State Fund for Protection and Assistance of (Statutory) Victims of Human Trafficking, The Reduction of Domestic Violence in Georgia, Independent Financial Audit Report

The State Audit Office of Georgia (SAOG) has conducted an independent Financial Audit of the Activity - The Reduction of Domestic Violence in Georgia funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the State Fund for Protection and Assistance of (Statutory) Victims of Human Trafficking (ATIP Fund).

The Audit was requested based on MoU between the USAID and the SAOG. The audit report was prepared in English and translated into Georgian.

The audit covered the evaluation of the Fund Accountability Statement, internal control system and compliance with agreement terms and applicable laws and regulations related to the Activity.

SAOG issued unqualified opinion on the Fund Accountability Statement, and that the statement is prepared in all material respects in accordance with the terms of the Agreement and in conformity with the basis of accounting.

The audit identified number of areas, where the further improvements might be considered and thus issued recommendations.

Recommendation №1 Related to Internal Control Environment:

For the purpose of ensuring effective internal control system, we recommend to establish a documented internal control policy and all required sub-documents on the Activity level.

Recommendation №2 Related to Performance Measures:

Improvement of performance evalutaion system, through clearly defined objectives and measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based KPIs.

Recommendation №3 Related to Labour Contracts:

We recommend the ATIP Fund to determine the payment policy related to the foreign currency exchange rate in order to ensure the compliance with its labor contracts.

Recommendation №4 Related to Public Procurement:

For the purpose of ensuring effective public procurement procedures, we recommend:

to conduct relevant market research for every procurement instance;
to choose the most appropriate CPV codes while announcing tenders;
to improve the formulation of requirements in order to ensure effective competition, and to achieve the desired balance between the price and the quality of goods and services tendered.