Organisation
Hoffnungszeichen | Sign of Hope e.V.
www.hoffnungszeichen.de, www.sign-of-hope.org
Position
Auditor
Type of Contract
Short-term consultancy
Type of Audit
In depth
Location
Home-based, Lilongwe Malawi
Languages Required
English
Application Deadline
28.09.2025
Starting Date
18.10.2025
Auditing Period
From 01.01.2024 – 30.09.2025
Project Title
Securing sustainable livelihoods for 2,000 subsistence fishermen and smallholder farmers at Lake Malawi (DC-MAL22.02)
Total Project Budget
545,549 EURO
Annual Project Budget
Approx. 216,000 EURO
Hoffnungszeichen | Sign of Hope e.V. (SoH) is announcing an open tender procedure for external independent financial audit services in Malawi.
Background and Organisational Setting
SoH is a Christian motivated organisation for Human Rights, Humanitarian Assistance and Development Cooperation. Based in Constance, Germany, SoH is dedicated to helping those in distress and exploited people worldwide.
An audit is commissioned under the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) funding guidelines for development projects run by private German executing agencies.
SoH will be the private German executing agency and the contracting party, with CADECOMbeing the local implementing agency.
The project objective is to contribute to the sustainable income and food security of 2,000 households in Central Malawi. The measures to achieve the project goals are capacity building for sustainable and climate-adapted farming and fisheries, introducing sustainable forest and fishery management, promoting efficient stoves and solar energy, and improving access to markets and value chains.
Audit Objectives
The purpose of the in-depth audit is to provide SoH with a sound basis for its accountability, transparency and accuracy in the financial disclosure towards the funding agency BMZ. The tasks of this recruitment relate to:
- Two annual audits, with a detailed examination of all the supporting documents for the periods 01.01.2024 – 31.12.2024 and 01.01.2025 – 30.09.2025;
- A conclusive examination of the complete project duration (01.10.2021 – 30.09.2025). Thereby, the auditor can refer to the last annual audit reports to be available at that time.
This in-depth audit will verify the compliance with standards of the funding agency BMZ, SoH, national regulations and the international accounting standards (ISA).
The auditor will review the project’s financial documents, receipts lists, records of transactions, all vouchers and receipts disbursed, and relevant project documents in order to come up with a professional, independent opinion on the financial accounting of the project ‘Securing sustainable livelihoods for 2,000 subsistence fishermen and smallholder farmers at Lake Malawi’ for all funds received and expended by CADECOM from 01.01.2024 to 30.09.2025.
Additionally, the audit shall give recommendations on strengths, weaknesses, and required improvement in the project-related financial and human resources management systems of CADECOM.
The audit will support the project quality assurance measures implemented by SoH and contribute to the decision-making process with regard to the project management and monitoring of finances by SoH and CADECOM.
Expected Deliverables
The auditor is expected to produce an audit report, an audit certificate and a management letter, which will comprise the following:
- Presentation of the scope and mandate of the audit, as well as the list of documents that formed the evidence for the audit,
- An opinion whether financial statements (statement of accounts for the years being audited and the complete project duration) are issued in accordance with the financial reporting framework of the project, BMZ requirements and an internationally recognized accounting standard,
- A checked, signed and stamped list of all project costs receipts, sorted by BMZ budget lines (list is provided by the local implementing partner).
- Recommendations on identified shortcomings, and, if applicable, comments on the follow-up of audit observations and recommendations from previous years.
Audit documents can be issued in English or German.
Scope of the Audit
The audit should focus on the following:
- The correctness and completeness of the accounting records,
- The financial report, showing all project related income and expenditure structured by budget lines,
- Deviations of expenditure by budget lines. The expenditure, which exceeds or falls below the budget appropriations by more than 30 %, shall be explained separately, if the approval of the BMZ has not previously been obtained,
- That receipts and relevant supporting documents are available for all project related income and expenditures,
- The management of the funds made available, which includes the transfer of project funds, all interest earned from the project funds during the reporting period and further income generated by the project,
- Reviewing the appropriate use of funds according to the project objectives,
- Evaluation of the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the usage of funds,
- Budget adherence through the comparison between budgeted and actual costs in the currency in which the expenditure was incurred. The audit report will not convert the examined amounts into the Euro amounts,
- Reviewing if personnel costs and social security contributions conform to the regulations in the project country and are locally comparable,
- The economical use of the project equipment and assets,
- The inventory and the use of capital items, their whereabouts and their purposive usage,
- Compliance with the legal framework of the project (project agreements and annexes, contracts, etc.) and the donor requirements,
- Compliance with the policies of the local implementing partner regarding procurement, financial administration, human resources management and travel.
Procedures and Communication
The auditor will be given access to all necessary documents in the project offices through the local implementing partner CADECOM as well as relevant donor documents through SoH.
The auditor will be responsible to set up a schedule in agreement with the local implementing partner CADECOM. Any expenses for field trips, postal and translation services and other expenses shall be included in the auditor’s proposed budget. CADECOM will support the auditor with logistics and arrangements, however, all payments of the contract will be made directly by SoH.
Qualifications and Experience
- Necessary qualification to serve as a recognized independent auditing authority,
- Minimum of five (5) years of experience conducting external independent audits of projects funded by international institutional donors in Malawi,
- Experience in conducting audits for BMZ-funded projects is beneficial.
How to apply
Application Process
Please submit the following documents as PDF files (documents in other formats will not be accepted) with the subject line “Audit in Malawi, DC-MAL22.02” to procurement@sign-of-hope.org no later than 28.09.2025 23:59 CEST:
- Technical Proposal (as per Terms of Reference above) of no more than 2 pages, including approach and methodology to be used,
- A financial proposal (EUR),
- A qualification certificate of a recognized independent auditing authority as confirmed by a relevant institution in the project country (for example, a chamber of commerce, national association of auditors or another relevant organisation),
- A reference list of three previous customers.
Companies as well as independent auditors are invited for this tender. Female and differently abled candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
Please note that due to a large number of applications we may limit establishing contact to shortlisted applicants.
Bids received after deadline will not be considered. If offers are incomplete, bidders may be able to hand in missing documents within a deadline upon request by SoH.
The selection of the auditor will be conducted jointly by CADECOM and SoH. Interviews with shortlisted candidates will be held online between the 6th and the 17th of October.
The audit agreement will be set up by SoH and CADECOM. Audit agreements set up by auditors won’t be accepted.
Criteria and weighting for the evaluation of the submitted proposals:
- Essential and desirable competencies, proposed methodology: 40 %
- Financial proposal (fee): 30 %
- Performance during interview: 20 %
- Minimum amount of years of relevant experience: 5 %
- Language skills: 5 %