Finfish Production Audit Services

Tender description

Annual rent for seabed leases for finfish farming is levied as a per-tonne royalty on the total production of fish harvested from the lease subjects in the immediately preceding calendar year. Grantees are currently required in January of every year to report this production for determination of rent due and this will change in January 2023 when harvested production will be reported on a 6 monthly basis, in January and July every year. The lease terms include a provision for the landlord to independently verify the reported production and while this is annual it will reflect the two 6-monthly reports during the relevant years. Crown Estate Scotland is seeking to appoint auditors to independently verify the reported production of our finfish farming tenants. Crown Estate Scotland therefore wish to invite tenders to undertake audits of the 2022, 2023, & 2024 calendar year production reported by finfish farming tenants on the following terms which will be reflected in the contract: (1) The auditor is required to carry out production audits of the extant leases of all current Crown Estate Scotland marine finfish farm operators, as outlined in Annex 1 (the variation will be accommodated in costs apportioned and invoiced for individual years). (2) The appointment will be on the condition that all work carried out by the auditor under this appointment is under the personal supervision and control of a nominated contact. These duties may be subsequently delegated as agreed with Crown Estate Scotland. (3) The objective of the appointment is to audit and verify finfish farm tenant’s Production Returns made to Crown Estate Scotland. The auditor will examine any records which it deems necessary to:- (a) verify that proper and sufficient records are being maintained to support the Production Returns; (b) verify that the Production Returns are a true record of the harvested tonnage for the audited companies for the production years under audit. (c) identify production of any of the audited companies grown on behalf of third parties and details of which do not appear within the figures returned to Crown Estate Scotland; and (d) Identify production grown by third parties on behalf of the companies being audited. (4) The auditor should provide details of any insurance claims made in respect of stock losses during the audit period. (5) The auditor should provide production details of any marine finfish harvested which are not salmon and have not been previously declared by the fish farming companies.