Audit Services

External Audit – Uganda Country Office IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 1 of 18 Request for Proposals (RfP) EXTERNAL AUDIT Purpose: The auditor is required to express an opinion on the financial statements of 2022 and 2023 by seeking assurance as to whether they are free of material misstatements.

Requested by Uganda Country Office (UCO), Corporate Service Department Project Nunber: P9328 RfP Reference Number: UCO-Auidt-P90328-01.

Welcome to this Procurement by IUCN.

You are hereby invited to submit a Proposal.

Please read the information and instructions carefully because non-compliance with the instructions may result in disqualification of your Proposal from this Procurement.

1.

REQUIREMENTS 1.1.

A detailed description of the services to be provided can be found in Attachment 1.

2.

CONTACT DETAILS 2.1.

During this procurement, i.e.

from the publication of this RfP to the award of a contract, you may not discuss this procurement with any IUCN employee or representative other than the following contact.

You must address all correspondence and questions to the contact, including your Proposal.

IUCN Contact: Email address: 3.

PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE 3.1.

This timetable is indicative and may be changed by IUCN at any time.

If IUCN decides that changes to any of the deadlines are necessary, we will publish this on our website and contact you directly if you have indicated your interest in this procurement (see Section 3.2). DATE ACTIVITY 22nd April 2024 Publication of the Request for Proposals 24th April 2024 Deadline for expressions of interest 6 th May 2024 Deadline for Submission of Proposal 13th May 2024 Expected contract award date 14 th June 2024 Expected contract end date 3.2.

Please email the IUCN contact to express your interest in submitting a Proposal by the deadline stated above.

This will help IUCN to keep you updated regarding the procurement.

Please submit a complete proposal by the deadline for proposal submission stated above and according to the guidelines presented below.

External Audit – Uganda Country Office IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 2 of 18 4.

COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL 4.1.

Your Proposal must consist of the following four separate documents: • Signed Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2) • Pre-Qualification Information (see Section 4.3 below) • Technical Proposal (see Section 4.4 below) • Financial Proposal (see Section 4.5 below) 4.2.

Proposals must be prepared in English.

4.3.

Your Proposal must be submitted by email to the IUCN Contact (see Section 2). The subject heading of the email shall be [RfP Reference No.

UCO-Auidt-P90328-01.– bidder name]. The bidder name is the name of the company/organisation on whose behalf you are submitting the Proposal, or your own surname if you are bidding as a self-employed consultant.

Your Proposal must be submitted in PDF format.

You may submit multiple emails suitably annotated, e.g.

Email 1 of 3, if attached files are too large to suit a single email transmission.

You may not submit your Proposal by uploading it to a file-sharing tool.

IMPORTANT: Submitted documents must be password-protected so that they cannot be opened and read before the submission deadline.

Please use the same password for all submitted documents.

After the deadline has passed and within 12 hours, please send the password to the IUCN Contact.

This will ensure a secure bid submission and opening process.

Please DO NOT email the password before the deadline for Proposal submission.

4.4.

Pre-Qualification Criteria IUCN will use the following Pre-Qualification Criteria to determine whether you have the capacity to provide the required goods and/or services to IUCN.

Please provide the necessary information in a single, separate document.

Pre-Qualification Criteria 1 3 relevant references of clients similar to IUCN / similar work 2 Confirm that you have all the necessary legal registrations to perform the work 3 State your annual turnover for each of the past 3 years 4 How many employees does your organisation have who are qualified for this work?

4.5.

Technical Proposal The Technical Proposal must address each of the criteria stated in the table below explicitly and separately, quoting the relevant criteria reference number (in the two middle-columns). Proposals in any other format will significantly increase the time it takes to evaluate, and such Proposals may therefore be rejected at IUCN’s discretion.

Where CVs are requested, these must be of the individuals who will actually carry out the work specified.

The individuals you put forward may only be substituted with IUCN’s approval.

IUCN will evaluate Technical Proposals with regards to each of the following criteria and their relative importance as follows: SN Description Information to provide Relative weight 1 Technical capability 1.1 State your understanding of the assignment objectives and tasks.

15 1.2.

State your understanding of the expected outputs and provide technical solutions and expected outcomes.

25 External Audit – Uganda Country Office IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 3 of 18 1.3.

Define the equipment, techniques, tools, approaches, and methods to be used in executing the assignment.

25 1.4.

Provide assignment time schedule in conformity with assignment scheduling and duration.

5 2 Past performance alignment and coherence with current assignment objectives and tasks 2.1.

Provide your past performance/ relevant experience that match with the current assignment.

10 2.2.

Indicate key personnel and their qualifications, expertise and past work experience that match with the current assignment.

10 2.3.

Attach detailed CVs of individuals whose qualifications, expertise, and past work experience match with the current assignment, and who will carry out the work specified.

10 TOTAL 100% 4.6.

Financial Proposal 4.6.1.

The Financial Proposal must be a fixed and firm price for the provision of the goods/services stated in the RfP in their entirety.

4.6.2.

Prices include all costs Submitted rates and prices are deemed to include all costs, insurances, taxes (except VAT, see below), fees, expenses, liabilities, obligations, risk and other things necessary for the performance of the Terms of Reference or Specification of Requirements.

IUCN will not accept charges beyond those clearly stated in the Financial Proposal.

This includes applicable withholding taxes and similar.

It is your responsibility to determine whether such taxes apply to your organisation and to include them in your Financial Proposal.

4.6.3.

Applicable Goods and Services Taxes Proposal rates and prices shall be exclusive of Value Added Tax to ensure that we are comparing like for like.

This applies regardless of whether the IUCN office in question is exempt from VAT.

4.6.4.

Currency of proposed rates and prices All rates and prices submitted by Proposers shall be in Uganda Shillings.

4.6.5.

Breakdown of rates and prices Include here all the required price information breakdown, for example daily rates or unit prices for goods.

The price needs to be broken down as follows: SN Description Quantity Unit Price Total Price 1 Professional fees 2 Per diems/Day Day Allowance 3 Reimbursables (specify below) a) b) c) d) 4 Travel expenses External Audit – Uganda Country Office IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 4 of 18 TOTAL 4.7.

Additional information not requested by IUCN should not be included in your Proposal and will not be considered in the evaluation.

4.8.

Your Proposal must remain valid and capable of acceptance by IUCN for a period of 90 calendar days following the submission deadline.

4.9.

Withdrawals and Changes You may freely withdraw or change your Proposal at any time prior to the submission deadline by written notice to the IUCN Contact.

However, in order to reduce the risk of fraud, no changes or withdrawals will be accepted after the submission deadline.

5.

EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS 5.1.

Completeness IUCN will firstly check your Proposal for completeness.

Incomplete Proposals will not be considered further.

5.2.

Pre-Qualification Criteria Only Proposals that meet all of the pre-qualification criteria will be evaluated.

5.3.

Technical Evaluation 5.3.1.

Scoring Method Your Proposal will be assigned a score from 0 to 10 for each of the technical evaluation criteria, such that ‘0’ is low and ‘10’ is high.

5.3.2.

Minimum Quality Thresholds Proposals that receive a score of ‘0’ for any of the criteria will not be considered further.

5.3.3.

Technical Score Your score for each technical evaluation criterion will be multiplied with the respective relative weight (see Section 4.4) and these weighted scores added together to give your Proposal’s overall technical score.

Subject to the requirements in Sections 4 and 7, IUCN will award the contract to the bidder whose Proposal achieves the highest total score.

6.

EXPLANATION OF PROCUREMENT PROCEDURE 6.1.

IUCN is using the invitation procedure, the contracting opportunity is not published and only invited suppliers may participate.

There must be a minimum of three compliant Bids received for this procurement.

This means that the contracting opportunity is not published on IUCN’s website 6.2.

You are welcome to ask questions or seek clarification regarding this procurement.

Please email the IUCN Contact (see Section 2), taking note of the deadline for submission of questions in Section 3.1.

6.3.

All Proposals must be received by the submission deadline in Section 3.1 above.

Late Proposals will not be considered.

All Proposals received by the submission deadline will be evaluated by a team of evaluators in accordance with the evaluation criteria stated in this RfP.

No UCO-Auidt-P90328-01.

The contract will be awarded to the bidder whose Proposal received the highest Total Score.

IUCN does, however, reserve the right to cancel the procurement and not award a contract at all.

6.4.

IUCN will contact the bidder with the highest-scoring Proposal to finalise the contract.

We will contact unsuccessful bidders after the contract has been awarded and provide detailed External Audit – Uganda Country Office IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 5 of 18 feedback.

The timetable in Section 3.1 gives an estimate of when we expect to have completed the contract award, but this date may change depending on how long the evaluation of Proposals takes.

7.

CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION IN THIS PROCUREMENT 7.1.

To participate in this procurement, you are required to submit a Proposal, which fully complies with the instructions in this RfP and the Attachments.

7.1.1.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted a complete and fully compliant Proposal in English.

7.1.2.

Any incomplete or incorrectly completed Proposal submission may be deemed noncompliant, and as a result you may be unable to proceed further in the procurement process.

7.1.3.

IUCN will query any obvious clerical errors in your Proposal and may, at IUCN’s sole discretion, allow you to correct these, but only if doing so could not be perceived as giving you an unfair advantage.

7.2.

In order to participate in this procurement, you must meet the following conditions: • Free of conflicts of interest • Registered on the relevant professional or trade register of the country in which you are established (or resident, if self-employed) • In full compliance with your obligations relating to payment of social security contributions and of all applicable taxes • Not been convicted of failing to comply with environmental regulatory requirements or other legal requirements relating to sustainability and environmental protection.

• Not bankrupt or being wound up • Never been guilty of an offence concerning your professional conduct.

• Not involved in fraud, corruption, a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorism, or any other illegal activity.

7.3.

You must complete and sign the Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2). 7.4.

If you are participating in this procurement as a member of a joint venture, or are using subcontractors, submit a separate Declaration of Undertaking for each member of the joint venture and sub-contractor, and be clear in your Proposal which parts of the goods/services are provided by each partner or sub-contractor.

7.5.

Each bidder shall submit only one Proposal, either individually or as a partner in a joint venture.

In case of joint venture, one company shall not be allowed to participate in two different joint ventures in the same procurement nor shall a company be allowed to submit a Proposal both on its behalf and as part of a joint venture for the same procurement.

A bidder who submits or participates in more than one Proposal (other than as a subcontractor or in cases of alternatives that have been permitted or requested) shall cause all the Proposals with the bidder’s participation to be disqualified.

7.6.

By taking part in this procurement, you accept the conditions set out in this RfP, including the following: • It is unacceptable to give or offer any gift or consideration to an employee or other representative of IUCN as a reward or inducement in relation to the awarding of a contract.

Such action will give IUCN the right to exclude you from this and any future procurements, and to terminate any contract that may have been signed with you.

• Any attempt to obtain information from an employee or other representative of IUCN concerning another bidder will result in disqualification.

External Audit – Uganda Country Office IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 6 of 18 • Any price fixing or collusion with other bidders in relation to this procurement shall give IUCN the right to exclude you and any other involved bidder(s) from this and any future procurements and may constitute a criminal offence.

8.

CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION 8.1.

IUCN follows the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The information you submit to IUCN as part of this procurement will be treated as confidential and shared only as required to evaluate your Proposal in line with the procedure explained in this RfP, and for the maintenance of a clear audit trail.

For audit purposes, IUCN is required to retain your Proposal in its entirety for 10 years after then end of the resulting contract and make this available to internal and external auditors and donors as and when requested.

8.2.

In the Declaration of Undertaking (Attachment 2) you need to give IUCN express permission to use the information you submit in this way, including personal data that forms part of your Proposal.

Where you include personal data of your employees (e.g.

CVs) in your Proposal, you need to have written permission from those individuals to share this information with IUCN, and for IUCN to use this information as indicated in 8.1.

Without these permissions, IUCN will not be able to consider your Proposal.

9.

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE If you have a complaint or concern regarding the propriety of how a competitive process is or has been executed, then please contact . Such complaints or concerns will be treated as confidential and are not considered in breach of the above restrictions on communication (Section 2.1). 10.

CONTRACT The contract will be based on IUCN’s template in Attachment 3, the terms of which are not negotiable.

They may, however, be amended by IUCN to reflect particular requirements from the donor funding this particular procurement.

11.

ABOUT IUCN IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations.

It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.

Headquartered in Switzerland, IUCN Secretariat comprises around 1,000 staff with offices in more than 50 countries.

Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,300 Member organisations and some