REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)
To: Offerors
From: Creative Associates International, Inc.
Subject: Request for Proposal (RFP) No. RFP-JTAP-022- Financial Audit Firms
Performance Period: February 15, 2023 – March 31, 2023
RFP Issue Date: 29/1/2023
RFP Closing Date: 8 /2/2023
RFP Closing Time: 4:00 PM – Local Time, Amman, Jordan
Reference: USAID Contract No. 72027821C00005
Enclosed is a Request for Proposals (RFP). Creative invites qualified firms and organizations to submit a best-price proposal for Jordan- Technical Assistance Project (TAP) funded under USAID Contract No. 72027821C00005. The issuance of a subcontract is subject to availability of funds, successful negotiation of the subcontract budget and terms, and receiving USAID’s Contracting Officer consent, if required. The Contract resulting from this award will be a Firm Fixed Price award.
The requirements for this activity are described in the “Statement of Work” in Attachment I. Creative encourages your organization to indicate its interest in this procurement by submitting a proposal according to the instructions in Attachment II “Instructions to Offerors”. Proposals will be evaluated based on the “Evaluation Criteria” in Attachment III. Creative will make an award to the responsible Offeror submitting an offer which provides best value to the project: technical merit and price will be both considered.
To be considered, Offerors should submit a complete proposal no later than the closing date and time indicated above. Offerors should ensure that the proposals are well-written in English, easy to read, follow the instructions provided and contain only requested information.
Any questions should be submitted in writing and emailed to TapProcurement@crea-jtap.com no later than Jan 31, 2023. No questions will be entertained if they are received by means other than the specified email address, and any communications to alternate e-mail addresses will result in the disqualification of the bidder. The solicitation number (listed above) should be stated in the subject line. Answers will be compiled and distributed on Feb 1, 2023.
Proposals must be comprised of one electronic copy of the Technical Proposal and one electronic copy of the Cost/Business proposal, sent in separate e-mails, and labeled with the above-stated subject, subproject number and title. Submissions shall be delivered to:
Creative Procurement Department TapProcurement@crea-jtap.com
Sincerely,
Creative Procurement Department
Attachments:
Attachment I : Statement of Work
Attachment II : Instructions to Offerors
Attachment III : Evaluation Criteria
Attachment IV: Proposal Cover Letter
ATTACHMENT I: STATEMENT OF WORK
FINANCIAL AUDIT FIRM
Introduction
Creative Associates International is a dynamic and fast-growing professional service firm that specializes in international development in the areas of education, democratic transitions, and stabilization in post-conflict environments. Based in Washington, DC, the firm has a field presence in 30 plus countries worldwide with a strong and diverse portfolio that includes global contracts with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other clients including the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Defense. The firm has earned a solid reputation among its clients and missions worldwide and is well-regarded by competitors and partners alike.
Program Summary
The Technical Assistance Program (TAP), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is a five-year education and youth program that seeks to transform the organizational culture and improve the abilities within the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth to ensure officials can implement desired reforms. Creative and its partners will provide technical assistance in the development, roll-out, and tracking of policies and procedures to incorporate international best practices for public education and youth programming. Among the many activities in the Jordan Technical Assistance Program, it will support curriculum development, promote inclusive learning techniques, improve the skills of teachers and school managers, and other tangible activities that ultimately support changing the organizational culture within the two ministries and relevant agencies. The program will further support Jordan’s outreach and behavioral change communications initiatives that are aimed at creating a culture of reading, the inclusion of vulnerable children, and increased youth engagement.
Purpose
The objective of the present audit of the USAID Technical Assistance Program (TAP) financial statements is to enable the auditors to express a professional opinion on the financial position of Creative Associates International, Jordan Branch and issue audited certified financial statements at the end of fiscal year 2021 and 2022 on funds received and expenditures incurred for the relevant accounting period.
The audit will be carried out in accordance with the relevant International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and any such tests and controls as the auditor may consider necessary.
Creative seeks to contract with a certified auditing firm that is registered in Jordan. The firm should have relevant experience in accounting and auditing of organizations funded by donor agencies such as USAID.
Scope of Work
The specific tasks as outlined below will be carried out by selected audit firm.
• Conduct an audit in accordance with IFRS with particular attention paid to whether:
o All funds have been utilized in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement with USAID and only for the purposes for which the funds were provided.
o Appropriate supporting documents, records and books of accounts relating to all project activities have been kept.
o Annual financial statements (Balance Sheet, Statement of Income & Expenditures and the Statement of Cash Flow) are in agreement with the books of accounts maintained as per the agreed accounting procedures and are in accordance with the applicable accounting standards.
• Examine, assess, and report whether the execution of TAP project has complied with the rules and conditions governing the use of funds as expressed in the contract agreement with Creative and applicable laws and regulations regarding accounting and taxes.
• Confirm that expenses and documentation are correct and are in accordance with the books of TAP.
• Express an opinion whether the financial statements (Balance Sheet, Statement of Income & Expenditures, and the Statement of Cash Flow) of the project have given a true and fair view of the activities of the project for the period July 2021 to December 2022.
• The auditor shall submit a management letter, which shall contain the audit findings made during the audit process and review the management and internal control system of the project.
• The auditor shall report any missing supporting documentation.
Audit Deliverables
1. Audit Report
The audit report shall include the following:
a) Expression of an opinion on whether the financial statements present fairly the expense incurred by the country program over a specified period in accordance with the accounting policies and procedures and that the expenses incurred were:
i. in conformity with the approved project budgets;
ii. for the approved purposes of the projects;
iii. supported by properly approved vouchers and other supporting documents.
b) The audit standards that were applied (International Accounting Standards, IFRS, or other national standards that comply with one of the IFRS in all material respects).
c) The period covered by the audit opinion.
2. The Management Letter:
In addition to the audit report, the auditor will also be required to provide a management letter summarizing the observations on the accountability and internal control system. This will include but not limited to:
a) Comments and observations on the accounting records, systems and controls that were examined during the audit.
b) Specific deficiencies and areas of weakness in systems and controls and recommendation for improvement.
c) Matters that have come to the attention during the audit which might have significant impact on the implementation of the project.
d) Any other matter that the auditor considers significant to report to the management.
The observations in the management letter must be accompanied by the implications, suggested recommendations from the auditors and the management comments on the observations/ recommendations.
3. Issue certified audited financial statement for year 2021, 2022.
Tentative Audit Schedule
Date: February 15, 2023
Timeline : Complete agreement with selected audit firm and letter of Engagement
Date February 19 – February 28, 2023
Timeline: Audit Work
Date :March 7, 2023
Timeline : Submission of Draft Audit Report & Draft Financial Statement
Date: March 7 – March 14, 2023
Timeline: Creative review report and provides comments/questions
Date: March 19, 2023
Timeline: Submission of Final Audit Report & Financial Statements
Date: March 19 – 23, 2023
Timeline: Creative Review & Acceptance of audit report and financial statements
Additional Considerations
Location: All audit activities will take place at the Creative TAP office at: Amman, Arar Street.
Attachment II
INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS
A. General Instructions
These Instructions to Offerors will not form part of the offer or of the Contract. They are intended solely to aid Offerors in the preparation of their proposals. Read and follow these instructions carefully.
1. The proposal and all corresponding documents related to the proposal must be written in the English language, unless otherwise explicitly allowed. Additionally, all proposals should be single-spaced with clear section headings, and be presented in the order specified in Attachment III – Evaluation Criteria.
2. Proposals must include only the Offeror’s own work. No text should be copied from sources outside of your organization, unless those sources are adequately cited and credited. If Creative determines that any part of the proposal is plagiarized from outside sources, the Offeror will be automatically disqualified.
3. Proposals and all cost and price figures must be presented in local currency. All prices should be gross of tax, but net of any customs duties. A firm fixed price purchase order will be issued to the successful offeror in local currency as per requirement of local Law.
4. The Offeror must state in their Proposal the validity period of their offer. The minimum offer acceptance period for this RFP is 90 days after closing date of the RFP. If an Offeror has provided a validity period of less than 90 days, they will be asked to revise this. If the Offeror does not extend the validity period, their proposal will be rejected. Creative reserves the right not to make an award.
5. The Technical Proposal and Cost/Business Proposal must be kept separate from each other. Technical Proposals must not make reference to cost or pricing information at any point. This will enable in order the technical evaluation to be made strictly on the basis of technical merit.
6. Offerors must be licensed and authorized to conduct business in Jordan, as evidenced by submission of a copy of a valid Business License (if registered as a for-profit company), a valid Host Government license (if registered as a non-profit organization) or a municipal license (if registered as a local vendor of goods or import-export dealer). The copy of the license must clearly show a license number, official government stamp and a date of issue and date of expiry.
7. Common ownership of Offerors shall be documented in their proposal. Creative will only accept one company bidding per RFx. If Creative determines common ownership of multiple Offerors, all will be disqualified
8. No costs incurred by the Offerors in preparing and submitting the proposal are reimbursable by Creative. All such costs will be at the Offeror’s expense.
9. Responsibility Determination: Award shall only be made to “responsive” subcontractors. To enable Creative to make this determination, the Offeror must provide a cover letter, as provided in Attachment IV.
10. Late Offers: Offerors are wholly responsible for ensuring that their Offers are received in accordance with the instructions stated herein. A late Offer will be recommended for rejection, even if it was late as a result of circumstances beyond the Offeror’s control. Late offers will only be considered at the procurement department’s discretion.
11. Modification/Withdrawal of Offers: Offerors have the right to withdraw, modify or correct their offer after it has been delivered to Creative at the address stated above, and provided that the request is made before the RFP closing date.
12. Disposition of Proposals: Proposals submitted in response to this RFP will not be returned. Reasonable effort will be made to ensure confidentiality of proposals received from all Offerors. This RFP does not seek information of a highly proprietary nature, but if such information is included in the Offeror’s proposal, the Offeror must alert Creative and must annotate the material by marking it “Confidential and Proprietary” so that these sections can be treated appropriately.
13. Clarifications and Amendments to the RFP: Any questions regarding this solicitation must be emailed to TapProcurement@crea-jtap.com . No questions/clarifications will be entertained if they are received by another means. The solicitation number should be stated in the subject. Responses will be complied and emailed to the requesting potential Offeror and will be sent to all organizations that requested this RFP, or re-posted publicly if offered as a full and open competition.
14. Creative anticipates that discussions with Offerors will be conducted; however, Creative reserves the right to make an award without discussions. It is strongly recommended that Offerors present their best offer.
15. Eligibility of Firms – Source/Origin/Nationality: The authorized geographic code for the source and origin of the goods and services and for the nationality of our suppliers under this contract is 935. A full discussion of the source/origin/nationality requirements maybe found at 22 CFR 228 (see http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_02/22cfr228_02.html). Offerors whose proposals fail to meet the nationality requirements will be considered non-responsive.
Failure to agree and comply with any of the above specifications will result in the Offeror being considered unresponsive and the proposal may be rejected.
B. Submission of Proposal:
Proposals must be submitted in two separate e-mails:
1. E-mail 1 – Technical Proposal
2. E-mail 2 – Cost/Business proposal
Each e-mail should be clearly labeled with the RFP number and project title.
Offerors who do not submit their technical and cost proposals separately will be automatically disqualified.
C. Content of Proposal:
The proposal shall be comprised of four sections:
i. The Cover Letter (Attachment IV)
ii. Copy of the Offeror’s Valid Business license/Copy of commercial registration
iii. The Technical Proposal
iv. The Cost/Business Proposal – Excluding of sales tax as USAID-TAP is sales tax exempted.
1) The Cover Letter: should be on the Offeror’s letterhead and MUST contain the information requested in Attachment IV.
2) Business License
3) Technical Proposal:
a. Should clearly & precisely address theoretical and practical aspects that the Offeror has considered and will employ to carry out the statement of work.
b. The Technical Proposal is the opportunity for the Offeror to demonstrate that the firm is “technically capable” of implementing the activity and should demonstrate the Offeror’s understanding of and capabilities to carry out the work, and address the key issues described in the Evaluation Criteria in Attachment III.
c. The Technical Proposal should be divided into clearly separate sections following the same order of the Evaluation Criteria in Attachment III. A mis-ordered proposal that makes information hard to find will result in lower scores.
d. If an Offeror submits a proposal that fails to respond to the majority of the information requested in this RFP, as outlined specifically in the statement of work and the evaluation criteria, the Offeror’s proposal will be automatically disqualified.
4) The Cost Proposal: must be submitted separately from the technical proposal and will primarily indicate the cost for performing the work specified in this RFP. At a minimum, the Cost proposal should include a lump sum total cost for the assignment.
Failure to comply with any of the above points will result in the Offeror being considered “unresponsive” and the proposal may be rejected.
If an Offeror provides insufficient information in their technical and/or cost proposal, Creative reserves the right to request additional information, or to request a revised proposal from the Offeror, if necessary.
Creative reserves the right to make no award, or multiple awards, under this RFP.
Attachment III
EVALUATION CRITERIA
Basis of Award: The award will be made to the lowest price technically acceptable offeror. Proposals will be scored on technical factors first. Only the Cost proposals of those offers that surpass the minimum qualifying score of 70 points in the technical evaluation will have their Cost Proposal reviewed. Those that do not reach this qualifying score in the Technical Evaluation will be considered non-competitive and their Cost proposals will not be considered.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
1. Technical Competence – presented in the Technical Proposal 100 points.
A. Technical Approach
Provide a clear, specific and succinct technical proposal that covers both the conceptual and practical approaches of how to achieve the objectives of this project. Specifically, please address the following, in the order specified below:
Topic
Description
Points available
Detailed experience and qualifications
1. Company profile, background, and experience with International Organizations, List of clients should be included with the offer.
2. Qualification of the staff/ audit manager who will be assigned to the Audit work and provide biographies (CV’s)
70
Past Performance/Reference check
Reference Contacts of three organizations that have recently contracted you to carry out similar assignments.
30
If an Offeror submits a proposal that fails to respond to the majority of the information requested in this RFP, as outlined specifically in the statement of work and the evaluation criteria, the Offeror’s proposal will be automatically disqualified.
Please list only the projects you have implemented within the past 3 years, a brief description of how each is relevant to this RFP and the contact details for each previous client or donor. You may also include recommendation/appreciation letters and certificates as attachments.
Offerors with past performance with similar projects, in the same geographic area and/or of similar scale to the activity described in this RFP will be scored more favorably than offerors that do not meet these criteria. Please note that Offerors cannot be evaluated on information that they do not provide. For example, if an Offeror has current/past performance working with Creative, they cannot be positively evaluated on this experience unless it is provided in the Offeror’s proposal.
Attachments Not Scored
You may include recommendation/appreciation letters and certificates as attachments, or any other documentation you wish to further support your proposal. Content presented here will not be scored.
2. Cost Proposal: lowest price proposal will be considered Not Scored.
Best value determination for award
Creative will evaluate proposals on LPTA basis, in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Subpart 15.1 – Source Selection Processes and Techniques. In all solicitations, Creative will consider and conduct an evaluation on the basis of both technical capacity and cost. The relative importance of these two factors will vary depending on the nature of the activity. In rare cases, Creative may also award to a firm other than the highest technically rated Offeror or the lowest price Offeror, in accordance with FAR 15.101-1.
Creative reserves the right to request additional supporting documentation or a revised proposal from an Offeror if insufficient information has been provided in the Offeror’s technical and/or cost proposal. If the requested information is not provided, Creative has the right to disqualify the firm from further consideration.
ATTACHMENT IV
FORMAT FOR PROPOSAL COVER LETTER – TO BE PRINTED ON ORGANIZATIONAL LETTERHEAD
City, Country
To: Creative Procurement Team
Dear Sir / Madam:
We, the undersigned, offer to undertake the [Insert RFP No], [Insert project title], in accordance with your Request for Proposal dated [Insert MM/DD/YYYY] and our Technical and Cost/Business Proposal submitted herein.
Our organization’s details are as follows:
i. Company’s Name
ii. Company’s Address
iii. Name of Company’s authorized representative:
iv. Telephone #/Cellular Phone #, Email address:
v. Validity Period of Proposal
vi. A valid Business License
Our proposal shall be binding upon us, subject to any modifications resulting from negotiation, up to expiration of the validity period of the proposal. We understand you are not bound to accept this or any Proposal you receive.
We also certify that our organization:
(a) has adequate financial resources including appropriate insurance coverage to perform the work stated herein, or the ability to obtain them without delay;
(b) is able to comply with the described delivery or performance schedule, taking into consideration all existing commitments and constraints;
(c) has a satisfactory performance record;
(d) has a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics;
(e) has the necessary technical capacity, equipment and facilities, or the ability to obtain them; and
(f) is otherwise qualified and eligible to receive an award under applicable laws and regulations.
Sincerely,
Authorized Signature:
Name and Title of Signatory:
Date: