Vacancy: Terms of Reference (ToR): End of Project Financial Audit

Company Profile

SEND GHANA, a policy research and advocacy organization, was founded in 1998. The vision of SEND Ghana is “A Ghana where people’s rights and well-being are guaranteed” with a mission “to promote good governance and equality of men and women in Ghana”.  It is headquartered in Accra, with network offices in Tamale and Salaga.

Job Description

Monitoring for Financial Savings (M4FS)

End of Project Financial Audit

 Terms of Reference (ToR)

Introduction

SEND GHANA with funding support from Integrity Action, a UK based nongovernmental organisation for the past two and half years worked with an expanded, yet decentralised citizens monitoring groups to monitor health, education and local economic development related infrastructure and service delivery. The project enabled citizens to monitor public investments in infrastructural initiatives emanating from respective district assemblies and central government in real time including data on the cost of the projects, progress, and quality of services at the community level. To achieve complementarity, the citizens monitoring groups based at the district also monitor implementation of relevant audit report recommendations, particularly, those related to infrastructural provision and service delivery. The total project expenditure for the period under consideration is approximately USD$ 220,000.



As part of the project financial management and close out processes, SEND Ghana in partnership with Integrity Action is looking to contract external financial auditors to audit the project financial reports and documents. 



We therefore wish to invite proposals (technical and financial) for the audit of statement of accounts of the project for the period 1st April 2021 to 30th September,2023 from qualified independent audit firms in good standing to submit proposals.



Note: A copy of practising certificate, qualifications and experiences must be presented with the proposal. 

1. The selected firm will be required to carry out the following work on the project financial records in accordance with ISA 800/805 and ISRS 4400 (Revised):


2. Checking the financial report, which must show all projectrelated income and expenditure and confirm that all income and expenditure is supported by documentary evidence.


3. Review of the extent to which the financial resources were used appropriately in accordance with the planned project objectives and measures. 


4. The auditor’s report shall express an opinion on whether the project financial statements are in accordance with the accounting records and give a true and fair view of your financial position.


5. Cover the competitiveness, transparency and effectiveness of the recruitment and hiring of personnel and include performance appraisal, attendance control, calculation of salaries and entitlements, payroll preparation and payment, and management of personnel records. Follow up whether salary costs debited to the project/programme are recorded throughout the duration of the year in a systemised way and examine whether the salary costs can be verified by sufficient supporting documentation. Examine the partner’s compliance with the applicable tax legislation regarding taxes (e.g., PAYE) and social security fees. 


6. Cover the adequacy of the accounting and financial operations and reporting systems. These include budget control, cash management, certification and approving authority, receipt of funds, and disbursement of funds, recording of all financial transactions in expense reports, records maintenance, and control. 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 Integrity Action for the period. Based on materiality and risk the auditor shall examine whether there is supporting documentation related to incurred costs. Regardless of materiality of the findings the auditor shall quantify the amount for costs lacking sufficient supporting documentation.


7. Cover the adequacy of the procedures for procurement, receipt, storage, and disposal of equipment purchased for use of the project. 


8. Cover the adequacy of procedures for the safeguarding of all cash.

• Examine whether foreign exchange gains/losses are disclosed as a separate item in the financial report as well as disclosed in accordance with what is stipulated in the agreement including appendices and generally accepted accounting principles. 


• Verify the unspent balance at the end of the project against accounting records and its supporting documentation and the amount that should be repaid to Integrity Action (if any). 

1. The report 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 (Revised) and ISRS 4400 (Revised) 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 (Revised) and ISRS 4400 (Revised). 


2. The reporting shall also include a Management letter that discloses all audit findings (significant and other findings), as well as weaknesses identified during the audit process. The financial report that has been subject of the audit shall be attached to the audit reporting. The auditor shall make recommendations to address the identified findings and weaknesses. The recommendations shall be presented in priority order. 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 the agreed upon procedures ISRS 4400, shall be reported separately in a “Report of factual findings”. The size of the sample of reviewed audit reporting shall be stated in the report.

Required Skills or Experience

Qualification Criteria

This paragraph sets out the minimum qualification criteria for the auditor. 

• The auditor is a member of a national body of auditors in good standing, which is a member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). 


• The auditor/audit firm have at least three years’ experience in project audits in the non-governmental organizations sector.