Institutional Consultancy on “External Verification Services (ISRS 4400) on AMIF‑Funded Project” for UNICEF Bulgaria

 

UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND (UNICEF)

wishes to invite companies to submit a proposal for an Institutional Consultancy on

“External Verification Services (ISRS 4400) on AMIF‑Funded Project”

Request for Proposals for Services (RFPS)/LRPS-2026-9203643-VERIF ISRS 4400

 

A.0 SPECIAL NOTES

A.1 PURPOSE OF THE Request For Proposals (RFP) For Services

The purpose of this RFP is to invite Proposals for an Institutional Consultancy on “External Verification Services (ISRS 4400) on AMIF‑Funded Project”.

A.2 FORECAST SCHEDULE

Closing date and time for submission of full proposal: 17:00h on Thursday, 14th May 2026, Bulgaria time.

A.3 REQUESTS FOR CLARIFICATION  

All requests for formal clarification or queries on this RFP must be submitted in writing via email at bul-procurement@unicef.org, cc: Hoang Van Nguyen, hvnguyen@unicef.org by 05th May 2026.

 

Please make sure that the e-mail mentions the RFP reference number (LRPS-2026-9203643-VERIF ISRS 4400).

Only written inquiries will be entertained. A response to written inquires will be provided in due time. Please be informed that all responses will be publicized on the UNGM published link.

 

A.4 RFP RESPONSE FORMAT

HOW TO APPLY

Interested organizations should provide evidence of their experience and ability to fulfill the Terms of Reference by submitting, in separate documents:

 

A.4.1. Filled and signed Bid Form (attached separately);

A.4.2. Technical Proposal;

A.4.3. Financial  Proposal (EUR currency);

 

Full proposals should be submitted in ENGLISH language and must be sent via e-mail to “bul-procurement@unicef.org” not later 17:00h on Thursday, 14th May 2026, duly signed and dated. 

Proposals received after the stipulated date and time will be rejected.

 

The Technical Proposal should address all aspects and criteria outlined in this Request for Proposal, especially in the Terms of Reference.

 

The Technical Proposal should include:

1) A profile of the organisation including legal name, year incorporated, number of employees, description of services relevant to financial verification, agreed‑upon procedures, and similar professional engagements, Confirmation of independence from UNICEF and from implementation of the AMIF‑funded project; copy of the registration.

 

2) Names and CVs of  Senior Team Leader / Lead Verifier, and additional team members if applicable, highlighting: qualifications in accounting, finance, audit, or financial verification; experience with ISRS 4400 Agreed‑Upon Procedures or comparable verification engagements; experience with verification of EU‑funded and/or donor‑funded projects, preferably implemented by international organisations.

3) Description of comparable verification or agreed‑upon procedures assignments conducted during the last three (3) years; List of current and recent clients (last 3 years), with emphasis on: EU‑funded programmes; international organisations and/or public sector entities;

4) Three reference letters for assignments completed within the last three (3) years, preferably related to:

• ISRS 4400 or similar agreed‑upon procedures;
• verification of EU‑funded or donor‑funded projects;
• work for international organisations.

5) Detailed description of the methodology proposed for the completion of the assignment, consisting of approach to applying the pre‑agreed verification procedures; proposed approach to transaction sampling (within the defined limits); verification of supporting documentation; documentation of factual findings; Measures to ensure quality control, consistency, and confidentiality.

6) Detailed work plan for implementation of the assignment and Confirmation of capacity to deliver four (4) annual Reports of Factual Findings within the required timeframes.

All pages must be numbered accordingly.

NB! No price information should be contained in the Technical Proposal.

Due to the nature of this RFP, there will be no public opening of proposals.

 

The Financial Proposal shall be prepared:

• The currency of the proposal shall be in Euro (EUR).
• All quotes stated in the financial proposal shall be without VAT as UNICEF is a tax-exempt organization.
• Please quote in Financial Proposal (EUR currency): Price / Report (total 4 reports)

 

Any activity described in the Technical Proposal but not priced in the Financial Proposal, shall be assumed to be included in the prices of other activities or items, as well as in the final total price. 

Proposals sent to a different e-mail address (bul-procurement@unicef.org) or in a different format than prescribed in this RFP, or which do not respect the required confidentiality, or received after the designated time and date, will be rejected.

 

All references to descriptive materials should be included in the appropriate response paragraph, though the material/documents themselves may be provided as annexes to the proposal/response.

 

A.5. VALIDITY

Each proposal shall be valid for a period of ninety (90) days from the proposal due date. Bidders are requested to indicate the validity period of their proposal in the Proposal Form. UNICEF may also request for an extension of the validity of the proposal.

A.6. PROPOSAL EVALUATION-please see also Annex 1 in the Terms of Reference document

Technical Proposals received will be evaluated against the evaluation criteria as below:

Technical Proposal: 60 points

1.1   Independence and eligibility of the Service Provider: 10 points

 - Demonstrated independence from UNICEF and from implementation of the AMIF funded project (5p)

 - Legal authorisation to provide professional verification services (preference for locally established entities, where applicable) (5p)

1.2. Experience with ISRS 4400 and comparable verification assignments: 20 points

-Demonstrated experience with ISRS 4400 Agreed‑Upon Procedures engagements (10p)

-Experience/Understanding of verification of EU‑funded projects (5p)

-Experience/Understanding of working with international organisations, with priority to UN body/organization (5p)

1.3. Qualifications and expertise of proposed team: 15 points

-Professional qualifications and experience in accounting and financial verification (5p)

-Key personnel: relevant experience and qualifications of the proposed team/staff for the assignment (8p)

-Client references (2p)

1.4. Understanding of the assignment and proposed approach: 15 points

-Understanding of the scope, objectives, and limitations of ISRS 4400 engagements (7p)

-Practical and coherent approach to implementing the agreed upon procedures in line with the ToR and verification framework (8p)

Only proposals which receive a minimum of 42 points will be considered further.

2.  Financial Proposal: 40 points

The price/cost of each of the technically compliant proposals shall be considered only upon successful evaluation per the above technical criteria.

The financial proposals should be submitted in the budget breakdown format.

The total amount of points allocated for the price component is 40. The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened and compared among those bidders who obtain the threshold points in the evaluation of the technical component. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price; e.g.:

Score for price proposal X = Max. score for price proposal * Price of lowest priced proposal / Price of proposal X

 

Total Technical and Price                                                                                       100 Pts

 

UNICEF will award the contract to the vendor, whose response is of high quality, clear and meets the projects goals, including:

• The price/cost of each of the technically compliant proposals shall be considered only upon evaluation of the above technical criteria;
• All prices/rates quoted must be exclusive of all taxes as UNICEF is a tax-exempt organization. 

 A.7. CONTRACTUAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

The UNICEF General Terms and Conditions for Services are attached and will form part of any contract resulting from this RFP.

The price proposal should be in Euro, VAT excluded.  If the bidder is not VAT registered, please indicate explicitly.

 

 

А.8. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

Proposals should be sent to: bul-procurement@unicef.org as attachments in a NON-EDITABLE FORMAT (e.g., PDF), clearly marked with the tender number (LRPS-2026-9203643-VERIF ISRS 4400) and NOT LATER than 17:00h on 14th May 2026, Bulgaria time.

 

Bidders are requested to submit separately all the requested documents: Bid Form, Technical Proposal and Financial proposals.

 The reference “RFPS/LRPS-2026-9203643-VERIF ISRS 4400” and “Company name” must be mentioned in the subject of the e-mail, as per example below:

 

Subject: LRPS-2026-9203643-VERIF ISRS 4400-Company’s name

• Technical Proposal file/folder clearly named as Technical Proposal LRPS-2026-9203643-VERIF ISRS 4400
• Financial Proposal file clearly named as Financial Proposal LRPS-2026-9203643-VERIF ISRS 4400
• Bid Form - LRPS-2026-9203643-VERIF ISRS 4400

 

If necessary, requests for clarifications can be sent to bul-procurement@unicef.org not later than 05th May 2026.

 

Emails should not exceed 10MB. If the bid response is larger than 10MB, please zip the files or divide the response into separate files and send in multiple emails instead.

 

All bids submitted by email must be submitted as attachments. Email links (e.g., to documents to be downloaded from cloud-based folders) are not acceptable. Bids received in any other manner will be INVALIDATED.

 

A.9.  PAYMENT TERMS

Payment will be made only upon UNICEF’s acceptance of the work performed in accordance with the contractual milestones.  The terms of payment are net 30 days, after receipt of invoice and acceptance of work.  Payment will be effected by bank transfer in the currency of billing.

 

Attachments:

• Terms of Reference
• Bid Form of the RFP
• UNICEF General Terms and Conditions for Services;