Audit Remediation and Audit Readiness Support Services

The Food and Beverages Manufacturing Sector Education and Training Authority (FoodBev SETA), a Schedule 3A public entity in Rivonia, Johannesburg, is seeking a professional service provider to support implementation of its Audit Remediation and Control Improvement Plan. The Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) issued a qualified audit opinion for the 2025/26 financial year, and the entity has faced persistent repeat findings across more than one audit cycle. This is an implementation and remediation assignment rather than a statutory audit, internal audit, or once-off year-end clean-up. The successful provider must leave FoodBev SETA with corrected information, operating controls, audit-ready evidence, and internal capacity to sustain improvements after the contract ends.

The scope covers six main areas. These are: establishing a qualification-matter baseline and risk-based closure matrix with a 30/60/90-day plan; validating historical and current project and financial populations against the commitment register, SIMS, general ledger, payment records, and recovery schedules; resolving discretionary grant close-out, recovery, milestone, and stakeholder evidence matters; assessing GRAP-based accounting classification, cut-off, and prior-period errors; designing and operationalising preventative, detective, and management-review controls; and preparing audit-ready evidence packs, dry-run readiness reviews, monthly executive dashboards, and financial reporting and AFS support. The provider must also deliver role-based knowledge transfer and a final sustainability and exit report. The entity retains responsibility for management decisions and control ownership, and the provider may not give independent assurance over controls it has designed or implemented. Bidders must propose their own methodology, sequencing, and evidence strategy rather than restating the scope of work. A compulsory virtual briefing was scheduled for 28 October 2026. The closing date is 10 November 2026 at 12:00, and bids must remain valid for 120 days.

Mandatory requirements include IRBA registration of the bidding firm (or the lead partner in a consortium or joint venture), and a proposed Project Director who is a Chartered Accountant (SA) registered with SAICA and a Registered Auditor with IRBA. The minimum core team is one Project Director, one Project Manager (CA(SA)), and four Accountants, each holding a relevant degree and SAICA articles. Fully remote delivery will not be accepted, so core resources must be available onsite. Evaluation proceeds in stages: administrative compliance, mandatory requirements, functionality (minimum 75 out of 100), and then price and specific goals under the 80/20 preference system for tenders up to R50 million. Functionality scoring covers company experience (similar-work reference letters, with at least one SETA reference), the experience of the Project Director, Project Manager, and team, the project methodology with a case study, and a written submission on AGSA audit methodology. Pricing is benchmarked against DPSA hourly consultant rates. Foreign qualifications must be accompanied by SAQA evaluations, and all bid documents must be clearly labelled, paginated, and indexed.