External Auditor for South East Asia – GROWTH Project

Regional Auditor for South East Asia (GROWTH Project)

Organisation Description:

Organisation Description: Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V. is a German non-governmental organisation, dedicated to excellence in the field of first aid, ambulance service, social service programmes and other projects in the medical and social field. The Federal Headquarters (HQ) are based in Berlin, Germany.

Johanniter International Assistance is the operational unit for humanitarian aid, development co-operation and emergency relief, implementing and supporting projects in Health and Livelihoods with a specific focus on climate change and gender equality worldwide. (www.thejohanniter.org).

Background:

Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V. (Johanniter International Assistance) has been working in South East Asia since 2008, implementing projects in the field of health, nutrition, WASH, Livelihood, and disaster preparedness.

Project to be covered by Audit

Project Name: Grassroots Organizational Development – Working Towards Humanity (GROWTH) in South East Asia”

Donor: BMZ (Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung)

Project Period: 01.11.2018 to 31.07.2022

Project Duration: 3.9 years

Total budget of the project: 1,882,974 Euros

Country : Cambodia, Philippines and Myanmar.

Total number of Partners : 5 partners

Audit Services Required

• An audit firm will be required to conduct an audit at the Partner Organization (Cambodia, Philippines, Myanmar)
• The audit will be carried out in accordance with either International Auditing Standards.
• The audit period is from 01.07.2022 to 31.07.2022.
• The Scope of the audit is to be covered as follows:
• Verifying accounting records for correctness and completeness.
• Verifying the financial report in which all project-related revenues and expenditures must be shown and for which it must be confirmed that receipts are provided for all revenues and expenditures.
• Verifying how the provided project funds have been managed. This includes:
• Project funds transferred to the project partner in the current budget year or during the project term
• Interest earned in the current budget year or during the project term from project funds transferred to the project partner
• Other revenues from the project activity.
• Verifying to what extent the funds have been used appropriately for the purpose of carrying out the planned project objectives and activities.
• Verifying the cost-effectiveness of expenditure with regard to financial resources (to be used economically and as effectively as possible).
• Verifying the personnel costs and social security contributions to ensure that they are in line with local standards, legal in the respective project country and, above all, that they comply with contracts and that the contributions required by law are being withheld.
• Verifying that the cost plan is being adhered to by means of a comparison of objectives and effects (based on the most recent valid budget).
• Verifying the economic use of project equipment.
• Verifying the procured inventory, where it is being held and whether it has been/is being used appropriately for the purpose of carrying out the planned project objectives and activities.
• Verifying and confirming that project-relevant documentation is complete and correct.
• Verifying that all agreements fundamental to the project are being adhered to (contracts,
• German private executing agency guidelines, BMZ funding requirements, BN Best-P/private executing agencies and BMZ contract award guidelines.

Audit certificate

The report of the external audit must include the following:

Ø Presentation of the audit assignment and scope with extensive comments on the audit findings. The auditor must also state which documents were used for the audit of the appropriate use of funds and compliance within the project term.

• Recommendations in case of complaints.
• Budget (most recent version), with the structure used for the financial report, provided for the final report and presented as provided annexes. The comparison of planned and actual expenditure is shown in the currency in which the expenditure was incurred. The audit will not convert these amounts to Euros.
• Deviations of actual expenditure from the planned expenditure in the most recent budget that exceeds 30% of individual budget items, (main items in the budget), must be explained and reasoned separately.
• Deviations of actual expenditure from the planned expenditure in the current budget that exceeds 30% of individual budget sub-categories, reasons must be given.
• The final audit certificate must state the following (minimum requirement), by the external auditor and adapted :

“We hereby certify that we have audited the statement of accounts of [name of project partner in developing country] regarding the financing of the project [name]. Our audit was carried out on the basis of the following requirements pertaining to the use of funding: [List of relevant contracts and documents]. To this end, we have inspected the books and receipts. Based on our audit, we confirm that:”

Following this, the audit should provide specific statements on the following questions:

1. To what extent has all income and expenditure been properly documented by means of receipts?
2. To what extent has documented expenditure complied with its application and project approval and to what extent is it in keeping with the appointed purpose and the most recent budget? Have any deviations from the most recent budget been explained separately?
3. To what extent has documented income, that is accounted for as contributions made by the local project partner, the target group and/or other agencies in the project country been specified correctly and its origin explained in accordance with specifications?
4. To what extent were the donor’s conditions that were specified in the project agreement met? What response was there to these conditions? Which of these conditions were not adhered to and were reasons given for this?
5. Which special aspects – positive or negative – should be mentioned with regard to this project?
6. The audit certificate should draw a clear conclusion regarding adherence to the binding arrangements made in the project agreement.

• The following must be adhered to in order to ensure the quality of the audit certificate:

The minimum requirements for audit certificates specified in the BMZ funding guidelines may not merely be reproduced pro forma in the auditor’s reports. As audit certificates replace receipts as proof of proper use of funds, the auditor is required (among other things) to provide information in the audit certificate about any special aspects (relating to the project in question). Specific statements on the audit conducted on the project in question (i.e. which revenues and expenditure were examined, whether planned project activities were implemented) and on the individual audit findings must be made. If there were no findings, this must also be explicitly mentioned in the report.

In drawing up their audit certificate, the recognized, independent auditor shall follow the structure used for the financial report provided for the fund utilization report. Here, the auditors shall explain the auditing mandate they were given and shall give an account of the documents used for the audit of proper use of funds and compliance with the terms of funding. The key statements (in particular the audit findings) and the final audit certificate (see Point 2) must.

• Audit certificates can be submitted in German, English, French and Spanish.

Qualifications for Auditor

• The auditor must be independent. They should work to an internationally recognised standard.
• Certified Chartered Accountant with working experience minimum of 5 years.
• Should have experience in international auditing, South East Asia.
• Should have experience and familiar with BMZ project auditing.