External Audit Services

SOS Children's Villages Lebanon is planning to finalize a contract with a highly specialized external service provider for the provision of auditing services.

An auditor's assessment of the correctness of the organization accounts will be an invaluable source of support for SOS members and supervisory bodies, helping them fulfill their monitoring function. The purpose of the present tender is to select a qualified company specialized in auditing consulting services to perform financial audit for SOS Children’s Villages - Lebanon accounts and Financial Statements for the financial years from 2021 to 2023. This Call for Tender includes a description of the required services and instructions to be followed to take part in the tendering process.

2 Subject of the contract

The purpose of the audit will be to conduct the examination of the SOS Lebanon accounts and the annual Financial Statements, including the balance sheet of the assets and liabilities and profit and loss account and accompanying disclosures and notes, in order to gain assurance on the effective functioning of the management and control systems, and to give an evaluation of the appropriateness of accounting policies used and of the reasonableness of accounting estimates, made by the management; the Auditors is requested to give its professional opinion on these Financial Statements, whether they are prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the applicable financial reporting framework, that is a general purpose one. The examination will be aimed to check and make certain that the SOS accounts and annual Statements are correct and complete. The audit activity will entail an investigation on the accounting records, the internal control policies and accounts, to make sure they are in line with the accounting standards. The result of this examination will be a “Certification of Financial Statements” expressed by the independent Auditor, representing the opinion of the Auditor on the fairness appropriateness correctness accuracy of the annual Statements of accounts and related disclosures. It is worth noting, that, the Financial Statements of SOS, adopts an accrual-based accounting system.

1. 3. Duration and maximum volume of the Contract

The duration of the contract will regard three financial years: 2021, 2022 and 2023. The contract might be renewed, previous written decision, for one time under specific conditions to be agreed by all Parties, in line with those provided in this tender.

1. 4. Standards

Audit of Annual Financial Statement of SOS Children’s Villages Lebanon prepared in accordance with General Secretariat Guideline for the SOS Children's Villages Organisation “ACCOUNTING STANDARD” (Statement of financial activities, Cash flow statement, Balance sheet, Statement of changes in accumulated funds) for completeness and accuracy from January 1 to December 31 of the past financial year. In addition, it needs to comply with generally and internationally accepted standards.

Special requests:

1. 1.  Audit of fixed assets register reports including acquisition value, depreciation and book value for all fixed assets and a separate report about land/buildings not in use.
   2.  Explicit note/information on social liabilities.

3- The Child Money Gifts:

• Balance brought forward from previous financial year-end
• Income from Child Money Gifts
• Its disbursement to children/young people during the year
• Balance of Child Money Gifts at the end of the year

4. Obtaining reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free from material misstatements. Any deficiencies must be reported, e.g. deficiencies in internal controls.
5. Follow-up of the recommendations of the management letter of previous year audit report.

1. 5. The Audit Package

On completion of the audit program, the auditor should submit to the NA the following documents, signed and stamped, as the audit package:

• Audit report and auditors’ independent opinion on Annual Financial Statement of SOS Children’s Villages Lebanon prepared in accordance with General Secretariat Guideline for the SOS Children's Villages Organisation “ACCOUNTING STANDARD” (Will be provided upon request).
• Audited Annual Financial Statement of SOS Children’s Villages Lebanon  prepared in accordance with General Secretariat Guideline for the SOS Children's Villages Organisation “ACCOUNTING STANDARD” (Statement of financial activities, Cash flow statement, Balance sheet, Statement of changes in accumulated funds).
• Audit of fixed assets register reports including acquisition value, total depreciation and book value for all fixed assets, and a separate fixed assets register report about land/buildings not in use.
• Management letter which indicates the recommendations given by the auditor to the NA. Response from management and follow-up of previous year’s management letter recommendations also form part of the management letter.
• Consolidated trial balance for 20xx generated from prescribed accounting system Dynamics NAV. Trial balance for 20xx must include the full range of account codes for all programme units (facilities) and construction projects running in 20xx.
• International standardized audit questionnaire, one consolidated for 20.., as per prescribed format (Will be provided upon request). The document aims to summarize significant key points of the respective audit and thus to give a standardized overview of the key findings.
• Deadline for submitting the draft audit report is 30th of April, while for the final audit report and complete package is 30th June in the year of the audit.  Any delay might be subject of contractual penalties

Construction Projects 

Separate chapter within the general audit report for on-going construction project(s) - This will only be applicable in the event of any construction projects: xxx (NAV facility code xxx) started in 20xx, etc. Additionally, the chapter shall include the auditor’s statement on the following questions related to any sales of properties:

• Did the handover of property take place (including registration of the property in the name of the new owner)?
• Was the contract prepared or crosschecked by a lawyer or a legal advisor?
• Have the agreed revenues been transferred?
• Has the sale been posted correctly in the accounting records?

Additionally the following list of documents is required per each of the completed construction projects, signed and stamped by the auditor:

• Separate chapter within the Audit Report has to include balances from the start of the construction project until the end of the project including international transfers/local income, expenditures, remaining funds balance. The audit report has to clearly mention that the construction project is completed.
• International standardized audit questionnaire for Construction Costs, as per prescribed format (Will be shared upon request).
• Trial balance for the respective construction project showing the chart of accounts with balances and net changes. Trial balance must include the full range of account codes for the construction projects. The document should be generated from the prescribed accounting software (Dynamics NAV).

Completed construction projects:

1. NEW/REN/EXT/PUR XXX (ending month/year)
2. XXX (ending month/year)