THRiVE conducted financial training workshop for finance officers in the African partner institutions facilitated by Makerere University and the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA). The three day workshop (10th – 12th April 2017) resulted into developing financial standard operating procedures, completing the DELTAS financial reporting template and updating the online monitoring and evaluation tool.These SOPs serve to guide Finance Officers handling transactions on THRiVE-2 DELTAS Africa.
Standard Operating Procedures for THRiVE-2 DELTAS AFRICA
- All resources for THRiVE-2 DELTAS Africa must be used for the purpose for which the grant/project was set out to do and if the Institution is to deviate in any way a request for a no objection must be obtained from the Director THRiVE-2.
- The Director/ co applicant in an institution must approve all transactions.
- Each request should indicate the budget line from which funds are to be Charged/ drawn.
- All procurements should follow the institutional/ National guidelines.
- Payments for workshops, conferences etc. should have supporting documents i.e. Justification, Minutes authorizing the activity, list of participants, etc
- All payments should have statutory deductions according to the National Tax policy of the relevant country e.g. withholding tax, PAYE, NSSF.
- All funds Transferred from Lead to partners institutions and from Funder to Lead institution must be acknowledged for by the partners and the Lead respectively.
- The date posted in the cashbook is the initial payment transaction date or system loading date or cheque date depending on the system in use.
- All people paid on the project must have appointment letters.
- When funds have been released for an activity, no individual should request for an advance for the same activity before the previous advance is accounted for.
- Requests for advance for an activity should not exceed a period of three months to absorb the funds.
- All advances for fieldwork, purchases, etc. must be accounted for in full and within the period prescribed by the law of the Country. For example for Makerere University, within 14 days or not exceeding 60 days after the activity has ended
- No advance amount that crosses a financial year should be authorized. All advances should cease by the end of the financial year, March 31 2017.
- If the activity crosses a financial year for example goes beyond 31st March, the balance of money on the activity must be banked and drawn again after the end of the financial year e.g. 1st April of the next financial year.
- All accountabilities for advances for field works or any other activity should have proceedings/reports, list of people who attended with their signatures appended.
- For travel abroad all expenditures are according to the AESA guidelines.
- There must be Stores records in place for all supplies. A record of what comes in and what goes out must always be kept.
- There must be an Assets Register detailing the following:- Date of Purchase, Description of Asset, Cost, Location, Supplier, Condition, Serial No., Marked no or Engraved No. and Remarks. All assets must be marked/ engraved and the name of the project must be included.
- All vehicles if any should have mileage log books indicating, distance moved, cost of fuel, services. There should be a ledger for repair costs. Fuel must be processed according to the institutional policy.
- All documents must be filed chronologically. For example all vouchers must be filed according to cheque numbers and or voucher numbers or serially system generated numbers. All vouchers/documents for paid transactions must be identified as ‘paid’.
- Bank Reconciliations must be done monthly and must indicate who prepared and who reviewed it.
- Borrowing THRiVE-2 funds is prohibited. If you must, seek for a no objection from the Director.
- After the project closure, disposal or sharing assets must follow the Institutional policy. However, a report must be submitted to the Director before implementation.
- Each institution is to Provide Audited Accounts to The Director who will pass them on to the Funder each year.
- Comingling of funds is not allowed. Separate Bank Accounts for GBP and Local currency should be opened in a bank of rating A or higher. Any deviation requires a no objection from The Director.
- Any Interest accrued must be used for the purpose of the Grant.
- Co- Applicants should submit quarterly reports to the lead by the 15th day of the preceding month after the Quarter end. Documents may be attached to the financial reports as may be required.
- The Lead Institution shall submit Quarterly Financial Reports to AESA by the end of the preceding month
- The lead institution will hold funds and monitor how much to send to Partners according to their spending pattern/ absorption capacity.