Request for Expression of Interest (REOI) of External Audit of the Advanced Citizen Engagement (ACE) Project At Spark MicroGrants

Background
Spark MicroGrants (Spark) and the Government of Rwanda share the goal of supporting long-term sustainable development through social and economic empowerment and improved citizen engagement.
Founded in Rwanda in 2010, Spark has formulated a participatory village development approach that leverages historical Rwandan social organizing practices, including ubudehe, imihigo, and umuganda.
In March 2019 (and updated in January 2020), the Local Administrative Development Agency (LODA) signed an MoU with Spark for a strategic collaboration to: (a) develop a National Framework for Participatory Village Planning for all 14,000 villages in Rwanda; and (b) strengthen existing decentralization initiatives to promote rural livelihood by building on Rwandan historical traditions.
To realize the objectives of the MOU, Spark is implementing the Advancing Citizen Engagement (ACE) project, with $5,840,000 in funding from the World Bank’s Japan Social Development Fund, UK-based NGO Comic Relief and a contribution from the Government of Rwanda. The ACE project development objective (PDO) is to improve livelihoods for 17,750 households/76,000 people and capacity of communities and national and local government for citizen engagement in 249 villages in Rwanda. Commencing in June 2021, the project will run for three years.
The project development objective will be achieved through a set of activities combining sustainable livelihood grants for poor, rural villages and capacity-building for district, sector, cell and village officials and villages on inclusive, participatory planning. Experience from the village-level activities will then be translated into a national policy framework for participatory village planning, in partnership with central and local government.

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The project is implemented through four components:
• Component one: Village and Local Government Capacity Building. This component will build the capacity of local government at the district, sector, and cell levels to facilitate village-driven village development processes to enhance citizen engagement and improve rural livelihoods. It will also build village capacity to engage in development planning and to manage village level subprojects.
• Component Two: MicroGrants. Component two will finance priority subprojects identified in the VDPs to improve livelihoods. Each target village will be provided a grant of US$8,000, disbursed over two years. The government in each of the target districts will contribute five percent of the total grant amount, while village members will make contributions in-kind. MicroGrants eligibility is guaranteed for every target village provided eligibility conditions are met, including the election of a Village Leadership Committee, completion of the VDP and submission, and approval of a subproject proposal.
• Component Three: National Framework for Participatory Village Planning. Component Three will consolidate lessons from the pilot activities under components one and two and support the government of Rwanda to prepare a National Framework for Participatory Village Planning.
• Component four: Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Knowledge Dissemination. This component includes overall project management, monitoring and evaluation. And communications and knowledge dissemination.
Spark microgrants Under Advancing Citizen Engagement Project (ACE) Project is seeking a firm to provide External audit services.
The objective of the audit of the Project Financial Statements (PFSs) is to enable the auditor to express a professional opinion(s) on the financial position of the ACE project at the end of each fiscal year, and on funds received and expenditures incurred for the relevant accounting period.
Interested firms should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the services.
The short-listing criteria are:
Minimum five years of experience of the firm in conducting external audit assignments with public and International Non-Governmental institutions.
The firm should have technically qualified and experienced staff having hands-on expertise in carrying out internal and external audits with public and International Non-Governmental institutions.
Working experience of social development projects with multilateral / bilateral agencies like World Bank, UNIDO, UNDP, ADB, etc. of similar nature will be given an added advantage.
Being Current ICPAR (Institute of Certified Public Accountants Rwanda) Member
The eligible firms shall be shortlisted as per the criteria set above and selected firms will receive Terms of reference for submitting the Request for Proposal.
Expressions of Interest with all relevant information and documents must be submitted/delivered to the following email: procurement@sparkmicrogrants.org on 30th June 2022 at 05h00 PM Rwandan Time.
No late responses will be received/entertained after the closing date and time.

For any inquiry, please use the same email above or call phone numbers:
+ 250 788 302 900 / 0788 853 585
Expressions of Interests must be clearly marked: “REOI (Request for Expression of Interest) - External Audit - RW-SM-255180-CS-LCS’’.
For more information about SparkMicrogrants, its values and working principles, please visit website: www.sparkmicrogrants.org 
Done at Kigali, 01st June 2022.