Attachment No. 2 - RFP Q As.pdf

SOL-306-12-000058-TAFA Question & Answers Amendment No. 3

NO Question Answer

We are a Canadian firm of Chartered Accountants licensed under the Canadian Institute of Chartered

Accountants (“CICA”). Please confirm that the provision of our CICA license will be considered equivalent to meeting the requirement of providing an AICPA license

CICA not considered equivalent to AICPA, but proposals can be submitted.

On page 22, section F.3, the following statement is made:

The principal place of performance for this contract is in

Kabul – Kabul Province, In order to include sufficient resources to meet the requirements, please confirm the amount of commodities outside of Kabul or the number and location within Afghanistan but outside of Kabul, that we are expected to audit Afghanistan. On page 9, section j., you state that end-use reviews may include site visits to verify that commodities exist or were used for their intended purposes in accordance with the terms of the agreements.

TAFA has small offices in Kandahar, Mazar, Herat, and Jalalabad. No financial records are maintained in these offices. All transactions are submitted to the main office in Kabul for processing.

Page 6, C.2 refers to auditing costs delivered by the

Contractor or their local partners/sub-recipients…

Can you confirm if the Prime Contractor utilized the services of local sub-awardees or sub-contractors?

Chemonics has no NICRA for local indirect costs.

While we understand you will provide the selected auditor with more information once the contract has been awarded can you please indicate what the three CLINS are (e.g Salary, program costs, sub-contractors, etc?)

Clarification needed for this question.

Page 7 C.3 indicates that the Contractors HQ NICRA is not to be audited. Then on the same page (and elsewhere) it requires the auditor ( at C.3 A 4th bullet

) to perform an audit of any local indirect cost rates….. Does this Prime contractor have a local or field NICRA in place?

Chemonics has no NICRA for local indirect costs.

Page 7 A.1 Pre-Audit steps instructs the auditor to review documents applicable to the program to be audited. Will it be possible for the selected auditor to have access to these documents soon after the contract is awarded and possibly before the auditor arrives in country (if the auditor is not from

Afghanistan) to enable much of the planning and risk management work to be performed before per-diem and daily security costs are incurred?

Some documents (e.g. contracts, budget, FAR procedures, etc.) can be provided easily.

However, other documents such as obtaining financial reports should be coordinated between the auditor and auditee.

USAID/Afghanistan 1

Are there any prior audit reports and if so could will we have access to them as noted in point 4 above?

DCAA conducts an annual audit at the corporate office. All Afghanistan projects are selected as a part of the 100 % audit program for locally incurred costs. At this time we are unaware of an audit conducted for this project.

Is the project on-going? This does not appear to be a close out audit? Yes it is ongoing.

Does USAID have any public concerns about the recipient and around this audit? (E.g., has an OIG performance audit been conducted which may have identified issues?) No OIG financial audit performed.

The principal place of performance will be Kabul, but given the nature of the project we would assume that there is a possibility of having to work outside Kabul? If this is true, can you indicate where in Afghanistan will the work have to be completed?

TAFA has small offices in Kandahar, Mazar, Herat, and Jalalabad. No financial records are maintained in these offices. All transactions are submitted to the main office in Kabul for processing.

Page 9 2.k.i refers to audit steps 1 – 12 that must be performed on certain possible sub-awardee audits.

We do not see steps 1 – 12 in this section. Please clarify.

This means that if technical assistance and services were obtained from a sub-award

(subcontract), all audit steps under this section

(which is from paragraph a to i) should be performed on the assistance and services received from sub-awardee, in order to make determination on the allowability, allocability and reasonableness.

Is the proposal expected to be split in the Technical and Cost proposals for an electronic submission as this is not clear?

Yes, technical and cost proposals should be separate.

Attachments’ 1 and 2 of the RFP and the requested documentation per Section J, must this be included with the Technical or Cost Proposals?

This should be included with the cost proposal.

Refer to page No. 63 Section L, L.10, II.

What level of detail does USAID request the costs to be detailed in the Cost Proposal? Extremely detailed or just by significant classes of expenditure? Enough information to develop cost analysis.

How long does USAID expect the period to be from the date that the proposal is due and the date that the contract will be awarded? After proposals have been evaluated.

As for the letter of in vitiation that needs to be obtained from AISA, will USAID be able to help us with this or will it be our responsibility to obtain the letter of invitation?

The Afghan Investment Support Agency

(AISA) form is not an invitation, but an ID form submitted to AISA by the Contractor.

USAID does not assist in completion or submission of the form.

USAID/Afghanistan 2

Will it be possible to have access to the client and the necessary documentation once the contract has been awarded, and not wait till we arrive in country to have access to the client?

USAID can submit documents available electronically to contractor after the award is signed.

In the Proposal it requires that the entrance conference needs to be held within 5-10 days from the date the contract is awarded, due to the requirements of getting a letter of invitation in might not be possible for us to be in country within 10 days, is it possible to extend this period?

Page 16, SECTION.C, C.4.b DELETE "5-10 days" and REPLACE it with "10-15 days"

Are all financial records located in Afghanistan? If not, what financial records are maintained outside

Afghanistan? Also, if there are records maintained outside Afghanistan what country are such records located?

Locally incurred cost records are maintained in Kabul. All other transactions, i.e expats salaries are maintained in our

Corporate Office in Washington, DC. These include US subcontractor invoices and related costs.

What are the number and names of locations of

Afghanistan offices expected to be visited as part of this project work?

TAFA has small offices in Kandahar, Mazar, Herat, and Jalalabad. No financial records are maintained in these offices. All transactions are submitted to the main office in Kabul for processing.

Will you please provide the prior audits of the contractor relative to the TAFA program? There is no prior audit.

What audit findings have been reported in the past? There is no prior audit.

Can you please provide example opinion on the

Schedule of Costs Incurred that USAID expects as a deliverable?

Please see RCA guidelines, Chapter 7:

Illustrative Reports.

What is the basis of accounting that the Schedule of

Costs Incurred should be reported?

Chemonics field offices are on a cash basis system.

25 Are Indirect Cost Plans approved by USAID in advance of the costs being charged to the program? Clarification needed for this question.

26 Under the Audit Scope in section A. 2. b., whose responsibility is it to reconcile the direct costs billed?

In other words, is the auditor required to prepare the reconciliation?

Yes, the auditor shall perform this reconciliation. Please consider that locally incurred costs and non-locally incurred costs comprise total direct costs billed. As such, audit of costs incurred in Afghanistan cannot be reconciled with total direct costs billed.

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Under the Audit Scope in section A. 2. f., what is the basis for sound commercial procurement practices, U.S. practices or other? If other, what are the standards?

USAID and Auditee policy and procedures should considered.

Under the Audit Scope in section A. 2. j., commodity sample sizes, what is considered an appropriate sample size?

It is the auditor's best judgment, based on the result from control risk assessment. Not less than 50%.

Under the Audit Scope in section A. 2. k., technical assistance and services, are there appropriate sample sizes that should be considered by the auditor, or does USAID require a 100% transactional testing of this area? Can an assumed number of hours be used in the proposal with the allowance that if additional testing is deemed necessary that

USAID will negotiate additional estimated audit costs? If an assumed number of audit hours can be used, what is the assumed number of hours that

USAID suggests for comparability between auditor proposals?

Normally, the auditor decides and determining the sample size, but depends on auditors control risk assessment of the entity; however , OIG suggests a sample size of not less than 50%. On the second part of the question, USAID will consider time needed for additional testing when there is a requirement for additional testing.

Can the USAID please provide the contract terms and the list of applicable laws to the proposers, at this time?

This information specified in the Statement of Work.

Under Other Auditor Responsibilities, in section 6. d., how is the auditor expected to determine if the recipient has fulfilled their sub-recipient audit requirements at the time that the proposal is submitted?

Auditor should determine this at the earliest opportune time, if it is not possible before the engagement begins. If subrecepient audit is not performed by the prime, the auditors should question the costs and inform USAID mission whether to perform the audits of the subs.

Page 61 (h) refers to the exclusion of Contractor

Performance Reports from the technical proposal page limit. We did not note a page limit on the technical proposal. Is there a page limit on the technical proposal and if so what is the limit? Page Limit is 40 for technical proposal.

Has the USAID established a budget (in USD) for this project?

The Independent Government Cost

Estimate is not releasable.

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