Financial Audit in Kenya Full Time NEW

Organisation

Hoffnungszeichen | Sign of Hope e.V.

www.hoffnungszeichen.de, www.sign-of-hope.org

Position

Auditor

Type of Contract

Framework Agreement

Type of Audit

In depth Audits (2)

Location

Home-based with field mission travel to Lodwar, Kenya.

Languages Required

English (Kiswahili and/ or Amharic are beneficial)

Application Deadline

24th December 2025

Starting Date

19th January 2026

Auditing Periods

Annual Audit: From 1st January 2025 to 31st December 2025

Final Audit: From 1st October 2023 to 30th October 2026

Project Title

Capacity building for cross-border cooperation on food security, livelihoods and peacebuilding

Total Project Budget

1,333,333 Euros

Annual Project Budget

474,000 Euros

Hoffnungszeichen | Sign of Hope e.V. (SoH) is announcing an open tender procedure for external independent financial audit services in Kenya and Ethiopia.

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.

The audits are 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 Caritas Marsabit, Spiritan Community Outreach Ethiopia(SCORE), Caritas Lodwar, and Coordination Office of the Social and Development Commission of the Ethiopian Catholic Church (ECC-SDCO) being the local implementing agencies.

The goal of this project is to contribute to food security and peaceful coexistence of agro-pastoralists and pastoralists in the border region between Kenya and Ethiopia. The project targets hard to reach and marginalized Pastoralist and agro-pastoralists living in hard to reach cross border area. Weak Humanitarian, Development and Peace (HDP) nexus characterize the area bordering Ethiopia and Kenya. The project targets 94,325 pastoralists and agro-pastoralist living in Marsabit and Turkana Counties (Kenya) and South Omo and Borana zone (Ethiopia). As a result, the marginalized and hard to reach pastoralists and agro pastoralists living across the border are characterized by chronic humanitarian conditions that are further exacerbated by poor/lack of developmental initiatives compounded by chronic resource (pasture and water) based conflicts leading to loss of lives and livelihood, limited capacity and coordination among partners across the border and climate related shocks. There is persistent and unacceptably high food and nutrition insecurity, poor livelihood options and social (health and education) services, as well as poor livestock marketing and limited financial services. Also, 85% of the population in the target areas live on a below average annual income. The area is being affected by recurring drought due to both natural disasters (climate change-induced) and man-made (overgrazing, and deforestation for firewood and charcoal). To address these interrelated factors the project will develop and strengthen cross border coordination for HDP triple nexus actors, establish and/or strengthen multi-level peace building and advocacy structures and promote livelihoods (village saving and lending associations and promotion of livestock marketing).

Audit Objectives

The purpose of the in-depth audits 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:

• An annual audit, with a detailed examination of all the supporting documents for the period of 01.01.2025 – 31.12.2025.
• A conclusive examination (final audit) of the complete project duration (1st October 2023 – 30th October 2026). Thereby, the auditor can refer to the last annual audit reports to be available at that time.

These in-depth audits 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 “Capacity building for cross-border cooperation on food security, livelihoods and peacebuilding”for all funds received and expended by Caritas Marsabit, Spiritan Community Outreach Ethiopia(SCORE), Caritas Lodwar, and Coordination Office of the Social and Development Commission of the Ethiopian Catholic Church (ECC-SDCO) from 1st January 2025 to 31st December 2025 and from 1st October 2023 to 31st October 2026.

Additionally, the audit shall give recommendations on strengths, weaknesses, and required improvement in the project-related financial and human resources management systems of Caritas Marsabit, Spiritan Community Outreach Ethiopia(SCORE), Caritas Lodwar, and Coordination Office of the Social and Development Commission of the Ethiopian Catholic Church (ECC-SDCO).

The audits 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 Caritas Marsabit, Spiritan Community Outreach Ethiopia(SCORE), Caritas Lodwar, and Coordination Office of the Social and Development Commission of the Ethiopian Catholic Church (ECC-SDCO).

Expected Deliverables

The auditor is expected to produce an audit report, an audit certificate and a management letter for each auditing period, which will comprise the following:

1. Presentation of the scope and mandate of the audit, as well as the list of documents that formed the evidence for the audit,
2. An opinion whether financial statements (statement of accounts broken down for each year being audited) are issued in accordance with the financial reporting framework of the project, BMZ requirements and an internationally recognized accounting standard,
3. A checked, signed and stamped list of all project costs receipts, sorted by BMZ budget lines (list is provided by the local implementing partner),
4. 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 audits 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 reports 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 partners; Caritas Marsabit, Spiritan Community Outreach Ethiopia(SCORE), Caritas Lodwar, and Coordination Office of the Social and Development Commission of the Ethiopian Catholic Church (ECC-SDCO) as well as relevant donor documents through SoH.

The auditor will be responsible to set up a schedule in agreement with the local implementing partners; Caritas Marsabit, Spiritan Community Outreach Ethiopia(SCORE), Caritas Lodwar and Coordination Office of the Social and Development Commission of the Ethiopian Catholic Church (ECC-SDCO). Any expenses for field trips, postal and translation services and other expenses shall be included in the auditor’s proposed budget. Diocese of Lodwar will support the auditor with logistics and arrangements, however, all payments of the contract will be made directly by SoH.

Subject to satisfactory performance and timely delivery of all annual audit deliverables, the successful bidder will be contracted to undertake the project final audit. This will be determined in a joint meeting between the auditor, the local implementing agencies and Sign of Hope.

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 Kenya and Ethiopia,
• Experience in conducting audits for BMZ-funded projects is beneficial.

Tagged as: Kenya, Sign of Hope