“Our region – our rights: Strengthening regional cooperation, resilience and sustainability of the LGBTI movement in Western Balkans”
 
 
I.              INTRODUCTION
 “ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association”is a non-profit non-governmental regional association focusing on the protection and advancement of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people. ERA is an umbrella association of 70 LGBTI organizations from Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey. Its strategic focus is on national/regional/international lobbying and advocacy, capacity development of its member organisations, grant-making, public campaigning, visibility and research activities, where the “ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association”, hereafter referred to as the “Beneficiary”, as representative of the network signed a grant contract with the Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN) No. 09-164/4-2020 in December 2020 for the implementation of the project “Our region – our rights: Strengthening regional cooperation, resilience and sustainability of the LGBTI movement in Western Balkans”.
The Beneficiary wishes to engage the services of an audit firm for the purpose of auditing the “Our region – our rights: Strengthening regional cooperation, resilience and sustainability of the LGBTI movement in Western Balkans” as stipulated in the grant contract between the beneficiary and BCSDN. 
The audit shall be carried out in accordance with the international audit standards issued by IAASB[1]. The audit shall be carried out by an external, independent and qualified auditor. 
 
II.            DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The objective is to audit the financial report for the period [2021-01-01 to 2021-10-31]as submitted to BCSDN and to express an audit opinion according to ISA 800/805 on whether the financial report of [Our region – our rights: Strengthening regional cooperation, resilience and sustainability of the LGBTI movement in Western Balkans] is in accordance with BCSDN’s instruction for financial reporting as stipulated in the grant contract between BCSDN and the Beneficiary.
 
III.          Additional assignment; according to the agreed upon procedures ISRS 4400, review the following areas in accordance with the Terms of reference below
Mandatory assignments that must be included:

Follow up whether salary costs debited to the project are recorded through the duration of the year in a systemized way and examine whether the salary costs can be verified by sufficient supporting documentation. 
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 BCSDN 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.
Beneficiary’s compliance with the applicable tax legislation with regard to taxes (e.g. PAYE[2]) and social security fees.
Follow up whether the Beneficiary has adhered to the procurement guidelines referred to in the grant contract.
Review if the outgoing balance for the previous period is the same as an incoming balance for the current period.
If the Beneficiary applies modified cash basis as accounting principle, the auditor shall describe the used method and motivate whether the applied accounting principle is acceptable for this type of financial report.
Verify the unspent balance at the end of the financial year against accounting records and its supporting documentation.
 Verify the unspent balance that shall be repaid to BCSDN in the final report.

 
IV.          REPORTING
The reporting shall be done in English. The reporting 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 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. The reporting shall include a Management Letter that discloses all audit findings (significant and other findings), as well as weakness identified during the audit process. The financial report that has been the 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 under section III, shall be reported separately in a “Report of Factual Findings”. The size of the sample reviewed audit reporting shall be stated in the report.
If the auditor conducts an additional assignment according to ISRS 4400 and assesses that the observations presented in the “Report of Factual Findings” include the information that would have been included in a Management Letter, a separate Management Letter does not need to be issued for the ISRS 4400 assignment. Instead, it is sufficient if the “Report of Factual Findings” include an expla
nation as to why a Management letter has not been issued.
 
V.            SELECTION CRITERIA
 

Costs
Relevant experience
Availability of staff with professional qualifications and technical abilities
The results of external quality control reviews
References from other ngo clients
The responsiveness to the request for proposal

 
VI.          DURATION
The tentative start date will be 10.11.2021. 
The actual commencement of the assignment will be officially notified by the Beneficiary.
The duration of the assignment shall be 30 days from the commencement date.
 
VII.        HOW TO APPLY
In English to this mail address: office@lgbti-era.orgwith the subject Audit for project “Our region – our rights: Strengthening regional cooperation, resilience and sustainability of the LGBTI movement in Western Balkans”.
Deadline for application: 26.10.2021
 
 
 
 

[1]The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB)

[2]Pay As You Earn