# ++AUDIT SERVICES REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS++

Description: 1. The purpose of this request for Proposals (RFP) is to invite your proposals to audit the financial statements of the SAVE Revolving Loan Program for its calendar years ending December 31, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, and 2030. 2. Contact concerning this RFP should be directed to: Macie Brown Director of Finance P.O. Box 6806 315 E. 8th Ave Pine Bluff, AR 71601 (870) 536-1971 During the time between the opening of the response and the award of the contract, contact is prohibited. 3. To qualify for consideration, one original copy of your RFP must be received by SEAEDD, Inc. at the above address by 11:00 a.m. on November 30, 2026. Late RFPs will be rejected as not meeting RFP requirements. RFPs should be clearly marked "AUDIT SERVICES PROPOSALS". 4. Prices included in the RFP must be firm for 60 days from the RFP opening date. 5. Award, if any, will be made to the responsible audit firm whose qualifications meet the requirements and is determined to be most advantageous to SEAEDD. SEAEDD reserves the right to reject all or any part of an RFP or all RFPs. 6. Each RFP must address itself to the conduct of an examination and expression of an opinion upon SEAEDD's combined financial statements of the SAVE Revolving Loan Program for calendar year ending 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2023 with the option years thereafter. The examination must be performed in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and include necessary audit procedures to report on the district's internal control over financial reporting and its compliance with certain provisions of laws, regulations, contracts, and grants and report on its compliance and internal control over compliance with requirements applicable to major Federal Awards Programs. In addition, the audit must be conducted in accordance with the provisions of the following: a. Audits of States, Local Government and Nonprofit Organizations - OMB Circular A-133. b. Government Audit Standards - Issued by the Comptroller General of the United States. c. The Single Audit Act of 1984. d. Applicable laws of the State of Arkansas. 7. It is anticipated that a firm fixed price contract will be negotiated based upon this RFP. Each RFP should state the anticipated number of hours required to complete the engagement as well as the hourly rate to be charged by each level of professional providing services. 8. Audit time considerations for 2026 \& 2027 are as follows: a. Records ready for audit by July 15, 2027. b. Audit work commence by July 30, 2027. c. Fieldwork completed by August 10, 2027. d. Draft report to the requester by October 1, 2027. e. Final report to the requester by November 1, 2027. 8b. Proceeding audit time considerations are as follows for remaining consecutive years: a. Records ready for audit by March 16, 2028 b. Audit work commences by March 30, 2028 c. Fieldwork completed by April 18, 2028 d. Draft report to the requester by June 2, 2028 e. Final Report to the requester by July 6, 2028 Both an audit entrance conference and exit conference with the SEAEDD Executive Director will be conducted by the auditor-in-charge. 9. A ++minimum++ of 15 copies of the full audit report will be provided to SEAEDD. 10. The prior audit covering the period ending June 30, 2024, was performed by Jacobs \& COMPANY CPAs \& Advisors PLLC. An unqualified opinion was issued. 11. The SEAEDD staff will be available to retrieve and refile the requested information. Additional assistance requested must be specifically set forth in the RFP. 12. An award letter will be issued by the requester to the successful proposer. Upon successful completion of the contract, the requester may exercise the option to retain The audit firm on an annual basis thereafter. Should the cognizant agency reject the final report, subsequent work will be required of the auditors to present an acceptable report. 13. Working papers must be retained by the successful proposer for three years from the auditor's report date. The working papers must be made available for examination by authorized representatives of the cognizant audit agency, the General Accounting Office, and the requester. In addition, the successful proposer must make all working papers ++physically++ ++available at the audit site++ to a successor auditor. 14. Any disputes arising from the selection/rejection of any RFP will be resolved solely by the Executive Director, Southeast Arkansas Economic Development District, Inc. Written petition must be made to the Executive Director within 7 calendar days of receipt of selection or non-selection. The Executive Director will issue a written discussion within 1 calendar days of receipt of petition. 15. To facilitate qualifications evaluation, the proposer shall organize its RFP based on the following outline: A. TITLE PAGE Show the RFP subject, the name of the proposer's firm, local address, telephone number, name of the contact person, and date. B. TABLE OF CONTENTS Include a clear identification of the RFP material by section and by page number. C. LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL Limit to two pages. 1. Briefly state the proposer's understanding of the work to be done and make a positive commitment to perform the work within the time period. 2. State the classification or position within the firm of professionals to provide services under this RFP, their hourly rate and total number of hours anticipated to complete the engagement. 3. State the names of the persons who will be authorized to make representations for the proposer, their titles, addresses, and telephone numbers. 4. State that the person signing the letter will be authorized to bind the proposer. D. PROFILE OF THE PROPOSER 1. State whether the firm is local, regional, national, or international. 2. State the location from which the work is to be done, and the number of partners, managers, supervisors, seniors, and other professional staff employed at that location. 3. Describe the firm's Development District audit experience. 3. Describe the local office's computer capability, including the numbers and classifications of personnel skilled in computer sciences who will work on the audit. 4. State that the firm has undergone a peer review and furnish a copy of the latest report letter. 5. Affirm that the firm does not have a record of substandard work. E. MANDATORY CRITERIA 1. Affirm that the proposer is properly licensed in the State of Arkansas for public practice as a certified public accountant or a public accountant. 2. Affirm that the proposer meets the independence standards of Government Audit Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States. 3. Affirm that the proposer meets with requirements of Executive Order 12549, Debarment and Suspension, 29 CFR Part 98, Section 98.150, Participant's Responsibilities. (See attached Certification). 4. Affirm that the proposer meets and shall comply with the requester's standards for the maintenance of a drug-free workplace. 5. Affirm that the proposer meets all qualification requirements imposed by State and local laws or rules and regulations. 6. Proposer may not assign any interest in any contract resulting from this bid process without the express, written permission of the Executive Director, SEAEDD. Proposers must ensure that conflicts of interest, real or apparent, do not occur in activities undertaken pursuant to this proposal process. F. SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSERS PROPOSALS 1. Identify the professional staff who will work on the audit. Include resumes describing relevant experience and continuing education for each staff person to be assigned to the audit. For each professional staff specified in the proposal, provide (a) position in the firm, (b) years of applicable professional experience, (c) professional status (CPA), (d) number of hours to be devoted to the contract, and (e) rate to be billed per hours worked. 2. Describe the recent (within the last two years) auditing experience of the firm similar to the type of audit requested. For three of the audits listed, give the names and telephone numbers of the responsible client officials as reference. 3. Based upon billing rates stated above, provide a total proposed price for the engagement. Reaffirm that the stated price shall be firm for a period of 60 days. G. PROJECT MANAGMENT The offeror must describe the management structure and supervision to be exercised over the work to be performed under the contract, including the proposed system for field audit review and office review of work papers and reports. Identify the personnel that are to provide the management and supervision and the percent of their overall proposed time that is to be spent at the audit site managing/supervising the work. State that the reports will be completed by the dates indicated in the RFP. H. ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL INFORMATION Since the preceding sections are to contain only data that is specifically requested, any additional information considered essential to the RFP should be included in this section. If there is not additional information to present, state "There is no additional information we wish to present." I. EVALUATION CRITERIA All proposals will be evaluated and rated in the following areas: A. Proposer's prior Economic Development District and other A-133 audit experience B. Audit team composition C. Understanding of work/project management D. Cost Analysis INSTRUCTIONS FOR CERTIFICATION 1. By signing and submitting this proposal, the prospective recipient of Federal assistance funds is providing the certification as set out below. 2. The certification in this clause is a material representation of fact upon which reliance was placed when this transaction was entered into. If it is later determined that the prospective recipient of Federal assistance funds knowingly rendered an erroneous certification, in addition to other remedies available to the Federal Government, the Department of Labor (DOL) may pursue available remedies, including suspension and or/debarment. 3. The prospective recipient of Federal assistance funds shall provide immediate written notice to the person to which this proposal is submitted if at any time the prospective recipient of Federal assistance funds learns that its certification was erroneous when submitted or has become erroneous by reason of changed circumstances. 4. The terms "covered transaction," debarred," "suspended," "ineligible," "lower tier covered transaction," "principal," "proposal," and "voluntary excluded," as used in this clause, have the meanings set out in the Definitions and Coverage sections of rules implementing Executive Order 12549. You may contact the person to which this proposal is submitted for assistance in obtaining a copy of those regulations. 5. The prospective recipient of federal assistance funds further agrees by submitting this proposal that, should the proposed covered transaction be entered into, it shall not knowingly enter into any lower tier covered transaction with a person who is debarred, suspended, declared ineligible, or voluntarily excluded for participation in this covered transaction, unless authorized by the DOL. 6. The prospective recipient of Federal assistance funds further agrees by submitting this proposal that it will include the clause titled, "Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension, Ineligibility and Voluntary Exclusion - Lower tier Covered Transactions," without modification, in all lower tier cover transactions and in all solicitations for lower tier covered transactions. 7. A participant in a covered transaction may rely upon a certification of a prospective participant in a lower tier covered transaction that it is no debarred, suspended, ineligible, or voluntary excluded from the covered transaction, unless it knows that the certification is erroneous. A participant may decide the method and frequency by which it determines the eligibility of its participant. Each participant may but is not required to check the ++List of++ ++Parties Excluded from Procurement or Non-procurement Programs.++ Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension, Ineligibility and Voluntary Exclusion Lower Tier Covered Transactions This certification is required by the regulations implementing Executive Order 12549, Debarment and Suspension, 29 CFR Part 98, Section 98.510, Participants' responsibilities. The regulations were published as Part VII of the May 26, 1988, ++Federal Register++ (pages 11160-19211). (BEFORE COMPLETING CERTIFICATION READ INSTRUCTIONS FOR CERTIFICATION) (1) The prospective recipient of Federal assistance funds certifies, by submission of this proposal, that neither it nor its principals are presently debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment, declared ineligible, or voluntarily excluded from participation in this transaction by any Federal department or agency. (2) Where the prospective recipient of Federal assistance funds is unable to certify to any of the statements in this certification, such prospective participant shall attach an explanation to this proposal. Name and Title of Authorized Representative Signature Date