Financial auditing services

Tender description

The Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) is seeking to establish contracts for financial audit services to be allocated in 10 (ten) lots. These will appoint service providers for the provision of financial auditing services, and other work to support and assist the NIAO where appropriate and where required in its external audit functions. The NIAO is responsible for the financial audit of Northern Ireland Government Departments, their executive agencies and a wide range of other public bodies, including health and personal social services and local government bodies. Financial Audit of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust — Public Funds account; Patients' and Residents' Monies account and Charitable Trust Funds account. The successful tenderer will provide financial audit services for the NIAO. The contract shall cover the audit of the 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 accounts, with the option of extending annually to cover the 2020-21 and 2021-22 accounts. The audit work for which proposals are invited is confined to: — that leading to an audit opinion on the three sets of financial statements of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and part of the Remuneration and Staff Report; and — a review of the Governance Statement of the three sets of financial statements of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. The NIAO will place reliance each year on the shadow audit certificate produced by the firm for the three sets of financial statements of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in preparing the C&AG's audit certificate. The audit work does not include value for money aspects, although any value for money matters arising as a result of the audit work should be brought to the attention of the NIAO. It also does not extend to the audit of the accounts of any bodies funded by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. Financial Audit of the Southern Health and Social Care Trust — Public Funds account; Patients' and Residents' Monies account and Charitable Trust Funds account. The successful tenderer will provide financial audit services for the NIAO. The contract shall cover the audit of the 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 accounts, with the option of extending annually to cover the 2020-21 and 2021-22 accounts. The audit work for which proposals are invited is confined to: — that leading to an audit opinion on the financial statements of Southern Health and Social Care Trust and part of the Remuneration Report; and — a review of the Governance Statement of Southern Health and Social Care Trust. The NIAO will place reliance each year on the shadow audit certificate produced by the firm for the accounts of the Southern Health and Social Care Trust in preparing the C&AG's audit certificate. The audit work does not include value for money aspects, although any value for money matters arising as a result of the audit work should be brought to the attention of the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO). It also does not extend to the audit of the accounts of any bodies funded by the Southern Health and Social Care Trust. Financial Audit of the Western Health and Social Care Trust — Public Funds account; Patients' and Residents' Monies account and Charitable Trust Funds account The successful tenderer will provide financial audit services for the NIAO. The contract shall cover the audit of the 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 accounts, with the option of extending annually to cover the 2020-21 and 2021-22 accounts. The audit work for which proposals are invited is confined to: — that leading to an audit opinion on the financial statements of Western Health and Social Care Trust and part of the Remuneration Report; and — a review of the Governance Statement of Western Health and Social Care Trust. The NIAO will place reliance each year on the shadow audit certificate produced by the firm for the accounts of Western Health and Social Care Trust in preparing the C&AG's audit certificate. The audit work does not include value for money aspects, although any value for money matters arising as a result of the audit work should be brought to the attention of the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO). It also does not extend to the audit of the accounts of any bodies funded by the Western Health and Social Care Trust. Financial Audit of the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) The successful tenderer will provide financial audit services for the NIAO. The contract shall cover the audit of the 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 accounts, with the option of extending annually to cover the 2020-21 and 2021-22 accounts. The audit work for which proposals are invited is confined to: — that leading to an audit opinion on the financial statements of Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority and part of the Remuneration Report; and — a review of the Governance Statement of Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority. The NIAO will place reliance each year on the shadow audit certificate produced by the firm for the accounts of Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority in preparing the C&AG's audit certificate. The audit work does not include value for money aspects, although any value for money matters arising as a result of the audit work should be brought to the attention of the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO). It also does not extend to the audit of the accounts of any bodies funded by the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority. The successful tenderer will provide financial audit services for the NIAO. The contract shall cover the audit of the 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 accounts, with the option of extending annually to cover the 2020-21 and 2021-22 accounts. The audit work for which proposals are invited is confined to: — that leading to an audit opinion on the financial statements of PRRT and parts of the Remuneration and Staff Report; and — a review of the Governance Statement of PRRT. NIAO will place reliance each year on the audit work carried out on accounts of PRRT for its audit of DoJ. The audit work does not include value for money aspects, although any value for money matters arising as a result of the audit work should be brought to the attention of the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO). The successful tenderer will provide financial audit services for the NIAO. The contract shall cover the audit of the 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 accounts, with the option of extending annually to cover the 2020-21 and 2021-22 accounts. The audit work for which proposals are invited is confined to: — that leading to an audit opinion on the financial statements of Northern Ireland Screen Commission (NI Screen) and part of the Remuneration Report; and — a review of the Governance Statement of NI Screen. The NIAO will place reliance each year on the audit work carried out on the accounts of NI Screen for its audit of the Department for the Economy (DfE). The audit work does not include value for money aspects, although any value for money matters arising as a result of the audit work should be brought to the attention of the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO). It also does not extend to the audit of the accounts of any bodies funded by NI Screen. Financial Audit of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service for two sets of accounts: (a) Operating Account; and (b) Pension Funds Account. The successful tenderer will provide financial audit services for the NIAO. The contract shall cover the audit of the 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 financial years for both sets of accounts (the operating account and the pension funds account) with the option of extending annually to cover the 2020-21 and 2021-22 accounts. For both sets of accounts of NIFRS, the audit work for which proposals are invited is confined to: — that leading to an audit opinion on the financial statements and part of the Remuneration Report; and — a review of the Governance Statement. The NIAO will place reliance each year on both shadow audit certificates produced by the firm for the accounts of NIFRS in preparing the C&AG's audit certificate. The NIAO will also take the results of the audit of NIFRS into account in the audit of the DoH's accounts. The audit work does not include value for money aspects, although any value for money matters arising as a result of the audit work should be brought to the attention of NIAO. It also does not extend to the audit of the accounts of any bodies funded by NIFRS. The successful tenderer will provide financial audit services for the NIAO. The contract shall cover the audit of the 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 accounts, with the option of extending annually to cover the 2020-21 and 2021-22 accounts. The audit work for which proposals are invited is confined to: — that leading to an audit opinion on the financial statements of NILA and parts of the Remuneration and Staffing Report; and — a review of the Governance Statement of NILA. NIAO will place reliance each year on the audit work carried out on accounts of NILA for its audit of DfC. The audit work does not include value for money aspects, although any value for money matters arising as a result of the audit work should be brought to the attention of the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO). The successful tenderer will provide financial audit services for the NIAO. The contract shall cover the audit of the 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 accounts, with the option of extending annually to cover the 2019-20 and 2020-21 accounts. The audit work for which proposals are invited is confined to: — that leading to an audit opinion on the financial statements of AOP and parts of the Remuneration and Staff Report; and — a review of the Governance Statement of AOP. NIAO will place reliance each year on the audit work carried out on accounts of AOP for its audit of DfC. The audit work does not include value for money aspects, although any value for money matters arising as a result of the audit work should be brought to the attention of the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO). The successful tenderer will provide IT audit services for the NIAO. The contract shall cover the audit of the HR Connect systems in as far as it impacts on the financial statements of bodies using HR Connect to process its payroll. The audit will be limited to HR Connect itself and does not extend to processes and controls put in place by those bodies using HR Connect. The audit work will include the 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 financial years, with the option of extending annually to cover the 2020-21 and 2021-22 accounts. As required by ISA 315 the auditor of the financial statements of those bodies which use HR Connect to deliver payroll services are required to ‘identify and assess the risks of material misstatement in the financial statements, through understanding the entity and its environment, including the entity's internal control.’ Part of understanding the entity and its environment is to understand the information system, of which the use of Information Technology (IT) is part. The auditor must understand and assess the risks arising from the use of IT and identify and assess the controls that have been put in place to mitigate these. ISA 315 states that ‘controls over IT systems are effective when they maintain the integrity of information and the security of the data such systems process and include effective IT controls and application controls’. Accordingly, this work will lead to an opinion over the integrity of the information and security of the data held on and processed by HR Connect. The opinion should conclude whether there is a material risk to the payroll figures taken from HR Connect by those bodies using it and subsequently included in their financial statements. The audit will require HR Connect to be risk assessed and an audit approach devised on the findings of this assessment. This will include a review of the general IT environment controls and the specific application controls surrounding the input, processing and output of data/information. This will lead to a shadow ISA 402 report to NIAO. This report will then be provided to the auditors of the financial statements of those bodies using HR Connect and will contribute to the total audit assurance supporting the opinion on those financial statements. The audit work does not include value for money aspects, although any value for money matters arising as a result of the audit work should be brought to the attention of the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO). d to a shadow ISA 402 report to NIAO.