The Provision of an External Audit Service for the City of London

The City of London Corporation (the City) invites Tenders for the provision of External Audit Services.

The City is a unique organisation which operates across the public (local authority), private and charitable sectors and requires an audit firm with the capability and capacity to meet the external audit requirements across all its entities.

The Service relates to the appointment of an auditor to audit and independently examine the City's various financial statements and to carry out certification of various grant claims and returns.

The number of financial statements and the level of certification work required may increase or decrease during the life of the contract.

Where applicable, the City will adopt the level of audit review required for its Sundry Trusts in line with Charities Act 2011 financial thresholds. It will therefore adopt full audits, Independent Examinations (IE) and or no audit review where required.

This procurement will be a one (1) stage Open procedure. The description of the requirements for the External Audit Services are set out in the procurement documents, particularly the specification - available from: https://www.capitalesourcing.com

The duration of the contract is three (3) years, with the option to extend up to one (1) further year. The Contract is intended to commence 30th September 2021.

Additional information: This procurement process is being undertaken using the electronic tendering system 'Capital eSourcing' (url:www.capitalesourcing.com). Organisations interested in providing the Service under this procurement, project reference: prj_COL_16917 must register an interest on the system in order to participate and registration is free.

This is a one stage procurement process; therefore, suppliers will need to register an interest on the system and submit a tender submission no later than 12.00 on 12.07.2021 in order to participate. Tender submissions cannot be uploaded after the return deadline.

The contracting authority reserves the right at any time to vary the timescales in this notice, cease the procurement process and not award the contract or to award only part of the opportunity described in this notice. If the contracting authority takes up any of these rights then it will not be responsible for, or pay the expenses or losses, which may be incurred by any candidate or tenderer as a result. Economic operators are solely responsible for their costs and expenses incurred in connection with the preparation of their tender submissions and all stages throughout the procurement. Under no circumstances will the contracting authority be liable for costs or expense borne by the economic operators.

The requirements of the Service are set out in the procurement documents, particularly the Service Specification - available from: https://www.capitalesourcing.com

Organisations should be aware that due to the contract value (of the Service), any contract formed as a result of this procurement process shall be executed as a deed. Organisations should seek independent legal advice on the implications of this prior to submitting their tender, where appropriate.

Any questions relating to this procurement must be made via the correspondence area in the Capital eSourcing system.