With the awarding of funding by donors for international and domestic projects comes significant associated risks and challenges. Our donor audit and assurance services team will work with you to identify and mitigate those risks and help to ensure that funded projects deliver the greatest impact.
Common challenges we find our clients face are:
- compliance issues, where we have found that funding recipients are not acting in accordance with the legal and regulatory frameworks in the countries in which they are implementing projects.
- project impact, where the performance of the project and the impact that it has on ultimate beneficiaries is below expectations.
- eligibility concerns, where funds are not being spent in accordance with the terms of the funding agreements or in accordance with the project objectives.
- fraud risks, where there are concerns that funding is being misappropriated or mis-used.
- safeguarding and reputation risks, where the implementation of a project is having a detrimental impact on communities/ultimate beneficiaries.
To address these risks, we offer the following services to donors to provide them with assurance and mitigations around these risks and where necessary provide solutions and improvements that can be made by the recipients of funds.
Financial audits
A financial audit provides reasonable assurance and is usually undertaken under the International Standards of Auditing. It provides and independent and objective analysis on the accuracy of the financial information and compliance with donor requirements.
Financial audits promote donor confidence that funds are managed transparently and used responsibly, building trust, and strengthening partnerships resulting in the overall improvement and performance of donor-funded programmes.
This may be an audit of a grantee, a specific project or a programme and may take place on an interim or annual basis or at the end of a project.
Our team has extensive experience undertaking financial audits including for funding provided by UNICEF, UNFPA, UNOPS, UNHCR, UNDP, AFD and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
Expenditure verification
An expenditure verification is usually undertaken under agreed-upon procedures and refers to the independent review and validation of the financial transactions and expenses reported by the donation recipient. These verifications ensure that funds are used appropriately, effectively, in accordance with the donor’s requirements and donation contract, and for their intended purpose.
Expenditure verifications provide both donors and implementing organisations with the assurance that systems and expenses are reliable and meet agreed-upon standards, building trust and strengthening partnerships.
This may be an audit of a grantee, a specific project or a programme and may take place on an interim or annual basis or at the end of a project.
The team brings over five years of extensive experience conducting expenditure verifications on behalf of major international donors, including the European Commission, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), SIDA, and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. They have worked with a variety of organisations including OXFAM, INTERPOL, GIZ and UNICEF.
Internal audits/System and controls audits
Systems and controls audits, and internal audits assess the efficiency, effectiveness and reliability of financial management systems and operational processes within organisations implementing donor-funded programmes. These are undertaken on an ad hoc or periodic basis.
Donors and implementing organisations may request these audits as they provide assurance of financial and operational integrity, increasing donor confidence and resulting in the overall improvement and performance of donor-funded programmes.
The team has extensive experience undertaking internal audits and, systems and controls audits for implementing organisations including on behalf of the European Commission (DG INTPA and DG ECHO), UNOPS and SIDA. This has involved work in various areas including governance, payroll, IT, financial and accounting systems, procurement, risk management, payments, other specific areas, and full control reviews.
Due diligence and pre-assessments
Donors may request due diligence and pre-assessments before the approval, initiation, or continuation of a donor-funded programme to ensure that funding recipients have the capacity and systems in place to effectively deliver projects. It involves the systematic review and assessment of an organisation’s capacity to implement a project, assesses the organisations financial health, risk management processes, and ability to adhere to donor requirements.
Due diligence and pre-assessment ensure that risks are identified and mitigated in advance providing assurance that the implementing organisation can deliver the intended programme outputs. This builds donor confidence and strengthens partnerships through accountability and transparency.
Our team can provide pre-assessments and detailed due diligence to our donors and assist with capacity building and training of funding recipients.
