Terms of Reference: Consultancy for Internal Control Review

Contracting organisation: the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation

Type of contract: Consultancy

Duration: April-June 2024

Estimated hours of assignment: 280 hours/ 35 working days

Application deadline: 8^th of March 2024.

Contactperson at Kvinna till Kvinna: Jessica Poh-Janrell, jessica.poh.janrell@kvinnatillkvinna.se

1.     Background:

The Swedish organisation the Kvinna till KvinnaFoundation (Kvinna till Kvinna) supports women in conflict affected areas and post conflict regions to increase women’s power and influence. Today we cooperate with more than 130 women’s organisations in the Western Balkan region, the South Caucasus, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Kvinna till Kvinna started its work at the beginning of the 1990’s in the Western Balkans in response to the atrocities of the war with a focus on women, peace and security. We collaborate and support local women’s rights organisations that play an active part in promoting women’s rights and gender equality. An important part of Kvinna till Kvinna’s work is to support local partner organisations to strengthen their organisational and financial capacity.

As part of this capacity development, Kvinna till Kvinna is contracting a consultant/s to perform an assessment of the internal control systems of two current re-granting partner organisations in North Macedonia; Akcija Zdruzenska and National Network to end violence against women and domestic violence (National Network).Through the internal control review of these organisations we hope to deepen the understanding of the organisations’ strengths and weaknesses, in order to support them to build even more solid internal systems. These organsiations are selected for the assessment in their capacities of re-granting to smaller, local civil society organisations. The learnings from this assessment will be important for Kvinna till Kvinna’s knowledge and practice regarding support to women’s foundations and re-granting organisations.

Brief descriptions of the organisations:

Akcija Zdruzenska (AZ) is one of the most prominent national CSOs in North Macedonia, with 19 years proven record of work in monitoring and policy advocacy towards gender equality at the local, national and international level. The mission of the organisation is to contribute to the advancement of gender equality, by advocating for development and implementation of public policies for achieving equal opportunities for women and men, social inclusion and respect of women’s human rights. The work of the organisation is focused on promoting gender equality as a social value; promoting responsible, transparent and accountable governance in the area of gender equality and women’s rights; strengthening and supporting women’s activism; building capacities and intensifying public debate and collaboration concerning gender equality and women’s rights. AZ has been sub-granting to local organisations since 2020 and has developed a sub-granting strategy and a sub-granting manual, covering the financial and administrative structures and routines for sub-granting. AZ had an annual budget of just below 100.000 EUR in 2023.

The National Network to end violence against women and domestic violence
was formed in 2010 by twenty CSOs that work on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence and has been registered as a legal entity since 2011. The focus of the Network is to coordinate action of CSOs to advance policies and practices in combating violence against women and domestic violence. The network aims for recognition of women’s human rights and their promotion nation-wide. The Network has done re-granting to local organisations since 2020 and has a handbook for re-granting. The annual budget of National Network was 200.000 EUR in 2023.

2.     Aim:

This assignment aims at assessing the internal control systems of two current partner organisations in North Macedonia, Akcija Zdruzenska and National Network to end violence against women and domestic violence (National Network). Through the internal control review of these organisations we hope to deepen the understanding of the organisations’ strengths and weaknesses, in order to support them to build even more solid internal systems. One thing that will be of extra interest is their systems and routines for re-granting to smaller, local civil society organisations. The learnings from this assessment should be useful for Kvinna till Kvinna’s learning and practice regarding support to women’s foundations and re-granting organisations.

3.     The assignment:

This assignment will primarily focus on an analysis of the internal control systems of Akcija Zdruzenska and the National Network to identify strengths and weaknesses of the organisations’ internal routines and systems for operational and financial control. Special attention will be paid to their systems and routines for re-granting to smaller, local civil society organisations. Based on the assessment, the consultant/s should submit findings, including recommendations for potential improvements. The following areas should be assessed:

A.     Organisational structure, governance and legal status

Together with an overall presentation of the organisational structure of organisations, the following areas shall be assessed:

• Does the management structure have clearly defined roles, authorizations and authorities?
• Are there bylaws/statues that clearly stipulate the mandate of the board and the organisation?
• Present the composition of the board; its members different competence’s, the election process and the formal mechanisms in place to ensure the board´s insight in the operation of the organisations.
• Based on the above, do the boards have relevant competence, including competence in financial matters for organisations of this size? Are there any indications of conflict of interest for any board member? Is there a routine for listing the board members’ secondary occupation?
• Describe the decision-making mandate and delegation procedures throughout the whole organisational chain. Assess how formal decision-making mandates and delegation of funds and responsibilities work in practice. Is segregation of duties documented in an office manual or equivalent? Check compliance based on professional judgement.

B.     Funds flow management

• Describe the financial flow within the organisations, including towards the re-grantees.
• Assess the financial situation of the organisations by reviewing the Financial Statements. Are there any red flags related to the Cash & Bank-, Liability- and equity-posts, based on your professional judgement? Are there unrestricted funds available within the organisations?
• Describe the budgetary routines for the organisations and describe how project/programmes are prepared, approved and monitored.

C.     Accounting policies, procedures and practice

• Do the organisations have accounting software that allows for adequate accounting records for organisations of their size and operation? Does the accounting software allow for project accounting?
• Is there an office manual or equivalent stipulating rules and policies regarding (i) travel advances and other types of (ii) advances (iii) petty cash; (iv) inventories; (v) per diem level; (vi) routines for credit cards and (vii) payments etc.? Are regulations as well as rate-levels used to support these items deemed reasonable? Check compliance based on professional judgement.
• Are travels with business class allowed? Is it stipulated what standard of accommodation that is used for workshops and travels?
• Review whether there are systems in place to record salary costs in a systemized way.
• Review salary levels, allowances and benefits (including any bonus schemes, benefit packages both monetary and non-monetary) offered to staff. Are the levels assessed to be competitive and reasonable?
• Review how salary, allowances and benefits structure is revised. Is a board approval necessary for raises and any changes related to top management?
• Review how overhead costs are calculated. Is there a cost recovery model in place? What is included? Do the organisations follow-up and update the model on a regular basis? If so, please describe.
• Describe how the organisations handle foreign exchange gains/losses and review whether the principle for handling and reporting exchange gains/losses is in accordance with good practice.

D.     Risk management

• Describe and verify the system for risk analysis. Is there a systematic and regular follow-up of risks? Are there routines for risk reducing measures? Do these include preventive and proactive measures? Are all staff aware of the routines? Does the risk analysis include risks relating to re-granting?

E.     Audit

• Do the organisations conduct regular organisational audits or only project/programme audits? If organisational audits, please verify:
• Are the organisations audited according to national rules and regulations applicable to their legal form. Describe the type of audit (ISA, USGAAS, national standard, assurance engagement, agreed upon procedures)?
• Do the organisations follow-up and act on weaknesses identified in the audits in a systemized way?
• Verify if the auditor is external, independent and qualified?
• During how many years have the audit firm/signing auditor been auditing the organisation?

F.     Reporting and monitoring

• Describe the organisations’ financial reporting structure (type of reports, budget follow-up, reporting and follow-up frequency). Is the structure relevant for the organisations?
• Do the organisations have adequate IT-systems that are appropriate and include clear routines for segregations of duties?

G.      Procurement policies, procedures and practice

• Are there procurement policies that include adequate rules and regulations to manage planned procurement in compliance with applicable regulations? Do these apply to re-grantees?
• Verify compliance to the procurement policy by reviewing a minimum of three to five different type of procurement actions.

H.     Anti-corruption

• Describe the organisations’ system for anti-corruption. Verify the following:
• Is there an anti-corruption policy or have the organisations in other ways described that they work proactively against corruption and/or other irregularities? (It is not a requirement that the organisation must have a separate documented anti-corruption policy or ethical guidelines/code of conduct policy, but it is important that the organisation as a whole have an adequate system for preventing, detect and taking measures on fraud and corruption). Do the organisations have documented ethical guidelines/code of conduct policy? Do the organisations have routines for reporting “secondary occupation”? Verify if the policies and guidelines are being implemented in a systemized manner?
• Do the organisations have clear reporting channels for handling suspicions of corruption and/or other irregularities? Also in their re-grantees?
• According to the organisations, have any corruption cases occurred, and if so, how has it been handled? If support has been given by Kvinna till Kvinna: have the organisations reported the suspicions to Kvinna till Kvinna?
• What eventual corruption risks have been identified during the assignment?
• Do the organisations’ staff participate in anti-corruption trainings? Are the anti-corruption trainings recurrent and do the organisations keep records of the staff that have participated?
• Is anti-corruption training provided to re-grantees?

I.     Re-granting:

• Do the organisations have certain policies, systems and routines for re-granting to smaller organisations? What areas do they cover and are there essential parts missing? Look for the following:
• Eligibility criteria for sub-grantees;
• Application and selection process, how transparency and fairness of the sub-granting process is ensured etc.;
• MEL system related to the sub-granting process including monitoring meetings/visits;
• Capacity development to sub-grantees;
• Reporting routines (both narrative and financial), and audit;
• Strategy for phase out of sub-grantee;
• Irregularities - how are they documented when identified, and dealt with.

4.     Methodology:

The assessment will be based on reviewing the internal documents of the organisations, as described in the section above. The assessment will also include visits at the offices of the organisations and meetings/interviews with relevant staff at the organisations as well as with relevant staff at Kvinna till Kvinna. It would also be relevant to meet with/interview one or two organisations that have received grants through the orgaisations’ re-granting. The details of the methodology shall be elaborated by the consultant/s and agreed with in dialogue with Kvinna till Kvinna.

4.     Deliverables:

• Draft methodology and detailed timeline, i.e. workplan.
• Draft assessment report.
• Online presentation of draft assessment to Kvinna till Kvinna, AZ and NN in two separate meetings.
• Final assessment report, integrating feedback from Kvinna till Kvinna and including clear recommendations on areas to improve.

6.     Proposed/approximate timeframe:

Task and date

Start-up meeting with Kvinna till Kvinna and approval of submitted workplan

First week of April

Examining documents and visiting partner organisations

15^th of April – 20^th of May

Draft assessments sent to Kvinna till Kvinna.

27^th of May

Presentation of draft assessments to Kvinna till Kvinna, AZ and NN in two separate meetings with the possibility of discussing findings and making clarifications, potential factual errors or missing information.

End of May

Two final assessment reports, one per organisation.

Mid June

7.     Required skills and competencies:

The consultant/s should have:

• University degree in relevant discipline;
• Previous experience from conducting Internal Control Reviews of civil society organisations. If assigned be Sida it is considered a merit;
• Excellent command of English, including writing skills;
• Ability to plan and meet requirements on time;
• Fluency in the local language (Macedonian) is an asset, but we will also consider international candidates.

8.     Specification of requirements in the tender and financial framework:

Tenderers shall specify the consultant responsible for the assignment and potential other consultants participating in the assignment. Tenderers shall specify the level of competence for the consultants allocated to the assignment, including CV/ CVs.

Tenderers shall present the planned methodology for the assignment.

Tenderers shall specify the total cost of the assignment, in the form of an hourly fee for each category of personnel and any other reimbursable costs for the part of the assignment carried out.

The consultant/s’ fees shall be specified as hourly fee or fees per day (per person, if applicable) including taxes, social security contributions and VAT. The total budget for the assignment shall cover all the costs, including salaries, travel and per diem, insurances, communication and any other expenses related to the assignment such as hiring of interpreter/ local team members.

Contracted consultant/s cannot further subcontract the assignment. In cases where the tender includes a team of consultants, their division of labour shall be presented in advance to Kvinna till Kvinna.

9.     Deadline for submission of tender:

Tenders must be sent to Kvinna till Kvinna no later than the 8^th of March 2024.

Contact
For any questions, please contact Jessica Poh-Janrell, Grant Manager, jessica.poh.janrell@kvinnatillkvinna.se