Company Profile

Oxfam is a rights-based global development organization with more than 70 years of experience in more than 90 countries worldwide. Oxfam’s mission is to end the injustice of poverty and inequality through systemic change and the advancement of political, economic and social rights. Oxfam has been working in Ghana since 1986, managing programs related to food security and livelihoods, universal access to education and healthcare and transparency and accountability in extractive industries (mining, oil and gas).

Oxfam’s experience in Ghana and strong partnerships with government institutions, Ghanaian civil society organizations and NGOs supports the delivery of active and innovative programs and advocacy work seeking to improve the livelihoods of Ghanaians and strengthen citizen accountability. Oxfam in Ghana currently works in 11 out of Ghana’s 16 administrative regions.

Job Description

TERMS OF REFERENCE

GHANA DANIDA STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP II (SP II) PROJECT AUDIT

BACKGROUND

Oxfam is a global community who beleive poverty is not  inevitable. Poverty is  an injustice that can be overcome. We are women’s right activists, policy experts, campainers,  and more. And we wont stop until; everyone can live life without poverty for good.

Beginning April 2021, Oxfam Ghana began implementation of the roadmap to transition the country office into an influencing program as part of the Country Mapping Review Process. This require transforming the operating models by reducing progressively Oxfam program footprint, while maintaining substantive programmatic work, focusing more on influencing and advocacy, engaging more with the private sector and working more in urban and peri-urban settings with Women Right Organizations (WROs) and Youth Movements. A new Country Strategy was developed, consolidating the various areas of programming into three main Pillars namely, A Just Economy, Gender and Social Inclusion, and Accountable Governance. The Danida Strategic Partnership II based on it outcomes and objectives is placed under the Accountable Governance Pillar. April 2022 marked the beginning of full implementation of the new strategy .

DANIDA SP II (2022 – 2025)

The Danida Strategic Partnership II Initiative for Ghana and West Africa  works to ensure that Women, young people and communities of Ghana live in a more equal, just, accountable, peaceful and sustainable country that leaves no one behind and provides a resilient, sustainable future through just societies, gender and climate justice. It seeks to achieve this impact objective by pursuing three specific objectives detailed below;

Just societies: , This component is designed to contribute to ensuring that the governance system, including the education system, at local and national level, is influenced by a diversified, and representative civil society to be more democratic, accountable, inclusive, gender transformative and delivering quality pro-poor public services.

Leaving no one behind: The object of this component is that the governance system and key actors at subnational and national levels, ignited by civil society movements and alliances, actively promote a progressive agenda, ensuring no one is left behind, including women and youth, to ascertain just, inclusive, accountable, and peaceful Ghanaian societies.

Climate Justice: This component is aimed at ensuring that sustainable green solutions are increasingly adopted, leading to positive and just change for those least responsible and hardest hit by climate change.

In line with Oxfam Internation(OI) Vision 2020 Model, Oxfam IBIS (Oxfam Denmark) is the Partner Affilaite responsible for this project, and the contract holder with Danida in Denmark. Oxfam Country office is responsible for implementing the country programme, holding partnerships with local CSOs and being accountable to the donor through reporting to Oxfam IBIS.

DANIDA funding is annual (calendar year) throughout the project period 2022 – 2025, and any unspent funds at the Country Office and/or its Partner(s) cannot be transferred to a subsequent calendar year. Any unspent funds on 31 December each calendar year shall be returned to the Partner Affiliate(PA) in accordance with PA instruction or shall be deducted from the transfers of funds as regulated in the Payment Schedule of an OPA Addendum for a subsequent calendar year.

The reporting year for Danida is fixed to the calendar year January – December. This means that Partner budgets and Partner contracts are for the calendar year. The DANIDA grants are made available in DKK (Danish Crowns). Annual Project budgets are expressed in DKK.  The currency of reporting for the grant is DKK regardless of the currency in which the budget is developed. Danida does not accept currency exchange loss or interest rate gains as part of the reporting. Expense reporting is done on quarterly basis by the CO in DKK in accordance with the EA’s exchange rate policy.

FLOW OF FUNDS

The flow of funds between Partner Affiliate (PA), Executing Affiliate (EA) and Country Office (CO) /Oxfam International (OI) is treated as an integrated part of the Oxfam Project Agreement. The flow of Donor funds to the Project is as follows:

• The PA transfers Donor funds to the EA on a quarterly basis in accordance with the Oxfam Project Agreement’s Payment Schedule and inform the CO accordingly,
• The PA transfers Donor funds to the EA to a dedicated Project currency account belonging to the EA. Each transfer includes the PA’s and EA’s respective Project reference number/code,
• The PA pre-funds Projects quarterly, however Donor funds are only released by the PA (Oxfam IBIS) to the Oxfam GB (EA) when the conditions of the Oxfam Project Agreement’s Payment Schedule are met by the EA and CO.
• The EA transfers Donor funds to the CO Country Bank account belonging to the Ghana programme.
• The CO will provide the PA with the liquidity status upon the PA’s request. This include all inward transfers by the EA to the CO which is done quarterly.

DESCRIPTION OF ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE SYSTEMS

Under the one Oxfam Model, finance systems and controls used for programme implementation is provided by the Executing Affiliate – Oxfam GB. The Country Office uses an electronic accounting system known as “PeopleSoft”, which is a web-based portal accessed through the Internet. Aside the General Ledger, the system consists of other modules for contract management – Crimson, project management – OPAL, Human Resource Management – GOLD, and procurement management – HELIOS. The data base and the security system are managed in Oxford and not in the Country Office.

The DANIDA project has a four-year budget however, on an annual basis, the Country Office in Ghana receives approval for the year’s budget through the signing of an Oxfam Project Agreement – OPA between the Partner Affiliate (Oxfam IBIS), the Executing Affiliate(Oxfam GB) and the Country Office (CO) in the first year of implementation, and an amendment to the OPA in subsequent years. All transactions are recorded in line with the donor grant management requirements and Oxfam GB Financial Manual guidelines.

In the case of Partner Organizations, based on the Partnership Agreement signed with the Country Office, they subscribe to the accounting and administrative instructions issued by Oxfam IBIS and the Country Office for the management and control of the grants.

BUDGET

The annual budget for year one (2022) of the SP II is DKK 5,200,000 (EUR 697,900)

AUDIT OBJECTIVES

• The audit must be performed in accordance with “Audit Instruction concerning the performance of audit tasks” issued by the Global Auditors KPMG, Denmark, each year.
• Establish the reasonableness and give an opinion about the project financial statements (including status of activities and budget utilisation levels) of the activities implemented by Oxfam Ghana Country Office in the period between January 1 and December 31, 2022.
• In addition, the audit must evaluate and verify the following aspects of the grant management requirements:

1. The disbursements registered in Oxfam’s accounting system have been received and registered in the partner organization’s accounting system
2. Compliance with existing legislation in the country
3. The internal control system and the accounting system
4. The expenses incurred by partner organizations have been made according to the project document, work plans and budget approved by Oxfam Ghana
5. Verify that the implementation of activities follows the approved workplans for the auditing period
6. Follow up on audit findings, as reflected in the management letter of the previous period if applicable.
7. That the procurement of goods and services has been made in a transparent and competitive manner and following the guidelines contained in the manual of accounting and administrative instructions for the management of funds provided by Oxfam Ghana to partners.

The observations and findings from this review and verification shall form part of the management letter to be prepared by the Auditor.

• Determine the level of fulfilment of agreements, addendums and procedures established for relating with the Partners (projects / programmes), according to Oxfam and the donor’s regulations.

ANTICIPATED RESULTS

• An annual project audit report: (i) Consolidated = Country Office Expenses - Accra and Tamale; (ii) Direct Project Expenses – per objectives and outcomes; (iii) Schedule of partners’ balances and committed cost. The report should also include the following:

1. The professional opinion from the auditing firm on the reasonableness of the Project Financial Statements (including status of activities and budget utilisation levels) and the status of assets. This should be structured based on auditing standards and the instructions issued by the Global Auditors KPMG, Denmark.
2. A Management Letter about the results of the review with regards to fulfilment of the administrative capacity and internal controls as well as pertinent recommendations to assist in overcoming the weaknesses, should these be identified.
3. The currency of financial statements referred to in paragraph (a) should be DKK.

• An annual project audit report for each partner organization on the subvention approved by Oxfam IBIS according to the partnership agreement and should include:

1. The professional opinion from the auditing firm on the reasonableness of Project Financial Statements (including status of activities and budget utilisation levels) and the status of assets.
2. A Management Letter about the results of the review with regards to fulfilment of the administrative capacity and internal controls as well as pertinent recommendations to assist in overcoming the weaknesses, should these be identified.
3. The currency of financial statements referred to in paragraph (a) should be DKK.

• Final report is due for submission to Oxfam in Ghana by 24/02/23.

METHODOLOGY

• The audit should be planned and performed according to international auditing standards and the instructions from the Global Auditors, KPMG Denmark.
• The annual reviews including any substantive testing will be performed in the premises of the Country Office in Accra and Programme Office in Tamale.
• The annual reviews including any substantive testing for the partner organizations will be performed in the partner organizations’ offices.
• The Audit Partner and Manager , the Country Director, Finance & Operations Lead and Programs & Policy Influencing Lead will discuss the Management Letter on the annual reports in order to include comments, commitments and procedures that management will follow in order to address any weaknesses detected.  This process will take place within the agreed timelines for the workplan prior to the commencement of the audit.
• The Audit Team will discuss the Management Letter on the annual report with Management of each Partner Organization to include in the said letter the comments, commitments, and procedures that Management will follow in order to address the weaknesses detected.  This process will take place within the timelines agreed with the Partner organisation for the audit

OTHERS

With regard to the communication and coordination aspects of any issue related to the annual project audit, the auditing firm shall refer directly to the Finance and Operations Lead, Oxfam in Ghana or the Country Director, and shall also keep in close communication with him / her regarding the follow up and progress of the audit.

Should the external auditor detect any form of fraud or misappropriation of funds, he / she should immediately inform the Country Director (CD), and when uncomfortable speaking to the CD, please use the Whistleblower mechanism provided by OXFAM IN GHANA

TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

Interested Audit Firms should submit a proposal to Oxfam in Ghana to undertake the annual audit of the DANIDA SP II project for the four years of the project life. Qualifying Firm must be registered in Ghana, a category A firm per ICAG classification and should have an international affiliation. Audit Firms for previous DANIDA SP Projects in Ghana do not qualify to apply.

The Auditing Firm’s proposal should include:

1. Methodology, range, and approach as to how the auditing firm will perform the external audit
2. The Auditing Firm’s profile including International Affiliation and a list of similar assignments done in the past.
3. Indicate the team composition including professional profile of each member of the team.
4. Fees stating all direct and indirect expenses for the year one project audit. Fees must be in Ghana cedis.