EC in auditor recruitment drive
European Commission's directorate general seeking tenders for 5m euros-worth of auditing work
European Commission's directorate general seeking tenders for 5m euros-worth of auditing work
The European Commission’s directorate general (DG) for enterprise and
industry is asking accounting and audit firms to tender for 5m euros-worth of
business in Brussels.
The Commission wants to finance independent audits of contractors benefiting
from DG enterprise and industry funding. Given the millions of euros dispersed
by the directorate general every year, there will be plenty of work – hence the
huge auditing budget.
A note said the Commission wanted to enter into a three-year contract that
may be renewed for one year. Successful applicants would be ‘auditing of costs
and expenses claimed by various parties to contracts’.
This would enable the DG to ‘carry out audits of systems (such as time
recording or calls for competition), audits as and when required (a check of
hourly rates or fixed rates for general expenses), or full project audits’.
The fees paid to contract holders would be based on fixed daily rates and
include travel and subsistence expenses. Regarding full project audits, for
similar or recurring contracts, the DG said it wanted offers of fixed daily
rates, which ‘decrease according to the number of projects to be audited, ie, 5,
10, 15 or 20’.
The directorate general’s spending programmes include funding corporate
social responsibility, tourism, intellectual property rights, training and small
business initiatives. It also funds business-related research. The DG disbursed
134m euro in grants in 2004.