Request for Proposal (RFP)

Issued on:                                March 15, 2024

Solicitation Number:               PI-BID-BHFA-MAR-2024-078

For:                                             Hiring of Audit Firm

Quotes Deadline:                    April 8, 2024 (4:30 PM)

Pathfinder Background

Pathfinder is driven by the conviction that all people, regardless of where they live, have the right to decide whether and when to have children, to exist free from fear and stigma, and to lead the lives they choose.

Since 1957, we have partnered with local governments, communities, and health systems to remove barriers to critical sexual and reproductive health services. Together, we expand access to contraception, promote healthy pregnancies, save women’s lives, and stop the spread of new HIV infections, wherever the need is most urgent.

Our work ensures millions of women, men, and young people are able to choose their own paths forward.

Project Background

Pathfinder International, a US based INGO, is engaged in Pakistan as a prime recipient for a USAID funded BHFA- Building Healthy Families Activity Program. Funding has been made available to us through cooperative agreement and duration of this program is five years from September 2022-August 31,2027, we want to conduct audit of our sub-recipient and cut of date for this Period Audit will be from March 01, 2023-February 29, 2024.

Scope of Work (SOW)

To conduct detailed financial and procedural audit in accordance with “2CFR Part 200 subpart f” and provide detailed reports through scrutiny of documents the following reports.

Financial Audit TORs:

1.      Funds expended are in compliance with established donor procedure and the terms of the sub award.

2.      Financial and other reports are being provided that disclose fairly and fully information necessary to determine the scope and nature of evaluating programs and activities.

3.      There are adequate operating and administrative procedure and practices, internal control system and internal management controls.

4.      All practices are in compliant with organizational policies and procedures. 

5.      There are no indication of possible fraud, waste or abuse of funds provided under the sub award that  may require further investigation.

6.      Verify the mathematical accuracy of the accounts by ensuring that all expenditures described in the supporting documentation are reconciled to the expense voucher by disbursing source, in the accounts.

7.      State in the audit report if it did not conform with any of the above and indicate the alternative standards or procedures followed.

8.      Schedule of expenditures of federal awards.

9.      A report on compliance and on internal control over financial reporting based on an audit of financial statements performed in accordance with Government Auditing Standards and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)

10.  A report on compliance with other requirements applicable to reach major program and internal control over compliance in accordance with OMB Circular A-133.

11.  Determine the Disallowance of expense /s that do not fulfill and or are following the donor’s rules and regulation and with 2 CFR 200 cost principles.

12.  Total expenditure for concern period March 01,2023 – February 29,2024 approximately will be PKR 70 million.

13.  Compliance with terms and conditions of the Subaward Document/Agreement.

14.  The internal resources such as manuals/guidelines are regularly updated.

Inquiries

If you have any questions/inquiries, please e-mail [email protected] no later than close of business March 25, 2024 with a subject line Inquiries-PI-BID/BHFA//MAR-2024/078:Hiring of Audit Firm. The solicitation number indicated above must be included in the subject line. Responses will be posted to all known offerors.

Proposal Deadline

All written responses to this RFP must be received by Pathfinder no later than [4:30 PM for electronic submission] (Pakistan time) on April 8, 2024. The solicitation number indicated above must be included in the subject line. Hardcopy submissions will not be accepted. A maximum of two files are permissible: one for technical documentation and one for financial details. The combined size of the email attachments should not exceed 20 MB.

Please email the quote and other information directly to: [email protected] with a subject line PI-BID/BHFA//MAR-2024/078: Hiring of Audit Firm. The solicitation number indicated above must be included in the subject line.

Modification

If at any time prior to award Pathfinder deems there to be a need for a significant modification to the terms and conditions of this RFP, Pathfinder will issue such a modification as a written RFP amendment to all competing offerors.  No oral statement of any person shall in any manner be deemed to modify or otherwise affect any RFP term or condition, and no offeror shall rely on any such statement. Such amendments are the exclusive method for this purpose.

Resulting Award

Single contract: As a result of this solicitation, Pathfinder anticipates engaging a single consultant firm. Pathfinder reserves the right to split the SOW and make multiple awards.

Any resulting contract will be subject to the terms and conditions contained in Annex B. Part B of this annex will only apply to USG-funded assignments.

The selected company for this assignment will abstain from engaging in the open bidding process for the Bill of Quantities (BOQ), thereby excluding itself from the competition associated with this task.

Joint ventures are ineligible to partake in the procedure.

Payment Terms

Fixed Price: Pathfinder anticipates entering into a fixed-price contract with the selected contractor.

Proposal Guidelines and Instructions

Offerors will be required to submit two proposals, electronically, one a technical proposal and the other a cost proposal. All proposals must be signed and valid for a minimum of sixty (30) days.

Your proposal should provide basic information about your Company/Individual and relevant service offerings. It should have a section addressing each of the following areas:

(a)    Company Profile

(b)   Firms have demonstrated experience of conducting USAID contracted Audit in ‘A’ listed firms.

(c)     

(d)   Past References

Responses should include the following information:

1. Preliminary examination Requirements

• Firm must be registered as a Sales Tax Registered Firm (PASS/FAIL)

• Audit Firm has at least ten years’ experience in similar Auditing services (PASS/FAIL)

• Certified Chartered Accountant Firm (FCA) (PASS/FAIL)

• Must have affiliation with international Audit firm. (PASS/FAIL)

• Firms have demonstrated experience of conducting USAID contracted Audit in ‘A’ listed firms; (PASS/FAIL)

Firms that meet the Pass/Fail criteria will undergo further evaluation in consideration of their technical proposals.

1. Technical Proposal

a. Company/Individual Profile and Past Performance – 30 points

• Provide Number of Year Experiences (for Proof, Organization registration Certificate must be attached).

• Briefly summarize the offeror’s qualifications and experience of the activities described in the scope of work.

• Provide a detailed track record of previous similar work undertaken as per evaluation criteria.

b.      Timeline – 10 points

• The firm must provide Estimated timeline to complete the assignment and sharing the audit report.

c.       Client references – 20 points

• Client references where you have provided similar nature services, list including, Client name, contact person, Contact number, email address, office address.

d.      Financial Proposal – 40 points

Financial Proposal

Offerors pricing should be based on the following:

Fixed Price:  For Services performed during the Term, Firm will be paid a fixed fee after the completion of task with a report accepted and approved by BHFA Team.

The financial proposal is mandated to incorporate a detailed breakdown of costs, encompassing all expenses such as travel costs and lodging, among others. Sales Tax with % is required. Please use below table to submit your financial response.

Reference	PI-BID/BHFA//MAR-2024/078: Hiring of Audit Firm
Issue Date	March 15, 2024
Closing Date	April 8, 2024
Price Validity	_______________ Please provide this information
NTN
STRN

 

Line Item	Description and Specifications	Qty	Items and Specifications Offered	Unit Price PKR	Sub Total PKR	Sales Tax (%)	Total Price PKR
Subtotal:
Other Costs (Describe: ______________________):
GRAND TOTAL (CIP) PKR:

The project will not provide any reimbursement or additional costs beyond those quoted in the financial proposal.

Sales Tax (ST) Compliance: The project is eligible for a sales tax exemption. ST amount will be withheld, an exemption letter will be provided within 90 days upon receipt of the invoice. If the exemption letter is not provided within this timeframe, the withheld ST amount will be paid upon completion of the USAID compliance timeline of 90 days.

Evaluation Criteria

In evaluating the proposals, Pathfinder International will seek the best value for money rather than the lowest priced proposal. Pathfinder will use a two-stage selection procedure:

• the first stage will evaluate the Technical Proposal.

• the second stage will evaluate the Financial Proposal for proposals that pass the Technical Proposal evaluation and will score minimum of 50 points out of maximum of 60 points.

Specifically, the selection committee will evaluate each proposal upon the following criteria:

No	Criteria Title	EVALUATION CRITERIA DETAIL
1.	Company/Firm’ Specific Experience	COMPANY EXPERIENCE: Number of Year Experiences (for Proof, Organization registration Certificate must be attached). 03 number per Year experience. – 5 marks ‘A’ Listed firm with USAID and State Bank of Pakistan- 20 marks Maximum 10 number for 10 & above year experience. - 5 marks Experience will be count from the date of registration certificate.	Total Marks
			30 Marks
2.	Timeline	Estimated timeline to complete the assignment and sharing the audit report. 6 weeks=10 marks Above 6 weeks= 5 marks	10 marks
3.	Client References	Client references where you have provided similar nature services, list including, Client name, contact person, Contact number, email address, office address.   1.      5   to 10 Clients = 5 marks 2.      11 to 20 clients = 10 marks 3.      21 to 30 clients = 14 marks 4.      31 to 40 Clients = 20 marks	20 Marks
Total Marks			60 Marks
Financial Marks			40 Marks

Pathfinder is not bound to accept the lowest or any proposal and reserves the right to accept any proposal in whole or in part and to reject any or all proposals.

Pathfinder shall not be legally bound by any award notice issued for this RFP until a contract is duly signed and executed with the winning offeror.

The evaluator will tally all the individual scores for each section and calculate the average score. The total average scores, will be added to obtain the total points achieved by the individual supplier. If the total number points meets or exceeds the threshold established in the evaluation methodology, the suppliers cost proposal will be eligible for consideration.

The score for the cost proposal will be calculated in the following manner:

Cost proposal score = 100 x Lowest cost/ cost of the proposal under consideration. The lowest cost proposal will receive the full 100 points.

The total score will be calculated as follows:

Total Score= Technical proposal score of the proposal under consideration multiplied by 60 plus (+) Cost proposal score of the proposal under consideration multiplied by 40.

Relationship disclosure

-           Describe any current or past relationships your organization may have with Pathfinder, and if it is a potential conflict of interest.  If there is a potential conflict of interest, please explain how this risk will be mitigated.

-           Describe any personal or familial relationships any employee of the Contractor has with any employee of Pathfinder. If there is a relationship, please explain how any conflict-of-interest risk will be mitigated.

Disclosure does not automatically disqualify offeror.

Terms

Pathfinder reserves the right to cancel this solicitation at any point and is under no obligation to issue a subcontract as a result of this solicitation.

Pathfinder will not reimburse any expenses related to the preparation of any proposal related materials or delivery.

Confidentiality

IF APPLICABLE As a part of the RFP process, Pathfinder International may be providing confidential information. Consequently, suppliers must complete a Confidentiality/ Non-Disclosure Agreement. See Annex B

Agreement

Any resulting contract will be subject to the terms and conditions contained in the annex. See Annex A

Thank you,

Procurement Team

Pathfinder International

Building Healthy Families Activity|Pathfinder International