the project, the guidelines of the donors and that the fund has been used for the project purpose.
  • explain deviations from the original cost plan by more than 30% (BMZ) separately
  • give notes on any insufficiencies found during the audit or desirable changes to be made in future.

How to apply

Please include the profile/CV of the Auditing Firm, detailing the relevant experience in auditing NGOs in Lebanon and send it t the following email: [email protected] incuding the recruitment code: TDHIT-MLB-AF001

Previous auditing of BMZ / JIZ / Embassy of Germany-funded projects will be considered an asset.

Kindly note that the selected Firm will be subject to final approval of the Embassy of Germany in Lebanon.

Expired
Deadline
Sunday, 27. Jan 2019
Type of Call
Call for Applications
Intervention Sector(s):
Education