Does the obligation to submit audited latest financial report apply only to the lead bidder or to all organizations that are part of the consortium?The obligation to submit the latest available audited financial statements applies to every member of the consortium.The Terms of Reference states that the financial section will be used to evaluate the consortium's resources. However, the bid form indicates that this section is only applicable to the lead bidder. Could you clarify which information is correct?All members of consortium must submit their financial statements for the last 3 years. Note that the most recent financial statements must have been audited for each member of the consortium.
Information entered into the bid form, for financial resources (section 3), relates only to the lead bidder.
How will the FMO will assess the consortium's finances and track record if we only provide the lead applicant's financial data? Could you clarify?Financial statements are requested for each member of the consortium. Data provided in the bid form relates only to the financial data of the lead bidder because the lead bidder will have the largest share of the management fee and a commensurate share of the Fund Operator tasks. Nevertheless, the financial stability of the entire consortium is of direct relevance to the expected success of the programme and the risks involved with selecting a bidder. Therefore we require the financial statements of all consortium members to be submitted.The ToR indicates that the most recent set of financial statements must have been audited. Should they have necessarily been audited by an external auditor?
Indeed at least the most recent set of financial statements of each member of the consortium need to have been audited. Typically, the financial statements are audited by an external auditor and this audit is often a requirement by law. However, it might the practice in some countries that those statutory audits are carried out by independent auditors appointed by the board or other executive steering bodies. In such cases, this could be ok but an accompanying explanatory note should accompany financial statements to explain this.