1. As part of its programme of activities for the year 2024, the ECOWAS Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (ARAA) , intends to select accounting firms to audit or verify the expenditure of projects and programmes financed by various Technical and Financial Partners, which it implements.

2. The ECOWAS Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (ARAA) invites interested firms to express their interest in providing the services described above. This Notice of Expression of Interest is addressed to: Duly constituted and approved firms (audit and accounting firms).

3. Eligibility criteria: any legal entity is eligible subject to the conditions of exclusion from the procurement process as set out in Article 10 of the ECOWAS Procurement Code. The attention of interested firms is particularly drawn to Article 118 of the revised ECOWAS Procurement Code ("Offences committed by candidates, tenderers and successful tenderers"), which provides information on corrupt or fraudulent practices in the competition or execution of a contract. In addition, please refer to the following specific information on conflicts of interest related to this assignment, in accordance with "Article 119 of the revised ECOWAS Public Procurement Code". The ECOWAS Public Procurement Code is available at https://ecowas.int/nwp_events/resources-offical-documents/. In addition, where applicable, the specific eligibility criteria of the RAAA's donors will apply, in particular the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development, the French Development Agency, the World Bank, USAID, the West African Development Bank and the Green Climate Fund.

4. Respondents may submit only one expression of interest on their own behalf or as part of a Grouping. If an Applicant (including a member of a Grouping) submits or participates in several applications, these will be eliminated. However, the same Sub-Contractor may participate in several applications.

5. If the Applicant is a consortium, the Expression of Interest must include:

• a copy of the Grouping agreement concluded by all its members, or
• a letter of intent to form a consortium, signed by all its members and accompanied by a copy of the proposed consortium agreement.

In the absence of this document, the other members will be considered as Subcontractors.

6. The references and qualifications of Subcontractors are not taken into account in the evaluation of expressions of interest.

7. Interested Firms must provide information demonstrating that they are qualified and experienced to perform these Services. In this regard, they shall provide evidence of recent and similar references. In order to meet the criteria listed below, consultants must provide detailed evidence and references for all statements made in terms of experience and capabilities, similar assignments, availability of appropriate skills among their staff, etc. Each reference provided must be summarized in a separate document. Each reference provided must be summarised on a project sheet and will only be considered and accepted if the applicant attaches proof of satisfactory performance of the services and indicating the client's contact details in order to facilitate verification of the information provided, the contracts cited OR copies of certificate(s) of satisfactory performance of each contract submitted, as issued and signed by the Client. The similarity of the references will be analysed on the basis of :

The similarity of the references will be analysed on the basis of :

• de l’ampleur des marchés ;
• The scale of the markets : The nature of the Services: accounting and financial audits, expenditure verifications within the framework of projects and programmes financed by technical and financial partners (multilateral and bilateral);
• In the field of technical expertise: auditing and public accounting;
• Geographical context: West Africa.

These participating firms, individually or as part of a consortium, must be members of a national institute of accountancy or auditing, which is itself a member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), with proven experience in the field:

• Must have completed at least ten (10) financial accounting audit assignments for public entities over the last ten (10) years;
• Carry out at least five (05) similar accounts audit or expenditure verification assignments funded by technical and financial partners over the last ten (10) years.  

The Respondent must have the following professional staff :

• a chartered accountant;
• a Head of Mission ;
• two (02) senior auditors; an electrical engineering design engineer or equivalent;
• one (1) auditor specialising in procurement.

Note: for consultants who are members of networks of audit firms, the references provided will only be considered if the tendering member demonstrates its actual participation in carrying out the assignment cited in the reference or if the member who carried out the assignment is also a tenderer in a consortium.

8. Participation in this call for expressions of interest is open on equal terms to all independent audit firms (authorised to carry out accounting and financial audit assignments as part of an audit) participating individually or as part of a group (consortium) of consultants, which are established (recognised and registered or listed) in the ECOWAS region, (compulsory for the lead auditor and the majority of the staff as part of a group).

9. Application file: Expressions of interest must contain the following elements :

• Letter of expression of interest duly signed ;
• If the consultant is a consortium: a copy of the consortium agreement or a letter of intent to form a consortium
• A brochure presenting the firm or consortium (including administrative documents);
• the list of professional staff and their details;
• proof of membership or registration with a national accounting or auditing institute, or with the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC);
• proof of experience as described in point 7 of this notice.

10. 10. The ECOWAS Commission will draw up a shortlist of eight (8) to ten (10) shortlisted firms on the basis of the applications received. This shortlist will be kept active for a period of twenty-four (24) months. The shortlisted consultants will be invited, as required, to submit a detailed offer in the context of the various Requests for Proposals for the audit/verification of project or programme expenditure. The Request for Proposals may concern one or more projects/programmes. One Candidate will be selected per project/programme in accordance with the selection method based on quality and cost or any other applicable method for the selection of consultants as described in the ECOWAS Public Procurement Code. The contracts signed will cover several financial years of the project(s)/programme(s) concerned under the framework contract. The Commission also intends to use this list to sign multi-awarded framework contracts, enabling it to issue service orders after a simplified call for competition.

11. Expressions of Interest must be received no later than 03 May 2024 at 11H30 (GMT), Togo time at the Agence Régionale pour l'Agriculture et l'Alimentation (ARAA), 5th Floor, Immeuble de la CRBC, Place de la Réconciliation, Quartier Atchanté, office 509 or via the following dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/request/g8MzY5zQDULPifUBBccp in subject " AMI01-2024-Audits Projects ARAA : Name of Consultant". NB: For hand-deliveries, please attach a USB key containing the expression of interest file.

12. Interested Consultants can obtain further information by sending an email to the following addresses: procurement@araa.org :cc : ctienon@araa.org ; mnakorba@araa.org ; ikkamara@ecowas.int, with the subject "AMI01-2024-Audits Projects ARAA-Clarifications".