Audit Services for UNODC Grants to Civil Society Organisations

1.  OBJECTIVES

Under the European Union funded, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Department of Social Development (DSD) implemented “Support to the Government of South Africa’s Victim Empowerment Programme”, the project aims to strengthen civil society organizations providing direct services to victims of crime and violence through a grants programme. To facilitate this process, UNODC seeks to recruit a service provider capable of conducting audits of grants to CSOs administered by UNODC under the Victim Empowerment Programme.

2. BACKGROUND

UNODC, in partnership with the Department of Social Development, is implementing an EU funded project titled “Support to the Government of South Africa’s Victim Empowerment Programme.” As part of the broader Crime Prevention strategy and the Government’s Victim Empowerment Programme, one of this project’s primary outcomes is the strengthening of CSOs (civil society organisations) such as community based organisations, non-government organisations and faith-based organisations to deliver quality services to victims of crime and violence.

68 grants have been awarded to CSOs across all nine provinces in South Africa. Some recipients are well-established CSOs in major urban centres, while others are smaller community based organizations based in rural areas. All grant recipients signed a grant agreement with UNODC that has clear guidelines for contractual expectations of financial and programmatic performance. Grant agreements require each CSO to open a separate UNODC bank account and to report expenditure against standardized budget categories per quarter; each quarterly report contains a programme report, financial statements, statements of cash position, bank statements and asset registry.

UNODC seeks to solicit the serves of an audit firm who is capable of performing audits on all grants over USD 50,000. There are 32 grants following into this category. One audit will be performed per project cycle. Exact dates are flexible but the goal will be to conduct all audits between August and December 2010.

3.  PURPOSE AND SPECIFIC OUTCOMES OF THE VE PROJECT

The specific purpose of the UNODC programme of assistance is to contribute to the process of turning the victim empowerment policy documents into concrete action benefiting victims of crime and thereby contributing to the building of safe and peaceful communities. The specific programme purpose has been defined as follows: “To improve the implementation of victim empowerment policies in South Africa by building capacity, improving coordination and strengthening relations between the government and civil society organizations (CSO’s) and thereby improving services to victims, especially women and vulnerable children”.

Under Outcome 5 of the project document, the project is tasked with strengthen civil society organization. To achieve this objective, the project is implementing a grant scheme for CSOs working in victim empowerment.