Consultancy Assignments »

Our firm has carried out the statutory audit for National Women Council of Kenya (NWCK) USAID/Kenya Grant since year 2000 in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (ISA), and in compliance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the donor reporting requirements, issued an audit opinion on the Financial Statement and a management letter covering all weaknesses identified in the organization’s operations of the accounting and internal control systems.

The assignment involved the preparation and updating of the Council’s Abstract of Accounts for the 10¹/₂ years’ period between 1^st January, 1982 to 30^th June, 1992. The assignment was successfully completed to the satisfaction of the council.

This assignment involved the preparation and updating of the Council’s abstract of accounts for 8¹/₂ years’ period between 1^st January, 1981 to 30^th June, 1989. The assignment was successfully completed to the satisfaction of the council.

Our firm was contracted to design and develop a computerized PC database for the control of inventories for the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), which was being funded by USAID and World Bank. This was further developed to include also a fixed assets management systems and a record management system, all based on PC databases.

We were recently involved in the midterm review of the KICK II project, including the valuation of one of the business units, Ziwa Creations, as a going-concern on behalf of DFIDEA.

Our firm in association with CPC Transom of Canada was involved in this World Bank funded contract on the restructuring study of the Port of Sierra Leone in preparation for privatization/Commercialization to level the ground and enhance the performance of the port.

This was a Small Town Development Project (STDP) in Kenya sponsored by the German Technical Assistance through the Mobile Small Town Assistance Team (MOTEAM). Our Managing Partner was appointed in the team charged with responsibility to develop local government budgeting techniques, budgetary control procedures and develop the necessary manual on budgetary guidelines.

IPAR is an NGO funded by the World Bank and USAID, to carry out policy analysis and research on economic and other policies being adopted and implemented by the Kenya Government in its reform process. We were contacted to prepare and document the financial, accounting and personal policies and procedures, and develop manuals for the Institute at the time the institute was set up. Further, we implemented the systems including recruitment of the necessary staff and designing the computerization strategy.

Our firm in conjunction with a leading Nairobi firm of stockbrokers were awarded this assignment to carry out a valuation of KTDA assets and shares of 44 KTDA managed tea factory companies to facilitate the Privatization of KTDA and the tea factory companies. Our assets valuers for this assignment were Gatheru Irungu Mugo & Company Limited. Our report was adopted by the client and is currently under implementation.

In order to enable the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania divest its minority shareholding in this tea estate company; our firm was contracted by PSRC to value the business and shares of the company on a "going-concern" basis. Our report was accepted by the client and the PSRC has already sold the shares to CDC Capital Partners.

Our firm in association with a leading Canadian Consultancy firm CPC Transcom carried out this major assignment that involved the study and recommendations of Kenya Ports Authority activities that could be privatized/commercialized in order to enhance the performance of the port. We recommended that Kenya Ports Authority operate as a landlord port with most of its activities operated by the private sector. Based on the recommendations of the study KPA contracted out the Container Terminal as a first step towards privatization/commercialization of the port’s activities.

Our firm was the lead firm for a consortium of firms who were assigned the responsibility of establishing the information needs for the agricultural sector and developing the management information options for the sector. The assignment included carrying out participatory appraisal with all classes of stakeholders in the sector through two workshops and three weeks of field visits across six provinces in the country. We further carried out a series of more than five stakeholder workshops for the Ministry of Agriculture for the development of the Project Planning Matrix (PPM) and Plan of Operation (POO) for the Information Management Project of the Ministry of Agriculture as part of the ASIP project preparation process. All these workshops were carried out with support from GTZ. This stakeholder’s appraisal process had the objective of imparting on the officers the appreciation of the need for improved information management and exposing them to the existing options for information management, including information technology.

Our firm was contracted in December, 2000 by DFID (UK), in collaboration with the World Bank and the Government of Kenya (GoK) to carry out the Local Authorities component of the Country Financial Accountability Assessment (CFAA). CFAA has been identified as an important building block for the Development Partners’ wider Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP) and the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Kenya. CFAA’s main objectives are to ensure that public funds are used economically, efficiently and effectively for intended purposes; by identifying governance and financial accountability gaps and making recommendations on how these gaps could be closed.

Our firm has recently been contracted to carry out this project on behalf of DFID (UK) in collaboration with the World Bank and the Government of Tanzania (GOT). CFAA has been identified as an important building block for the Development Partners’ wider Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP) and the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Tanzania. CFAA’s main objectives are to ensure that public funds are used economically, efficiently and effectively for intended purposes; by identifying governance and financial accountability gaps and making recommendations on how these gaps could be closed.

Provided technical support in the formulation and implementation of Strategic Business Plans, Cultural Change and Image Building activities for Eldoret, Kitale and Nakuru municipal councils’ Water and Sewerage companies under the GTZ-UWASAM funded project.

Our firm was contracted by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to provide consultancy services for review and evaluation of the bankability of funding proposals submitted to EIB by 7 Tea and Coffee Estates in Malawi. The Consultants also assisted the promoters in revising their ten-year business plans and funding proposals both in terms of format and content. We also gave our professional opinion on the commercial and technical viability of the final revised funding proposals.

Our Firm, in association with Springfield Centre of U.K. were contracted by DFID to conduct a study of governance practices, among Micro Finance (MFI) and Business Development (BDO) NGOs. We conducted the study for NGOs and one pilot Co-operative Union and development individual governance reports for each institution and a final report. As part of the Study, we conducted detailed reviews of the institutions’ Governance structures and practices, culminating in an NGO governance workshop for over 30 participants.

This was a World Bank funded project completed in 1995. Our firm worked in association with a French firm of consultants (Investment Development Consultancy). The assignment involved an evaluation of all the cross debt and other indebtedness of selected major PEs and recommendations to the Government on how these debts could be eliminated or restructured to facilitate privatization. In addition, we were required to evaluate the financial health of the PEs and recommend appropriate debt equity and other financial ratios in order to bring major indebtedness under control and reinstate the financial health of these institutions.

We carried out a comprehensive study of the financial management capacity in a sample of Towns and Municipal Councils across the country and infrastructure needs assessment, desktop review of previous studies in this area, held visits to verify situation on the ground, including the arrearage in the in the preparation an auditing of the councils abstract of accounts, reviewed staffing requirements and training needs assessment and made appropriate recommendations on ways and means of alleviating the identified problems. Our study outputs culminated into the design of the much under and action-oriented Kenya Local Government Reform Programme (KLGRP).

Our firm was contracted between 1996 and 1999 by the World Bank, through the Government of Kenya, to develop a simplified commercial-oriented Accounting System for use by all local Authorities in the country under the Kenya Local Government Reform Programme (KLGRP). The assignment also included the preparation of the necessary financial and budgetary procedures manuals, and the design of a suitable IT based management information system, testing of the system in selected pilot towns, setting up of all necessary feeder systems, conducting stakeholder workshops, and preparation of an Audit Manual to assist in improving internal and external audit functions in Local Authorities.

This was a World Bank funded project, in which we led a consortium of local and international firms of consultants. The reform program of the tea sector involves the preparation and publication of a policy statement covering the entire tea sector together with the preparation of the necessary legislative and regulatory changes to implement the policy; clarification of the ownership of KTDA; preparation of commercial contracts for the provision of social services by KTDA; eg. Extension services to small holder tea growers and tea road maintenance. In addition, we were required to recommend appropriate Privatization strategies, develop a corporate plan and management information systems for KTDA as it changes to its new status within the private sector.

Our firm was contracted in 2003 to carry out a Consultancy contract with the President's Office Regional Administration and Local Government, United Republic of Tanzania (GoT), to carry out the World Bank funded middle management training in Management Organization and Human Resources Development, under the Urban Sector Rehabilitation Project, involving 104 Heads of Departments and 224 Heads of Sections/Units from the eight project Towns/Municipalities of Arusha, Moshi, Tanga, Morogoro, Iringa, Mbeya, Tabora and the City of Mwanza for 3 and 2 weeks respectively. The objective of the project was to create an effective institutional framework for improving management and financial capacities of the project towns' local authorities and Urban Water and Sewerage Authorities (UWSAs) by strengthening financial, technical and over-all performance through intensive training, provision of basic goods, technical assistance and encouraging private sector and community participation in urban service delivery, operations and maintenance. The training sessions ran for a cumulative period of three months from 5^th May 2003 to 31^st July 2003.

Our firm was contracted in May, 2007 to carry out a comprehensive review the Corporation’s organizational structure and mandate. ICDC as a Development Finance Institute (DFI), had through time gone astray of its core functions and sank low in profitability. The objective of this consulting intervention was to critically re-examine the Corporation’s existing mode of operations, design a new business model, develop a suitable corporate strategy (Strategic Plan) and put in place an appropriate organization structure that would drive the strategic thrust in tandem with its core mandate. We reviewed ICDC’s mandate, strategy, business model and performance; carried out gap, SWOT and PESTLE analyses; reviewed the then existing strategic plan and proposed a strategy redesign culminating into a new Strategic Plan; reviewed the existing portfolio and proposed an optimum balance sheet structure; reviewed and redesigned the organisation structure to deliver the proposed strategy and recommended optimal number of departments, staffing levels, reward and ICT systems; prepared an implementation framework; prepared and submitted draft and final reports.

The firm was contracted by the Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) in June 2007 to undertake organization culture and work environment surveys and determine: the organization’s commitment to continuous learning; top management’s appreciation of the need and value of developing leaders in-house; whether NHIF’s culture and work environment supports honest feedback and goodwill to make the necessary changes; adequacy of management capacity and goodwill to make the necessary changes; the level of trust within the NHIF’s structures; the willingness of upper level management to lead the way and volunteer to participate in the pilot 360-Degree evaluation

This was a project whereby our firm, in association with GFA Consulting Group and Beller Consult, provided technical assistance consultancy services for the GTZ funded Water Sector Reform Programme, Kenya - Component 2: Water Sector Regulation and Pro-poor Financing during the implementation period January 2008 to December 2011. We are involved in providing support to the Water Services Trust Fund (WSTF), the Water Services Boards (WSBs) and the Water Services Providers (WSPs) by identifying cross-cutting capacity building requirements necessary to safeguard the sustainability of water and sanitation services to low income urban areas; developing information gathering tools and collection of information through field visits, inspections, observations and interviews with key personnel of seven (7) sampled WSPs and seven (7) WSBs; developing concept for addressing identified deficiencies including training concept and programme, training cost estimates and identifying suitable training institutions; identifying and making recommendations on non-human resource capacity constraints, particularly those that may threaten the sustainability of the WSTF funded project objectives; preparation and presentation of reports to the client and stakeholders.

Our firm, in association with Gath Consulting Engineers Limited, was contracted in April 2009 by the Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA) to conduct a thorough procurement review (audit) of some selected Procuring Entities namely the Kenya Polytechnic University College, Kilimambogo Teachers Training College, Nyanza Provincial Hospital and Narok North District for the period 1^st July 2007 to 30^th June 2008 or any latter date agreed with the client. The scope of the procurement audit included verifying whether the procurement and contracting processes comply with the Public Procurement and Disposal Act. 2005 and its accompanying Regulations, and Manuals. For some of the contracts selected, and as appropriate, project sites were visited to make physical inspections of quality and quantity of goods, works and services procured. We prepared and presented to the client an inception report, a draft report and Final Procurement Review report for each entity.

Our firm, in association with Gath Consulting Engineers Limited, was contracted in February 2012 by the Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA) to conduct a thorough procurement review (audit) of some selected Procuring Entities namely the Kenyatta University, Kamwenja Teachers Training College, Nyeri Provincial General Hospital and Municipal Council of Nyeri for the period 1^st July 2010 to 30^th June 2011. The scope of the procurement audit included verifying whether the procurement and contracting processes comply with the Public Procurement and Disposal Act. 2005 and its accompanying Regulations, and Manuals. For some of the contracts selected, and as appropriate, project sites were visited to make physical inspections of quality and quantity of goods, works and services procured. We prepared and presented to the client an inception report, a draft report and Final Procurement Review report for each entity.

Our firm was contracted in April 2013 by the Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA) to provide consultancy Services for conducting Comprehensive Procurement Reviews/Audits in the Ministry of Local Government, the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and National Museums of Kenya for the period 1st July 2011 to 30th June 2012. The scope of the procurement audit included verifying whether the procurement and contracting processes comply with the Public Procurement and Disposal Act. 2005 and its accompanying Regulations, and Manuals. For some of the contracts selected, and as appropriate, project sites were visited to make physical inspections of quality and quantity of goods, works and services procured. We prepared and presented to the client an inception report, a draft report and Final Procurement Review report for each entity.

Our firm was contracted by Wood Family Trust Africa to provide consultancy services for Fixed Assets Verification and Valuation, Business Valuation on a "going-concern" basis using the Discounted Cash Flow Analysis and other valuation methodologies, for Mulindi and Shagasha Tea Companies in Rwanda, including Development of Business Plans and financial and cash flow projections for the next seven (7) years, during the period 1st December 2011 to 31st March 2012.

Our firm was contracted by PC Partners to provide Financial Advisory and Management Consultancy Services, including institutional review and restructuring, designing and setting up internal controls and developing a financial policies and procedures manual, for Midlands Limited during the period 1st October 2013 to 31st March 2014.