Provision of External Audit & Taxation Services to Jigsaw Homes Group.

Tender description

Jigsaw Homes Group is inviting tenders for the provision of external audit and taxation services. The Group’s Risk & Audit Committee has reviewed the Group’s approach to the provision of external audit. The results of this review are that: - The Group wishes to ensure that the external audit function is suitably robust and able to meet the needs of one of the largest housing groups in the North West; - The Group is seeking to appoint a firm which is committed to working with us to provide levels of assurance to the Risk & Audit Committee and the Group Board that acknowledge our size, geographic spread and diverse activity. - The Group believes it can deliver better value for money from procuring external audit and taxation services from the same supplier. - The Group is looking for a partner who can provide benchmarking and added value to the Group Lot 1: Jigsaw Group is inviting tenders for the provision of external audit and taxation services. Any professional firm looking to tender for the provision of external audit and taxation services should address the following requirements. The firm should be able to be objective in the performance of its duties by complying with the following requirements; - No relationship exists between any board/staff members of the Group (including subsidiaries) and the audit firm’s staff that might undermine the objectivity or independence of the audit. - No current member of the audit firm’s staff is presently a board or staff member at Jigsaw. - The audit firm does not provide other services to Jigsaw that might undermine the objectivity or independence of the audit. - The firm should be able to demonstrate that it has relevant experience in the social housing sector and has the necessary, locally based resources to carry-out the audit, taking into account the size, location and nature of the audit. As part of the tender document, the firm is to provide full details of the office and the proposed team (demonstrating social housing experience and expertise) to provide the service and which other social housing clients the team serves. Jigsaw may require the firm to provide contact details to allow it to take references. - The audit must be carried out in accordance with up to date auditing standards, any code of practices relevant for registered providers, and comprises such examination of the financial statements, underlying records and control systems as is necessary to reach an opinion of the financial statements. The appointed firm may wish to liaise with the internal audit team and place reliance on their work where appropriate.