Request for Proposals



Request for Proposal (RFP)

Issued on: 11/05/2020

Solicitation Number: US1354.11.2020

For: Annual Auditor of Global Fund Grants

Donor: Global Fund

Proposal Deadline: 11/30/2020

Background

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), an international not for profit non-governmental organization founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States to serve World War II survivors in Europe. Today, it is the official international humanitarian agency of the U.S. Catholic community. It provides support to impoverished and disadvantaged people in over 100 countries overseas based solely on need, regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity. Within the United States, CRS engages Catholics to live their faith in solidarity with the poor and suffering of the world. CRS works with individuals, dioceses, parishes, schools and organizations throughout the United States to offer Catholics at home concrete ways to contribute to the progress of the world by helping the poorest and most vulnerable overseas.

I. Introduction

CRS is seeking an External Audit Services for its Global Fund Prime Recipient Country Programs. The engagement period will be for a 4-year cycle that relates to reporting periods/years ending December 31, 2020 through December 31, 2023. Each engagement period will be for an annual audit.

Scope of Work (SOW)

3 The Independent Auditor will perform an annual financial audit and issue an audit report for each of CRS’ Global Fund Prime Recipient (PR) Country Programs during the audit period,[1] in accordance with The Global Fund’s Guidelines for Annual Audits of Global Fund Grants and Supplements to the Auditing Guidelines (attached) effective during the audit period. The guidelines and related supplements provide, among others, the objectives of the financial audit, scope and approach, auditing and assurance engagement standards to be observed, format and content for audit reports, and timing. The standard audit scope of work is detailed in the Terms of Reference (ToR) for financial audits included in the Supplements.

4 The Independent Auditor will also perform an external audit for the closure period if/when required (refer to section 2.7.1 Grant Closure section of the Guidelines)

a. The Independent Auditor will perform additional ad hoc external audits as may be requested by the Global Fund from time to time

b. The Independent Auditor will physically visit the PR office location during the annual financial audit (and other audit engagements if required by The Global Fund). The engagement partner and/or manager on the audit will visit the field as needed to observe the audit team and the execution of the audit plan. Field office visits to sub-recipients may be required as part of the agreed upon audit procedures.

c. The Independent Auditor will regularly update the Country Program management on the progress/draft findings of the annual financial audit to provide management the opportunity to rectify repairable problems that might delay progress, necessitate an adjustment of billable hours, or require restatement of numbers.

d. The Independent Auditor will report the results of the annual financial audit to the Audit and Risk Management (ARM) Committee, if requested.

e. The Independent Auditor may be required to provide access to records and workpapers relating to work performed by The Global Fund and related parties who may be engaged in efforts to review audit quality.

f. The Independent Auditor may be required to attend an annual meeting with representatives from CRS and The Global Fund to present and review the findings of the annual financial and other audits performed by the Independent Auditor.

II. Annual Deliverables/Outcomes

a. Grant specific financial audit reports, the format and content of which will closely follow the International Standard on Auditing 700 (Revised) as shown in the illustrative comprehensive auditor’s report of the Guidelines (unless otherwise instructed by The Global Fund in writing). Refer to Section 7 of the Guidelines Audit Reports and Opinions and Section 8 Submission and review of the audit report for more details.

b. A Grant Closure audit report, if/when required.

c. Report for ad hoc or special external audit/s requested by the Global Fund.

d. ARM Committee meeting report or presentation materials.[2]

Clarifications

Questions must be submitted via e-mail to anthony.russell@ no later than close of business 11/13/2020. The solicitation number indicated above must be included in the subject line. Responses will be provided to all known offerors. CRS is under no obligation to respond to questions that are not received prior to the aforementioned deadline.

Proposal Deadline

All proposals must be received by CRS no later than [11:59 PM for electronic submission] 11/30/2020. The solicitation number indicated above must be included in the subject line.

Modification

If at any time prior to award CRS deems there to be a need for a significant modification to the terms and conditions of this RFP, CRS will issue such a modification as a written RFP amendment to all competing offerors. No oral statement of any person shall in any manner be deemed to modify or otherwise affect any RFP term or condition, and no offeror shall rely on any such statement. Such amendments are the exclusive method for this purpose.

Resulting Award

a. Single contract: As a result of this solicitation, CRS anticipates entering into a 4-year agreement with the selected vendor starting December 31, 2020 through December 31, 2023. Each engagement period will be for an annual audit.

b. Any resulting contract will be subject to the terms and conditions contained in Annex A.

Payment Terms

Fixed Price: Payment will be made according to milestones.

Proposal Guidelines and Instructions

Offerors will be required to submit two proposals, electronically, one a technical proposal and the other a cost proposal. All proposals must be signed and valid for a minimum of sixty (60) days.

Your proposal should provide basic information about your Company/Individual and relevant service offerings. It should have a section addressing each of the following areas:

a. Company/Individual Profile

b. Past Performance

c. Technical Approach (offeror will be evaluated based on their responsiveness to the Scope of Work)

d. References

e. Relationship disclosure and mitigation plan

Responses should include the following information:

III. Technical Proposal (80%)

a. Proposals should include a discussion of the selection criteria listed below and a copy of the most recent peer review report.

b. Auditor selection and accreditation is also subject to minimum requirements and approval procedures set forth in Section 4.2 of the Guidelines for Annual Audits of Global Fund Grants.

c. Bidders are encouraged to submit a list of client references to demonstrate experience in the not-for-profit industry and the international non-governmental organization sector.

d. Please submit a general plan addressing the nature and timing of any interim work.

e. Describe any personal or familial relationships any employee of the Contractor has with any employee of CRS. If there is a relationship, please explain how any conflict of interest risk will be mitigated.

f. Disclosure does not automatically disqualify offeror.

IV. Cost Proposal (20%)

Offerors pricing should be based on the following:

i. Fee Schedule

a. Itemized by deliverables and audit period

Evaluation Criteria

In evaluating the proposals, CRS will seek the best value for money rather than the lowest priced proposal. CRS will use a two-stage selection procedure:

a. the first stage will evaluate the Technical Proposal. CRS will review the proposals and may ask follow-up questions should refinements be necessary. CRS may schedule presentations with the Independent Auditors who in the judgment of CRS have submitted a competitive proposal.

b. the second stage will evaluate the Cost Proposal for proposals that pass the Technical Proposal evaluation.

Specifically, the Audit and Risk Management committee will evaluate each technical proposal upon the following criteria:

|Criteria |Points Available|

|Bid Submission |Pass/Fail |

|Bid submitted on time | |

|Offeror is eligible to receive funding per background checks | |

|Any potential conflict of interest is sufficiently mitigated | |

|Presence of local audit offices or affiliates in the named countries in |30 |

|Africa in which CRS is the prime recipient for Global Fund program | |

|Experience in Global Fund audits, and audits of entities under US GAAP |25 |

|The experience, qualifications, and technical abilities of the personnel |20 |

|assigned to the engagement | |

|Price |15 |

|Overall experience in the not-for-profit industry and specifically within |5 |

|the international non-governmental organization sector | |

|Results of the most recent peer and external quality control review |5 |

|Total Points Available |100 |

The Bid Committee will tally all the individual scores for each section and calculate the average score. The total average scores, will be added to obtain the total points achieved by the individual supplier. If the total number points meets or exceeds the threshold established in the evaluation methodology, the suppliers cost proposal will be eligible for consideration.

The score for the cost proposal will be calculated in the following manner:

Cost proposal score = 100 x Lowest cost/ cost of the proposal under consideration. The lowest cost proposal will receive the full 100 points.

The total score will be calculated as follows:

Total Score= Technical proposal score of the proposal under consideration multiplied by 80 percent plus (+) Cost proposal score of the proposal under consideration multiplied by 20 Percent

CRS is not bound to accept the lowest or any proposal and reserves the right to accept any proposal in whole or in part and to reject any or all proposals.

CRS shall not be legally bound by any award notice issued for this RFP until a contract is duly signed and executed with the winning offeror.

V. Terms

CRS reserves the right to cancel this solicitation at any point and is under no obligation to issue a contract as a result of this solicitation.

CRS will not reimburse any expenses related to the preparation of any proposal related materials or delivery.

Agreement

Any resulting agreement will be subject to the terms and conditions contained in the annex. See

Annex A

ANNEX A: TERMS & CONDITIONS

Catholic Relief Services’ Standard Terms and Conditions can be found at , or obtained from CRS upon request, and are binding as applicable under local law.

ANNEX B: GLOBAL FUND CODE OF CONDUCT FOR SUPPLIERS

Global Fund Code of Conduct: The Supplier or Service Provider agrees to adhere to the requirements laid out in the Supplier and Service Provider Code of Conduct



ANNEX C: CRS’ CODE OF CONDUCT FOR SUPPLIERS

CRS’ code of conduct: The Supplier or Service Provider agrees to adhere to the requirements laid out in the Supplier and Service Provider Code of Conduct.

ANNEX D: CRS Overview, Background Information, and The Global Fund References:

• CRS website

• 2019 Annual Report

• Audited Financial Statements & Notes Year Ending September 30, 2019

• Guidelines for Annual Audits of Global Fund Grants

• Supplements to the Auditing Guidelines (attached)

ANNEX E: List of CRS Prime Recipient Countries by Reporting Period

|Countries |NFM2 Grants |NFM2 Grants Close out period (Jan-June 2021) |NFM3 Grants |NFM3 Grants |NFM3 Grants |

| |(Oct 2019 - Dec 2020) | |(Jan-Dec 2021) |(Jan-Dec 2022) |(Jan-Dec 2023) |

|Congo Brazzaville |X | |X |X |X |

|Guinea |X | |X |X |X |

|Madagascar | | |X |X |X |

|Mali |X |X (TBC) | | | |

|Niger |X | |X |X |X |

|Nigeria |X |X |X |X |X |

|Sierra Leone |X | |X (TBC) |X (TBC) |X (TBC) |

Notes:

1. Additional countries may be added to the list, if CRS is awarded PR-ship for other GF programs or GF requires a special purpose audit in a country where CRS is a sub-recipient.

2. The current Sierra Leone grant ends June 2021. We will need an audit for the last six months in 2021.

3. TBC = To be confirmed.

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[1] Refer to the Annex for the list of PR countries by reporting period. Additional countries may be added to the list, if CRS is awarded PR-ship for other GF programs or GF requires a special purpose audit in a country where CRS is a sub-recipient.

[2] Meetings are quarterly, and the Independent Auditor may be requested to participate in more than one meeting.

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