“Authority” refers to the power or decision making rights of an individual by virtue of his/her appointment and/or as appropriately delegated to him/her.
UNDP defines delegation of authority as the assignment of a vested authority of an appointment holder (delegator) to another person (delegatee), normally within the same office or along reporting lines, to carry out specific activities or take decisions that are within the authority of the delegator.
“Head of Office” refers to the head of either a UNDP headquarter office or UNDP country office, i.e. Bureaux Directors, Resident Representatives, heads of UNDP liaison offices, and heads of UNDP administered funds and programmes. Heads of Regional Service Centers and Heads of Policy Centers receive their delegated authorities from the Regional or Central Bureaux Directors as the case may be and/or from those directly delegated specific functional authorities by the Administrator (such as the Chief Procurement Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Treasurer etc.) and hence not included in this definition. Similarly, Country Directors receive their authorities from the Resident Representatives and are not considered heads of offices;