Background
Background of the UNDP office in Serbia. UNDP has embarked on assisting Serbia in implementing a comprehensive development framework. The framework focuses on judicial reform and the rule of law, enabling institutional development and public administration reform, facilitating poverty reduction and economic development, and assisting vulnerable groups through a human security approach. Cutting across these clusters are four primary themes: (i) human rights and gender equality, (ii) policy reform and consensus building, (iii) constituency empowerment, (iv) e-governance using information technology.
Within the Capacity Development for Accountable Governance cluster (CDAG), UNDP pursues the achievement of following outcomes:
· The development of institutions, laws and innovative practices intended to promote the respect for human rights.
· Working with government, judiciary, and professional associations, as well as with regional and international stakeholders to further professional advancement, competency improvement and facilitating access to knowledge for legal professionals.
· Strengthening the capacity of various line ministries and other government agencies for closer European integration and improved public administration
We are working to strengthen the capacities of post-conflict social institutions to address interrelated development, conflict prevention and justice issues.
Free Legal Aid initiative
In addition to the above-mentioned projects, the Capacity Development for Accountable Governance Cluster has developed new initiatives aimed at promoting and enabling human rights protection in Serbia. A key initiative among these has as its goal the creation of an effective and sustainable system of Free Legal Aid.
The full realization of the Rule of Law in any society requires equality before the law for all citizens. Thus, legal assistance should be available free of charge or at a reduced cost for those who cannot afford it. Unfortunately, in Serbia this is not the case due to the absence of a state-funded system of providing legal aid to the poor and vulnerable.
To date, the Capacity Development for Accountable Governance Cluster has cooperated with the Ministry of Justice and its Working Group on Strategy for future legal aid system in Serbia, through the provision of technical assistance and exposure to best practice. Also, through provision of micro capital grants UNDP, and its Legal Aid Fund, is testing mechanisms for the future legal aid system and providing inputs for development of Strategy.
B. PROJECT CONTEXT
As part of the Free Legal Aid initiative, and in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the CDAG cluster has created the “Creating an effective and sustainable system of providing Free Legal Aid in Serbia” project. The goal of the project will be to establish an effective and affordable state-funded and run legal aid system for those who cannot afford legal services. Through the creation of such a system, Serbia would also discharge its obligations under international human rights law. The First Phase of the project will be carried out along two tracks; the goals of these tracks are: 1) to formulate a strategy for the reform of the legal aid system that will be accepted by the key stakeholders, including an adequate normative framework enabling such a system to function effectively (Track I), and 2) to increase access to justice for the most vulnerable and marginalized groups through the creation of a Legal Aid Fund, which will disburse grants to organizations that provide legal aid (Track II). Moreover, the Legal Aid Fund will also serve as an opportunity to pilot models of legal aid delivery and ascertain their long-term viability in Serbia. The fulfilment of these goals will eventually translate into the Second Phase that will strengthen the newly-established legal aid system through technical, institutional and financial support.
There will be multiple beneficiaries to the project. Track I will assist policy implementation actors and lawmakers in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the current legal aid ‘system’ and in determining the most effective intervention in this field. Through its development of a state-supported legal aid system, it will also help international development agents to better focus their programmes in the area of access to justice and seek partnerships for joint interventions. Overall, the immediate beneficiaries of Track II will also be the most important long-term beneficiaries: impoverished citizens without access to justice; victims of human rights abuses and discrimination; minorities; refugees and IDPs. Moreover, however, the creation of a functioning legal aid system will benefit the state in helping it fulfil its international obligations, and it will also assist organizations providing legal aid, including the Bar Association, non-governmental organizations and others. Finally, the judiciary will be a beneficiary of this project - judges and prosecutors will allow the courts to perform their mandate in a better way, namely, provide effective legal remedies for all citizens; as well as to ensure respect for the rule of law.
The Legal Aid Fund (LAF) has been created with the purpose of collecting valid data, on the basis of which optimal solutions will be formulated along with realistic and applicable proposals and recommendations for the legal aid system reform in Serbia. This has been achieved through provision of grants and testing of various models of free legal aid provision, the examination of criteria for the provision of legal aid, as well as of ways of efficiently financing and managing the system. In this sense the Fund cooperates with a great number of different partners such as Bar Associations, NGOs, Municipal Legal Aid Offices, Centers for Social Welfare and Legal Clinics. of free legal aid provision, the examination of criteria for the provision of legal aid, as well as of ways of efficiently financing and managing the system. In this sense the Fund cooperates with a great number of different partners such as Bar Associations, NGOs, Municipal Legal Aid Offices, Centers for Social Welfare and Legal Clinics.
The Legal Aid Fund is a mechanism for supporting legal aid providers, for researching their capacities as well as the needs and demand for legal aid by the end beneficiaries, the citizens of Serbia. Further, the Fund allows for research to be made of optimal methods for standardizing the quality of legal aid services and most effective ways of financing a system of legal aid provision.
Duties and Responsibilities
The overall objective of the assignment is to conduct an independent audit of the financial statements of grantee organizations, to enable the Auditor to express a professional opinion of the implemented projects. The audit shall cover the funds received, as well as the expenditures incurred for the execution of project activities. In order to define requested more specifically please note following:
- An auditor will be required to conduct an audit of the LAF grantees implementing the projects on provision of free legal aid in the territory of Serbia (list attached);
- That the audit period is 07 April 2008 to 28 February of the year 2009;
- That the scope of the audit is limited to the LAF partner expenditures, which are defined as including all disbursements listed in financial reports submitted by the partners;
- That the auditor will verify the mathematical accuracy of the financial reports by ensuring that the expenditures described in the supporting documentation are reconciled to the expenditures, by disbursing source, in the financial report;
- The auditor will state in the audit report if the audit was not in conformity with any of the above and indicate the alternative standards or procedures followed;
- The auditor will provide an opinion as to the overall financial situation of the project for the period 07 April 2008 to 28 February 2009.
| Note: Audit opinions must be one of the following: (a) qualified, (b), unqualified, (c) adverse, or (d) disclaimer. If the audit opinion is other than “unqualified” the audit report must describe both the nature and amount of the possible effects on the financial statements. A definition of audit opinions is provided in Annex 4. |
Subject of the audit is total amount of 167,095.30 USD provided to grantee organizations through UNDP Micro Capital Grant Agreements. List of grant recipients is attached (Annex 3) as well as designated reporting template used for reporting of utilization towards UNDP (Annex 4).
Available Facilities and Right of Access
The Auditor should have full access to all records and documents (including books of account, legal agreements, minutes of committee meetings, bank records, invoices and contracts etc.) and all employees of the audited entity. The auditor has a right of access to banks, consultants, contractors and other persons or firms engaged by the project management for the purposes of the audited project.
Expected Outputs
The deliverables of the assignment will be the following:
· Provide audit report with professional opinion related to financial management for the implemented projects;
· The Auditor is expected to submit three copies of audit report. Reports will be written in English;
· In addition to the audit reports, the Auditor will prepare a "management letter", in which the Auditor will:
- give comments and observations on the accounting records, systems, and controls that were examined during the course of the audit;
- identify specific deficiencies and areas of weakness in systems and controls and make recommendations for their improvement;
- report on the degree of compliance of each of the financial covenants on the financing and give comments, if any, on internal and external matters affecting such compliance;
- bring attention to any other matters that the Auditors consider pertinent
Unqualified (Clean) Opinion
An unqualified opinion should be expressed when the auditor concludes that the financial statements give a true and fair view or are presented fairly, in all material respects, in accordance with the applicable financial reporting framework.
Modified Unqualified or Emphasis of Matter paragraph
In certain circumstances, an auditor’s report may be modified by adding an emphasis of matter paragraph to highlight a matter affecting the financial statements which is included in a note to the financial statements that more extensively discusses the matter. The emphasis of matter paragraph would ordinarily refer to the fact that the auditor’s opinion is not qualified in this respect, by adding a paragraph to highlight a material matter regarding an ongoing concern or problem or a significant uncertainty. An uncertainty is a matter whose outcome depends on future actions or events not under the direct control of the entity but that may affect the financial statements.
A qualified opinion should be expressed when the auditor concludes that an unqualified opinion cannot be expressed but that the effect of any disagreement with management, or limitation on scope is not so material and pervasive as to require an adverse opinion or a disclaimer of opinion. A qualified opinion should be expressed as being ‘except for’ the effects of the matter to which the qualification relates.
A disclaimer of opinion should be expressed when the possible effect of a limitation on scope is so material and pervasive that the auditor has not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence and accordingly is unable to express an opinion on the financial statements.
An adverse opinion should be expressed when the effect of a disagreement is so material and pervasive to the financial statements that the auditor concludes that a qualification of the report is not adequate to disclose the misleading or incomplete nature of the financial statements.
Annex 2: Categorization of Audit Findings by Risk Severity
| High | Action that is considered imperative to ensure that UNDP and/or grantee organization is not exposed to high risks (i.e. failure to take action could result in major consequences and issues). |
| Medium | Action that is considered necessary to avoid exposure to significant risks (i.e. failure to take action could result in significant consequences). |
| Low | Action that is considered desirable and should result in enhanced control or better value for money. |
Annex 3: List of Grantee Organizations
| Project | Grant No. | Grant No / Organization | Organization | Location | Amount per Agency | Total Project |
| 1 | 01/GR2 | 01A/GR2 | The City of Kragujevac, Legal Aid Service | Kragujevac | 6,588.67 | 14,980.87 |
| 01B/GR2 | Balkan Centre for Migration and Humanitarian Activities | Belgrade | 5,261.60 | |||
| 01C/GR2 | NGO "Bahtalipe" | Kragujevac | 1,565.30 | |||
| 01D/GR2 | Association of Paraplegics and Quadriplegics "Šumadija" | Kragujevac | 1,565.30 | |||
| 2 | 02/GR2 | 02A/GR2 | Bar Association Cacak | Cacak | 6,400.00 | 12,784.08 |
| 02B/GR2 | Centre for Social Welfare, Gornji Milanovac | Gornji Milanovac | 6,384.08 | |||
| 3 | 03/GR2 | 03A/GR2 | Municipal Administration, Municipality Pancevo | Pancevo | 6,246.60 | 23,932.65 |
| 03B/GR2 | Municipal Administration, Municipality Opovo | Opovo | 5,785.45 | |||
| 03C/GR2 | Bar Association of Vojvodina - Free Legal Aid Service, Pancevo | Pancevo | 6,110.00 | |||
| 03D/GR2 | Centre for Social Welfare "Solidarnost", Pancevo | Pancevo | 5,790.60 | |||
| 4 | 04/GR2 | 04A/GR2 | Committee for Human Rights Negotin - Office CHRIS Negotin | Negotin | 4,792.57 | 12,000.13 |
| 04B/GR2 | Bar Association Zajecar | Zajecar | 7,207.56 | |||
| 5 | 05/GR2 | 05A/GR2 | City Municipality Pantelej | Niš | 6,998.24 | 31,455.94 |
| 05B/GR2 | Bar Association Niš | Niš | 9,971.52 | |||
| 05C/GR2 | Centre for Development of the Civil Society PROTECTA | Niš | 3,000.00 | |||
| 05D/GR2 | Law Faculty Niš | Niš | 3,504.00 | |||
| 05E/GR2 | Association of Roma Women "Osvit" | Niš | 2,991.44 | |||
| 05F/GR2 | Committee for Human Rights Niš, CHRIS Niš | Niš | 4,990.74 | |||
| 6 | 06/GR2 | 06A/GR2 | Serbian Democratic Forum | Belgrade | 5,000.00 | 25,000.00 |
| 06B/GR2 | Humanitarian Centre for Integration and Tolerance | Novi Sad | 5,000.00 | |||
| 06C/GR2 | Committee for Aid and Protection | Belgrade | 5,000.00 | |||
| 06D/GR2 | NGO "Solidarnost" | Belgrade | 5,000.00 | |||
| 06E/GR2 | NGO "DMRE" | Belgrade | 5,000.00 | |||
| 7 | 07/GR2 | 07A/GR2 | NGO "…Out of Circle, Serbia" | Belgrade | 6,948.41 | 19,997.03 |
| 07B/GR2 | Municipality Vracar, Belgrade Municipality | Belgrade | 4,064.74 | |||
| 07C/GR2 | "…Out of Circle, Kragujevac" | Kragujevac | 4,618.08 | |||
| 07D/GR2 | "…Out of Circle, Vojvodina" | Novi Sad | 4,365.80 | |||
| 8 | 08/GR2 | 08A/GR2 | Municipality Indija | Indija | 6,161.60 | 13,498.60 |
| 08B/GR2 | Initiative for Development and Cooperation (IDC) Serbia | Belgrade | 6,987.00 | |||
| 08C/GR2 | Administration District of Srem | Indija | 350.00 | |||
| 9 | 09/GR2 | 09A/GR2 | Bar Association Belgrade | Belgrade | 9,990.00 | 13,446.00 |
| 09B/GR2 | Palilula, Belgrade Municipality | Belgrade | 1,728.00 | |||
| 09C/GR2 | Rakovica, Belgrade Municipality | Belgrade | 1,728.00 | |||
| TOTAL GRANTS ALLOCATED in USD | 167,095.30 | 167,095.30 | ||||
Annex 4: Designated progress reporting template
Will be shared accordingly
Competencies
Evidence of ability to think strategically; to express ideas clearly; to work independently and in teams; to demonstrate a sense of self-assuredness combined with cultural and gender sensitivity
Required Skills and Experience
· Certified Auditor (Authorized to certify the accounts by the Serbian law);
· Five years of professional experience in auditing;
· Proven knowledge and experience in auditing complex entities, based on International Accounting Standards (IAS) and International Standards on Auditing (ISA) involving national disbursements and procurement. In this respect, the Auditor is expected to provide appropriate references;
· Relevant University Degree;
· Knowledge of the local legal and accounting systems;
· Experience in auditing internationally financed projects is desirable, but not mandatory;
· Superior written and oral communication and interpersonal skills, information technology skills;
. Proficient in the English language, both written and oral.