This Invitation to Tender (ITT) has been prepared by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, (governed by its Convention and associated Protocol on Privileges and Immunities which came into force on 1 November 1975, and was amended on 6 June 2010) ("ECMWF") for the purposes of obtaining proposals from Tenderers for the provision of External Audit Services to ECMWF.

This ITT is expected to result in a contract for the services of an organisation providing external audit services (The External Auditor) to fulfil the annual audit of the Financial Statement of Accounts of ECMWF, in accordance with the Convention and the Financial Regulations of ECMWF, the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI) published by the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).

The External Auditor shall be a Supreme Audit Institution based in one of the 23 ECMWF Member or those Cooperating States, which have accorded privileges and immunities to ECMWF (see Volume II document for further details).

The Appointment of the External Auditor is approved by the ECMWF Council.

The External Auditor attends the spring session of the ECMWF Audit Committee and, if invited by its President, also the respective ECMWF Council session.

The mandate is for an initial period of four years. The mandate is renewable once. The second appointment may be extended by a further 2 years. Under no circumstances should the appointment be more than 10 years in total.