External Audit Terms of Reference

Malawi AIDS Service Organizations (MANASO) is a Network organization with over 1000 members comprising Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Local NGOs and International NGOs in all districts across the country. Its mandate is to coordinate the HIV and AIDS national response among Civil Society Organizations in Malawi. In addition to the coordination role, MANASO also implements activities that focuses on HIV/AIDS, Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), TB, Covid-19, Malaria, Nutrition and Humanitarian response

MANASO Vision: A healthy society free from HIV and AIDS and associated public health issues.

MANASO is seeking proposals for external audit services for the accounts covering the year 1 (January 2023 – 31 December 2023) with an average income of $2.5m

The intention is to appoint the audit firm for a three years’ period, with annual reviews of performance by both sides.

 Period of appointment

The financial statements will cover 12 months from 1^st January to 31^st December. The External auditor will be retained for a period of three years starting with the 2023 financial statements.  After three years, the services will be advertised and the auditor appointed this year will be eligible to retender.

Roles and responsibilities

It is the responsibility of MANASO Senior Management Team to prepare the Financial Statements and make them ready for the purpose of external audit in accordance with the applicable financial reporting standards that relates to preparation and presentation of financial statements

It is the responsibility of the Auditor to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatements whether due to fraud or error, and issuance an opinion in accordance with International Audit Standards.

Audit dates

The Financial Statements must be signed by the board and the Auditor on the date that the parties will discuss and agree during the entry meeting. Before this date; MANASO expects that the audit findings should have been presented to senior management team for comments.

The dates and timetable for the 2024 audit will be agreed at the completion of the 2023 audit however for the 2025, it shall be at the start of the year.

Responsibility of the Auditor regards to MANASO Partners

In the year under review, MANASO was implementing a Community Engagement to Promote Accountability for HIV, SRHR and GBV Quality Health Services, Results and Resources” project with NAPHAM & Innovation for Change (IFC) as sub recipients as well as part of direct project implementation. The auditors are required to perform appropriate audit testing of the transactions and records of partner organisations relating and forming part of MANASO records to enable them to reach an opinion on the truth and fairness of MANASO’s financial statements. And the auditor’s findings and recommendations on them will help MANASO to support the partners to address the identified gaps and improve their financial management as part of the project goal objective of MANASO to these two organizations.

MANASO expects that the audit firm will be able to review all the two organizations with an aim that the recommendations provided are inclusive and conclusive findings and recommendations to these two organizations

Expected Deliverables  

The following outputs among others are expected at the end of the audit exercise:

• Financial statements that shall include Statement of Financial Positions, Income Statement, Statement of changes in Funds and Statement of Cash Flows. This will include the Independent Auditor’s report with an opinion on the truth and fairness of the Financial Statements.
• Management letter with issues ranked as High, Medium and Low risk and comprehensive recommendations to address them. This should include comments on progress against prior year findings.
• In Year 2, the auditor is expected to produce an additional specific donor report for one of the projects that MANASO is implementing in collaboration with two other organizations but this will be subject to the donor approving the auditor that MANASO has selected

Invitation for proposals

Interested audit firms registered and certified by Malawi Accountants Board (MAB) and whose partners are practicing members of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Malawi (ICAM) are eligible to express their interest to this call of proposals

 The firm’s proposal should include both technical and financial with the following areas being pre requisites:

• Profile of the firm
• Comments on the terms of reference
• Proposed approach (methodology) to the assignment
• Details of selected relevant assignments completed in the past three years with at least two of the assignments were for the Non-Governmental Organization
• Staffing level clearly indicating number of staff, hours and rates for partner, manager/supervisors and other audit staff expected to be part of this assignment
• Abridged CVs of senior staff members that includes partners, managers and supervisors that would be assigned to MANASO audit
• Financial Proposal, indicating the basis of determining audit fees and the estimated audit fees for the first year, and projected fees for year two and three on an assumption that the volume remains constant. In addition, firm should include estimates for expenses such as travel, accommodation, per diems, stationery etc.

The deadline for proposals is 17^th September 2024

Proposals should be delivered to:

Executive Director, MANASO, Chitukula Street, Area 47/4/633, P.O Box 30493, Lilongwe 3  and should be sent to: procurement@manaso.mw

For any queries, please contact The Head of Finance & Administration – hchivunga@manaso.mw

Selection criteria

The selection of successful audit firm will be based on the above listed documents and the evaluation will look on the technical proposal, staff experiences, sizes of recent similar assignments carried and fee.