ThaiNGO

Terms of Reference
Audit Migrant Learning Centers, Rays of Hope schools
March-April 2018

Title: Internal Audit and Financial Advisory Consultant

Location: Mae Sot, Thailand

1. Introduction

Help without Frontiers (HwF) is a registered Thai Foundation with a long-term commitment to help those most in need. We strive for a world where help is provided to the most vulnerable and marginalised populations without discrimination, without exclusion and without borders.

2017 we celebrated 10 years of Help Without Frontiers providing support along the Thai-Myanmar border to displaced people that find themselves in emergency situations; most of whom are children and youth, and we have given, and continue to give all a chance for a better and brighter future.

At Help Without Frontiers we focus on five core areas;
Education
Youth
Health
Community Development
Child Protection

For the last 20 years, due to armed conflict in eastern Myanmar coupled with a military dictatorship which systematically denied access to education, healthcare and livelihoods, the Thai border with Myanmar has played host to hundreds of thousands of displaced people escaping the conditions in their home land. For 16 of those years, migrant children in Mae Sot have been unable to access education in Thai public schools and have been provided education by a number of local organizations.

HwF is one of the local organizations supporting migrant children with access to education since 2002. The “Ray of Hope” (RoH) project is supporting 15 Migrant Learning Centers (MLCs) in the Mae Sot area through the provision of teacher salaries, running costs, stationary, teaching materials and school meals as well as staff training and representation to local authorities. Three of the 15 RoH schools have dormitories for boarding students when parents can’t take care of them for various reasons as well as for abandoned / orphaned children.

2. Background

Myanmar continues to “open-up”, allowing people to return. Hence, in the last year more and more organizations stopped their activities in the Mae Sot border area and started their activities inside Myanmar, leaving long-term programs and projects to others or shut down completely. However, HwF will continue to support the Ray of Hope (RoH) schools in the coming years, supporting migrant children whose families are migrant workers and not returning home to Myanmar and is hence absorbing more students and schools in the RoH school program from different organizations.

The closure of several schools in this area will have a massive impact on the education situation of the migrant children from Myanmar in the border area near Mae Sot. Thousands of children may not have the chance to continue their studies as remaining schools reached their limits in numbers of students due to the lack of facilities and financial resources. The change of donor priorities focusing more on the situation inside Myanmar results in an even more vulnerable situation for the migrants who cannot or chose not to return home due to the fragile security situation and the lack of jobs and education.

In order to further increase the effectiveness of the Migrant Learning Centres (MLCs) financial management systems, HwF identified the need for developing their existing capacities and skills as well as HwFs internal auditing system. In school year 2016-2017, We therefore had an independent consultant create a financial system and conducting an audit training on the new financial system to headmasters and financially responsible teachers before carrying out the audit. A report with the findings from the audit was produced and communicated to the MLCs.  

3. Objectives

The audit aims at conducting a formal audit to each of HwFs 15 Migrant Learning Centers in Mae Sot, Phop Phra and Mae Ra Mat for the current school year 2017-2018. The consultancy is designed to be held over a period of two months, beginning March 2018 and ending in April 2018.  There is flexibility in planning working hours and school visits.

The objectives of the audit:

• Improving the Ray of Hope Migrant Learning Centers financial record keeping and accountable financial management practices.
• Increasing the understanding and knowledge of finance best practices within HwF and MLCs.

Expected outcomes are:

• Ray of Hope MLCs keep high standards in the financial records keeping and are accountable in their daily financial management.
• Headmasters and Financially responsible teachers in the Ray of Hope MLCs have developed helpful and sustainable routines in the financial record keeping of their schools.

Expected outputs:

• 15 Ray of Hope MLCs have build their capacity and sustainability in keeping accountable financial systems through conducting an internal financial audit and communicating the results.

Activities:

• Carry out audit of all 15 MLCs under HwFs Ray of Hope project.
• To review MLCs financial practices and mechanisms
• Compiling a summary report of main challenges, best practices and provide recommendations for HwFs and MLCs’ financial management and record keeping to strengthen their financial knowledge and skills
• Equipping HwF Education staff members in communicating the audit result to the MLCs.
  

4. Schedule/Timeline

The consultancy will take place over two months, March-April 2018. Orientation will take place as soon as possible in March followed by conducting the audit in the MLCs. Audit and summary report are expected to be completed by the end of April.

5. Qualifications

The consultant/trainer should demonstrate the following expertise and skills:

Experience in working with financial and organizational systems to civil society members, NGOs, UN or INGOs;

Demonstrated expertise in financial audits;

Good communication skills, ability to work in a multicultural / multilingual environment and high proficiency in English, Burmese language helpful;

It is an advantage if the consultant is familiar with migrant learning centers, non-formal education, the socio-political context on the Thai-Burma border, and the Thai educational system. 

6. Payments

Candidates are expected to indicate fees incurred for the above commission in Thai Baht including VAT. Total budget for the consultancy is 30,000 THB.

7. How to apply

Please submit your expression of interest / proposal to Eva-Maria Munck, Education Programme Manager at Help without Frontiers Thailand Foundation to: eva-maria@helpwithoutfrontiers.org with the subject: Internal Audit Consultant.

Application process will be open until the position is filled.

Only shortlisted candidates will be notified and interview.

Help without Frontiers is an equal opportunity employer; the successful candidate will be selected based on merit.

The successful applicant will be expected to comply with Help without Frontiers’ Child Protection Policy.