Title: Disbursement Issues and Challenges Practical Perspective from Kosovo Burbuqe Zatriqi, Finance Office
1Disbursement Issues and Challenges Practical
Perspective from Kosovo Burbuqe Zatriqi,
Finance Officer, PIU, Ministry of Health
Third Regional Meeting of the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for the
Grant Recipient Countries of Eastern Europe and
Central Asia, Tbilisi, Georgia, Sheraton
Metechi Palace Hotel, 17-19 September 2007
2Kosovo TB grant Snapshot
- TB grant Expanding Tuberculosis Prevention and
Treatment Activities in Kosovo - Grant Term 5 years grant USD 3,903,063
- Phase 1 approved April 2006 March 2008
- USD 2,122,401.00
- GF Disbursement Amount to Date1,958.703.53
- Program Expenditures to Date1,066,997.88
- Number of SRs 4
- SR budget 252,055.67
3Key Topics
- Disbursement Requests The process the PR
follows to request disbursements from the GF - Budget management process and its link to
Disbursement request procedure - Challenges with relation to the disbursement
process and how we addressed them
4Requesting a GF disbursement Practical Steps
- Disbursement requests (DRs) are submitted based
on consideration of the following - Annex A (Standard Progress Update/Disbursement
Request form and compliance with applicable CPs
and Special Conditions) - Standard Terms and Conditions of the Grant
Agreement (due 45 days following the end of the
reporting period) v - PR Guidelines for completing the disbursement
requests - DRs are based on the PR-projected program cash
requirements for the next reporting period plus a
buffer quarter - DRs product of the team work of the program and
operations staff in the PRs office - DRs are linked to periodic programmatic progress
and financial accountability - v Program and Finance staff staff
hold regular meetings and jointly validate the
programmatic progress and financial reports - Check if grant funds are prudently managed and
used solely for program purposes. - Monitor achieving the key indicators with
periodic targets - Verifies if expenditures are done against the
correct budget line - Review of the PR and SR program implementation
with emphasis's to need for changes in
implementation
5Important Things to Remember for a Smooth
Disbursement Process
- Software for budget and financial management is
accessible to all relevant staff in project
implementation as a precondition for issuing
accurate financial reports on incurred
expenditures, cash flow, budget variances and
preparing a reasonable forecast. - Good and comprehensive explanation of the
variances for PIU and LFA by providing
additional information through tables helps to
do a reasonable and accurate forecast on
expenditures for the next disbursement E.g.
Table showing in details the forecasted
expenditures and the reasons for the budget
variances commitments, delays in implementation
, outstanding payments , status of on-going
activities
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7Getting disbursements on time
- Goal DRs due to the LFA/GF within 45 days from
the end of the reporting period - Practical consideration - Next disbursement must
be received before the end of the buffer period - Practical steps taken by the PR to ensure timely
reporting and disbursements - SR reports due to the PR
- Monthly reports - 5 working day after the
end of the quarter - Quarterly report 15 days after the end
of the quarter - Days planned for internal PR review of quarterly
report - 15 days after assembling of all reports
from SRs - Final Consolidation and accounting at PR level
- 30 days after end of the quarter
- Final submission to the LFA
- 35- 45 days after end of the quarter
8Getting disbursements on time (cont.)
- Approach to the LFA review
- - Providing the preliminary report for
checking prior to sending the official in order
to avoid delays and incorrectness - Other steps
- Trainings/workshops/regular exchanges with SRs
- - PR Organized orientation / introduction
session to SR staff to present the Grant - - Separate trainings organized for SR
Finance staff on finance procedures. All
relevant forms provided to SR - - PR holds regular meetings with SR as well as on
SR request. - - PR provides on job trainings to SR finance
staff - - PR Plans joint Retreat with SR staff
9Budget Management Process Practical Perspective
- Program coordinators takes lead in forecasting
program activities - Regular monthly update on budget utilization is
shared by finance with program staff .When
required more frequently. - Budget adjustments and reprogramming done based
on the progress - and actual expenditure reports
- - Program staff submits the request for
adjustment /reprogramming on the template form
indicating the changes and seeking the approval.
Once it is approved the change is recorded into
the budget. - - Approvals are provided by PIU Manager,
CCM , GF, depending on the level of the change - - Changes are requested in line with GF
guideline Comprehensive information on program
spending and budget variances determinates and
justifies the disbursement request
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11Challenges and how we addressed them ..
- Grant funds in custody of the Ministry of Economy
and Finance as a - public money to be budgeted within Kosovo
Consolidated Budget ( KCB ) - - KCB operates on the basis of the
cash based budget. No activity can be initiated - if cash is not available.
- - The precondition for initiating the
activity is raising the commitments ( reserving
) the funds. - Commitment document is a proof that
the funds are available to start the activity. - The delays in implementing the such
activities with additional new commitments raised
leads to the decrease of the cash available
for - initiating the forthcoming implementation. - - Budget categories in KCB differ with
budget categories approved by GF. - Therefore there is a need to convert
the budged approved by GF to KCB budget
categories ( the chart of accounts differ )The
regular monthly reconciliation is required. - Two currencies involved , USD and EUR as a local
currency - - Considerable fluctuation due to 2
currencies leads to gains and losses - - From committing the funds to expenditure
the exchange rate changes - PR need to keep double booking
- All financial data for this grant are
maintained-registered in two data sources - - Ministry of Economy and Finance and
Ministry of Health- PIU - MFE has the software for budget and
finance managing which does not provide reports
as required by GF.
12Challenges and how we addressed them (cont.)..
- Lack of staff capacity and competence, inadequate
financial procedures and inaccurate SR reports - Solutions
- - Development of harmonized and
coordinated reports by using the unified - unified sound accounting systems for
the grant managing - - Regular meetings and field support
visits to SRs in report writing and collection
reports - - Organizing training , workshops and
joint retreat with SR
13-
- Dedicated program and operation staff to the
project ensures the successful - implementation!!!