Procurement of External Auditing Services

A PE sought the guidance of this Ministry on the following where:- 

1. The PE sought to engage the services of an international auditing firm to conduct a review/reconciliation of figures reported by a previous consulting team of the company; 
2. Whilst the PE currently utilises the services of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) it deems it a conflict of interest for PWC to perform the audit given that they have already submitted to the PE audited financials for the period in question; 
3. The PE’s joint venture overseas partner has always indicated that any reconciliation/review that ought to be done should be done by an international auditing firm; 
4. Based on market research it was observed that there are only two (2) international firms with local representations in the country, those being KPMG and BDO; 
5. The PE also sought guidance on whether the engagement of a new firm to conduct the review could be facilitated via the Limited tender (now Restrict bidding) procurement method; 
6. In addition, the PE also desires guidance on the route to take in procuring an audit firm to conduct the review, and questions whether section 24(1)(b)(c) and 24(2)(b) of the Public Procurement Act, 2015 (as amended) (“The Act”) applies to the case presented.