RESTRICTED  
  
WT/BFA/W/312  
23 October 2013  
(13-5864)  Page: 1/2  
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration   
 
  WORKING GROUP ON THE SELECTION OF EXTERNAL AUDITOR 
FOR WTO ACCOUNTS 
AND THE WTO PENSION PLAN ACCOUNTS 
REPORT OF THE WORKING GROUP 
1.1.  The Committee on Budget, Finance and Administra tion, at its meetings in May and July 2013 
engaged the process to select the external audito r to perform the audit of the accounts of the WTO 
Secretariat and of the WTO Pension Plan for a six-year period starting with the accounts of 2014. 
An invitation to bid had been issued to th e Membership (WT/INF/192) on 12 July 2013. In 
response, five offers were submitted. 
1.2.  The Chair of the Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration has established a Working 
Group to review the offers received in order to provide a report and a recommendation to the 
Committee. The Chair of the Committee has invite d Mr Tomochika UYAMA (Japan) to chair this 
Working Group. The Working Group was open to  any interested Member. Delegates from ten 
Members1 participated in the Group. The Workin g Group met on 11, 16 and 22 October 2013 to 
examine the offers received. 
1.3.  The Working Group agreed that it should be gu ided by objectivity and transparency. Offers 
were assessed based on the information requested and in line with WTO Financial Rule 10.5 that 
states that "Wherever tenders have been sought or an assessment of competitive prices has been made, contracts shall normally be awarded to the supplier quoting the lowest price for an acceptable offer". 
1.4.  The selection was not made on the basis of costs alone. Consistent with the invitation to bid, 
the Working Group also took into account various other elements, including the following: 
1.5.  Compliance with procedural requirements set out in WT/INF/192: 
a. Characteristics of the institution, in particular its independence from the Member 
government concerned. 
b. Experience and familiarity with financial practices of international organisations, in 
particular, International Public Se ctor Accounting Standards (IPSAS). 
c. Auditing experience with other international organizations and pension funds. 
d. Readiness to undertake audit missions as required as well as readiness to undertake 
performance audits and to provide additional advice as appropriate. 
e. Language capabilities. 
1.6.  The Working Group decided to proceed with the assessment solely on the basis of the written 
tenders received and not to ask for supplementary information. 
                                               
1 Mr Tomochika Uyama, Chair (Japan), Mr Stephen Di etz (Australia), Mr Robe rt Prochazka (Austria), 
Ms Annie Ouellet (Canada), Ms Fanny Labarthe (Franc e), Ms Aiko Kimura (Japan), Ms Yoon-Jeong Baek 
(Korea), Ms Alicia Goujon (Mexico), Mr Johannes Rühl (Switzerland), Mr Kerem Alp (Turkey) and Mr Andrew 
Staines (United Kingdom). WT/BFA/W/312 
- 2 - 
  1.7.  The Working Group did not consider two of th e offers as they did not comply with the 
procedural requirements. Therefore, the Workin g Group considered the following three offers: 
 Riksrevisjonen, the Office of the Auditor General of Norway; 
 Bundesrechnungshof, the Supreme Audit Institution of Germany; 
 Corte dei Conti, the Supreme Audit Institution of Italy. 
1.8.  After having examined these three offers on the basis of the above-mentioned criteria, the 
Working Group was unanimous in its appreciation for the very high quality of the information 
provided. The Working Group concluded that the offer presented by the Bundesrechnungshof most 
fully addressed all the requirements laid down in the call for tenders. 
1.9.  Considering the above, the Working Group proposes that the Committee recommend 
to the General Council that the Bundesrechnung shof be nominated as External Auditor of 
the WTO Secretariat and the WTO Pension Plan  effective as from the audit of the 2014 
accounts and for a period of six years. It furt her urges consideration that, as in previous 
years, the mandate should include a provisio n allowing either party to terminate the 
arrangement with a one-year notice . 
 
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