A Candidate Pool is a qualified, pre-assessed and evaluated, pre-endorsed group of candidates suitable to perform the functions of a substantially similar set of rotational posts in a given job family.
During transportation and storage, all cargo is vulnerable to a range of risks, such as damage, pilferage and theft, breakage, non-receipt of part or an entire consignment. Cargo insurance thus provides protection against potential financial losses resulting from such risks. Business Units should ensure the following: a. Protection for goods subject to risks, including war, strikes, riots and civil commotions.; b. The duration of insurance coverage is sufficient for the period of transportation from “warehouse to warehouse,” including a minimum of 30 days, estimated for storage at the destination site; c. Goods are insured for the cost, insurance and freight (CIF) value plus an agreed percentage, generally 10 percent, to reflect the indirect cost to the Business Unit incidental to cover, or replace goods.
A cash flow forecast is a short term projection of cash movement and its implications for the liquidity position of an organization. Depending on the size of the organization and business purpose, the time horizon for the forecast can be daily, (also called daily cash positioning), monthly, quarterly, and annually, on a rolling basis.
Cash Operations is defined as currency notes physically held on a CO’s premises to meet operating needs in a country in which normal banking services are unavailable. COs are sometimes required to operate in a crisis environment where banking facilities are unavailable. In such instances, COs may find it necessary to conduct all financial transactions in cash. Cash Operations create significant financial risk for UNDP, as well as physical security risk for staff who handle the cash.
The Cash Transfer Modalities to be adopted shall be based on the Partner’s Adjusted Risk Rating, which is derived from the results of the micro assessment with due consideration to the specific programming context, with exceptions documented.
A letter of reprimand based on the Respondent’s conduct. A censure does not affect the Respondent’s eligibility to participate in UNDP procurement processes, but it will be an aggravating factor in any future decisions to impose additional Sanctions.
Centralized functions are those functions that will be performed only by the Global Shared Services Unit (GSSU) and UNDP NYHQ through Accounts Division, OIMT or General Operations/ BMS. Refer to POPP on Furniture and Equipment for more details.
Any UNDP staff member governed by the UN Staff Regulations and Staff Rules who submits a request in writing when leaving the service of UNDP is provided a statement relating to the nature of his/her duties and length of service. Upon the staff member's written request, the statement can also refer to the quality of his/her work and official conduct. Such certificates are distinct from reference checks and responses to inquiries from prospective future employers or from other organizations of the United Nations common system. The respective senior manager of the unit/office in which the staff member was last assigned must sign the certificates. For international professionals, the certificate is issued by SAS/OHR Copenhagen.
The certified financial report gives a comprehensive view of how contributions are recorded and utilized, reflecting the operational status, revenue, expenses, and balance of the contributions provided by individual non-programme country donors. The recipients of these reports are these donors and the relevant UNDP country offices.
The individual who manages the Vendor Review Committee (VRC) and its proceedings. The VRC Chairperson reports to the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) and is responsible for the issuance of decisions taken by the CPO.
Change control defines how changes to ICT systems and infrastructure can be implemented and released into a live environment. This process exists in the context of ICT governance, as defined in the IM Strategy.
A comprehensive Change Control and Release Management process minimizes risks involved in introducing changes and it becomes a method of communication between stakeholders – the person requesting a change, the Change Control Manager and the team building the change.
A project document may be revised at any time by agreement among the signatories to the document, the donor, UN pooled fund steering committee and/or vertical fund, as relevant, and following consultation with the project board. The purpose of the revision is to make substantive or financial adjustments and improvements to the project. Restrictions apply for GEF- and GCF-financed projects.
The individual values in the Chart of Accounts, which in combination, describe a specific financial activity. With the aid of reporting and query tools, chartfields provide access to accounting data needed for budget control, management reporting, and statutory (or formal and final financial) reporting.
The Chart of Accounts (COA) plays a role in Quantum financial systems for control, budgeting and reporting. The correct use of the COA is critical for accurate financial, management and donor reporting.
Chartered Medical Evacuation Travel (CMET) consists of obtaining highly specialized medical air ambulance services together with, as necessary, professional medical services to evacuate a critically ill staff member or dependent. CMET is to be used for the most critical emergencies and when commercial air transportation by the most direct and economical route (the normal mode for MET) is not sufficient to safeguard the staff member’s life. All Heads of Office should be fully briefed on CMET procedures, have all relevant contact numbers of medical officers, approving officers, International SOS and HQ contacts and are expected to be capable of acting quickly and correctly outside normal working hours.
Used to establish a hierarchical structure, which visually represent a set of summarization rules for a particular chart field. For instance, a tree for account code 11000 (Cash and Near Cash) would have as components accounts 11005 and 11006 that would roll up to a total for reporting in code 11000.
According to Rule 121.01 paragraph (a) of the UNDP Financial regulations and Rules (as amended on January 1, 2012), the Chief Procurement Officer of UNDP is accountable to the Administrator for all procurement functions of UNDP for all its locations, except for those procurement actions governed by paragraph (c). The Chief Procurement Officer may further delegate authority to staff at headquarters and other locations, as may be appropriate in fulfilling the purposes of these rules.
Circumventing thresholds for undertaking formal solicitations and for review by procurement review committees occurs by splitting orders, establishing long-term agreements that have no total value, and estimating costs below real costs to bring in low-value contracts that are later adjusted. When extending or amending contracts, determine the contract history and current cumulative contract amount, and justify why the contract is being extended or amended.
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), is defined as a non-profit organization, group or institution that operates independently from a government and has humanitarian or development objectives.
The Clean-Up of the Accounts Payable (AP) refers to an exercise that ensures that there are no pending vouchers with an accounting date on or before the month end date.
The clean-up of POs requires that all pending purchase orders with budget date on or before the month-end date to be reviewed. The goal is to ensure that there are no old pending purchase orders. If there are, it will create inconsistencies between reports from Budget Control, Projects and the GL.
Projects should be closed in a timely manner to manage fiduciary risk, meet donor expectations, avoid costly extensions and enable the timely transfer of assets for the sustainability of results. Closing a project requires assessing overall performance, quality and lessons learned, and necessary handover to ensure sustainability.
Closed trust funds have in the past been created in agreement with a single donor and the contributions to the trust fund were restricted to that donor. The trust fund donor agreement also served as the terms of reference for the trust fund. Closed trust funds are now discouraged and cost sharing agreements should be used instead.
Typically third party, contracted service that provides computing services along with the underlying technical architecture (e.g., servers, storage, networks) to enable convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Cloud computing has five essential characteristics: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service.
Act or omission that impairs or harms, or threatens to impair or harm, directly or indirectly, any party or the property of the party to improperly influence the actions of a party.
Collusion between UNDP staff members or between UNDP personnel and suppliers could involve kick-backs or bribes, resulting in UNDP personnel manipulating the process, such as by restricting the list of suppliers. It is critical not to allow personnel to operate alone in many steps of the procurement process, especially in evaluation of and negotiations with suppliers.
It is an arrangement between two or more parties designed to achieve an improper purpose, including influencing improperly the actions of another party.
The UNSMS Commercial Air Travel Safety Policy provides a framework to enable due consideration of aviation safety factors in the selection of commercial air operators for undertaking official travel. For the purpose of these guidelines, aviation safety factors must be
A Commercial Lease is an exchange contract between UNDP and a private company, In exchange for the usage of the asset, the landlord/lessor receives a payment or series of payments. Commercial Leases are generally contracted for office space and, in certain cases, for different types of equipment.
A legal obligation arising from a contract, agreement or other form of undertaking by UNDP or based on a liability recognized by UNDP, either against the resources of the current year in respect to UNDP programme activities or against the current budget period in respect to the institutional budget
Common services are provided to several UN agencies resident in a given country, on the basis of mutual agreement between resident UN agencies on which agency will manage the common services. Example of services includes provision of office space, janitorial, travel, ICT, security, administration of UN clinic and related services.
In the event of illness or injury attributable to the performance of official duties, a staff member is entitled to compensation as prescribed in Appendix D to the Staff Rules. In the event of the staff member's death in consequence of such illness or injury, his/her surviving spouse, child, or secondary dependant is entitled to compensation as prescribed in Appendix D to the Staff Rules. No benefit or compensation is payable in respect of illness, injury, or death resulting from serious and willful misconduct on the part of the staff member concerned.
Confidential information means:(i) Information received from or sent to third parties, with an expectation of confidentiality;(ii) Information whose disclosure is likely to endanger the safety or security of any individual, violate his or her rights, or invade his or her privacy; (iii) Information whose disclosure is likely to endanger the security of Member States or prejudice the security or proper conduct of any operation or activity of the organization; (iv) Information covered by legal privilege or regulatory proceedings, or that subjects the organization to an undue risk of litigation, or is related to internal audit reports and investigations; (v) Internal inter-office or intra-office documents, including e-mails and draft documents; (vi) Commercial information, if disclosure would harm either the financial interests of the organization or those of other parties involved; (vii) Information which the organization believes would, if disclosed, seriously undermine the policy dialogue with Member States or implementing partners; and (viii) Other kinds of information which, because of its content or the circumstances of its creation or communication, must be deemed confidential.
Any input into the procurement process by a party with vested interests in the outcome creates a conflict of interest. Conflicts can be actual, perceived or potential.
Consequence is the effect that may result from a risk being materialized. There might be several consequences of a risk, including cascading effects. Often, the total impact of a risk is broader than the sum of all its consequences.
A consultant is an individual who is a recognized authority or specialist in a specific field, engaged by the United Nations under a temporary contract in an advisory or consultative capacity to the Secretariat. A consultant must have special skills or knowledge not normally possessed by the regular staff of the Organization and for which there is no continuing need in the Secretariat. The functions of a consultant are results-oriented and normally involve analysing problems, facilitating seminars or training courses, preparing documents for conferences and meetings or writing reports on the matters within their area of expertise on which their advice or assistance is sought.
The legal instrument that will be signed by and between the UNDP and the successful Offeror/Proposer, all the attached documents thereto, including the General Terms and Conditions (GTC) and the Appendices.
Under a project, a contract is an agreement between the implementing partner and another institution, private firm, individual or NGO to carry out specific activities, or to provide specific goods or services. Contracting is used where the parties agree that it would be the most cost-effective way of achieving the desired results.
Used for the recording of contributions. Information will be entered relating to the agreement and the necessary accounting information to ensure that revenue is recorded in the General Ledger and reflected correctly in UNDP accounts.
Cash or in-kind resources (the latter being in the form of goods, services, or real property) provided to UNDP. Contributions are used to cover UNDP programme activities as well as programme support, management and administration, and support to operational activities of the United Nations, including costs associated with the administration of contributions received for special purposes; costsharing - a co-financing modality under which contributions from Other resources can be received as a supplement to Regular resources for specific UNDP programme activities, under the relevant cooperation framework.
UNDP has an agreement with CITIBANK N.A to issue UNDP Corporate Purchasing Master Cards to UNDP Operations staff (usually the individual who maintains the purchasing card account and responsible for approving low value purchases within the office. While each card is issued in the cardholder’s name the Card remains the property of UNDP and is only to be used for official purchases. Even though the Cardholder’s name appears on the card, this does not affect the cardholder’s credit history nor is there a requirement for the cardholder to use any personal information in activating the card.
Corruption or corrupt practice is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting, directly or indirectly, anything of value to influence improperly the actions of another party
Cost recovery refers to the requirement for the organization to recover costs from other resources that are not directly linked to providing the required organizational structures for projects and programmes. The fundamental aim of cost recovery is to achieve a proportional funding of organizational costs between regular and other resources. This demands that UNDP must avoid using regular resources to subsidize activities funded from other resources, including the use of regular resources to cover costs related to the management and support of programme activities funded by other resources. The fundamental principle and benefits of the application of the cost recovery methodology contribute to a more equitable sharing of costs of management activities between regular and other resources. By funding qualified development effectiveness activities, where appropriate,
Cost-sharing agreements are financing instruments from donor partners that stipulate conditions for receipt, administration, use and reporting of resources for specific UNDP activities. UNDP has standard agreement templates for governments, United Nations entities, the private sector, non-governmental and civil society organizations and foundations. UNDP has also concluded specific templates with major funding partners.
Allows donors to earmark their contribution to a project whose terms of reference falls within the broader trust fund terms of reference. From a donor’s perspective, the advantages of “cost sharing within a trust fund” include separate reporting of their contribution and the possibility of refunding resource balances to the donor rather than to the general resources of the trust fund. Replaced sub-trust funds.
Immediately following the onset of any crisis, the RR will appoint the members of the COCRT based on the needs of the situation at hand. Generally, the COCRT will be comprised of UNDP CO staff members from key operations and programme units. The COCRT is responsible for day-to-day support to the Resident Representative and CO senior managers in all implementation aspects of UNDP’s crisis response.
In the absence of a UNDSS Security Adviser, the DO, in consultation with UNDSS and the staff member’s employing organization, will appoint an international staff member to act as Country Security Focal Point (CSFP) for the SMT. CSFPs are accountable to the DO, through their head of agency, for the security-related responsibilities, in accordance with their respective letters of appointment. UNDP security professionals cannot, due to their dedicated responsibilities to UNDP, be appointed as Country Security Focal Points. The CSFP is a separate and distinct multi-agency role, as compared to the Agency Country Security Focal Point, which has dedicated UNDP security responsibilities. UNDP International staff members may be appointed to act as CSFPs.
Resources are primarily used in response to sudden crises but can also support, if justified, responses to escalating situations in protracted crises. They are to be used in conducting or participating in needs assessments (e.g. Multi-Sector Initial Rapid Assessment, Post Disaster Needs Assessment, Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment), coordinating the response, and establishing early recovery frameworks and other tools for recovery planning.
The Crisis Board is a temporary senior-level decision-making body that provides strategic direction to UNDP support for crisis response and recovery programming for all Level 2 and 3 crises and, exceptionally, for Level 1 crises. The Crisis Board executes temporary authority in all aspects of UNDP corporate response to crisis, including response objectives and key messages, response level, funding allocation decisions,5 deployments, SURGE plan endorsement, recovery programme endorsement and gender considerations.
Criteria for determining crisis complexity include: Multi-layered emergency, multiple countries affected, multitude of actors, humanitarian access or lack thereof and security risks to staff.
The Crisis Management Support Team (CMST) is a temporary, working-level forum that implements the Crisis Board decisions and provides dedicated programme, operations and advocacy support to COs responding to Level 2 and 3 crises and, exceptionally, for Level 1 crises. The CMST engages Central and Regional Bureaux personnel in HQ and the Regional Hubs, with a standing membership from each Bureau. The CMST is led by a CMST Coordinator, who is named by the Crisis Board. The CMST Coordinator manages the technical inputs of the team while coordinating cross-cutting issues.
Crisis response is broadly defined by UNDP as a response to sudden-onset and escalating protracted crises, conflict and disasters. The purpose of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Immediate Crisis Response is to provide a robust institutional and operational framework so that critical decisions and actions can be taken quickly in response to crisis situations.
A critical record is a document that, regardless of the storage media, must be protected from damage or destruction to ensure auditability and continuity of critical business functions and information flows. If a critical electronic record has an electronic signature, the critical record must be retained along with its electronic signature and any other associated records necessary to prove the authenticity of the signature (e.g. digital certificate of a digital signature). Records should be retained in accordance with the Record Retention, Data Security and Contingency Policy and with the Record Management Guidelines.
To ensure the programme remains relevant and effectively contributes to outcome level results, the programme board may approve some changes to the programme without the need to resubmit the programme document to the UNDP Executive Board. These include: (a) removal of outputs that would not adversely affect the achievement of agreed outcomes; (b) adding new outputs necessary to achieve a given agreed outcome identified after the approval of the programme document; and c) changing outcome or output indicators that measure the progress of the programme.
Management activities are activities and costs whose primary function is the promotion of the identity, executive direction, representation, accountability and well-being of the UNDP Country Office.
Under Pooled Fund Management, participating UN organizations pool funds together to one UN organization, called the Managing Agent (MA), chosen jointly by the participating UN organizations in consultation with the (sub-) national partner. The MA will support the (sub)national partner in managing the programme. This option is likely to be the most effective and efficient approach when participating UN organizations work for common results with a common national or sub-national partner (e.g. Department, provincial office, NGO) and/or in a common geographical area.
Categories of costs in which the primary function is the promotion of the identity, direction and well-being of an organization. These include executive direction, representation, external relations and partnerships, corporate communications, legal, oversight, audit, corporate evaluation, information technology, finance, administration, security and human resources. This includes both activities and associated costs of a recurring and non-recurring nature.
This format is chosen if the cheque number is to be assigned by the user, or if the payment is being made in cash. Manual cheques (MAN) are prepared and written/printed by the user. The pay cycle does not include and process manual cheques. This option should be used as infrequently as possible, as the manual nature of the process is prone to errors.
This format of disbursement is chosen if the cheque number is to be assigned by the user, or if the payment is being made in cash. Manual cheques (MAN) are prepared and written/printed by the user.
Manual payments are defined as payments made outside of Quantum and then subsequently recorded in Quantum. Offices may only make manual payments when (1) the office is unable to connect to, or complete, a transaction due to poor system performance or poor connectivity to Quantum and (2) the payment is needed immediately due to an unavoidable emergency situation. All manual payments must have supporting documents.
Material Deviation – any content or characteristic of the Offer that is significantly different from an essential aspect or requirement of the ITB/RFP, and (i) substantially alters the scope and quality of the requirements; (ii) limits the rights of UNDP and/or the obligations of the offeror; and (iii) adversely impacts the fairness and principles
A sound pipeline portfolio is likely to include projects of different maturity, ranging from initial ideas to interventions with secured funding and implementation capacity ready to be launched. Having a clearer idea of the maturity of its pipeline allows better-informed decisions about investment areas which have a higher return potential in terms of development impact.
The purpose of Medical Evacuation Travel (MET) is to allow staff members and eligible dependents the opportunity to secure essential medical care or treatment for a severe illness or injury requiring medical intervention which is locally unavailable or inadequate.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) formalizes a non-binding partnership by stipulating intent and commitment between partners. It articulates the legislative background, general principles and focus of potential cooperation in pursuit of common goals. It serves as the overall framework for all global, regional and country-level cooperation. Specific country-level implementation agreements are subordinate to MOUs and are used to specify conditions of work. UNDP has different templates for Governments, United Nations entities, the private sector, non-governmental and civil society organizations, academic institutions, and foundations. An MoU is not a financial instrument and therefore cannot be used by UNDP to make or receive contributions from partners.
The purpose of the micro assessment is to assess a Partner’s financial management capacity (i.e. Accounting, procurement, reporting, internal controls, etc.) to determine the overall risk rating and assurance activities. The risk rating may be adjusted taking into consideration other available information such as the results of the macro assessment and previous experience with the partner to arrive at an Adjusted Risk Rating which is used to determine the appropriate cash transfer modality to a Partner. This assessment applies to both governmental and non-governmental Partners.
The financial assistance provided to an intermediary which includes
nongovernmental or grass roots organizations in an amount not exceeding$150,000 for each individual grant.
Micro-purchasing is a simplified procurement method for readily available goods, standardized services and small works, where contract amounts do not exceed US $5,000. Such purchases may constitute a significant volume of UNDP’s total procurement, but their aggregate value remains relatively low. A simplified process is preferred to reduce transaction costs.