4. Donor compliance requirements

All procurement staff should familiarise themselves with the specific procurement requirements of donors who fund the emergency interventions.

This should include USAID/OFDA, EU/ECHO, DFID, CIDA, AusAID, SIDA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Austria, France, Germany and Norway, or guidelines of any donor country that is also a member of CI. Failure to observe donor requirements could result in the purchases being disallowed by the donor, and create financial and audit liabilities for CARE.

All CARE Members and Country Offices are required to follow the CI Procurement Procedures for European Commission Funded Contracts. For questions regarding these procurement procedures: – for general questions contact CARE International Secretariat’s EU Liaison Office in Brussels (eufunding@careinternational.org). For specific questions related to specific contract, please contact the CARE Member Partner (CMP).

If in doubt about donor requirements, consult the CARE Member through whom the project is contracted or the donor representative.

The CO finance unit is responsible for providing the Team Leader and other Emergency Managers with an executive summary for each fund allocation, grant and contract. This information should be explicit in terms of allowed and disallowed expenditure, duration of funding, reporting requirements and frequency, budget line item flexibility, and any special requirements that may have an impact on operations (see Chapter 17 Finance).

Some donors (in particular the US Government) require CARE to seek formal authorisation in the form of waivers variations from normal procurement requirements. Waivers are not granted automatically, but must be applied for on a case-by-case basis.

Each donor has a specific process to request waivers, which differs from one donor to another. It is essential to refer to specific guidelines. As a general rule, the procurement unit should always confirm and obtain a copy, of the waiver that has been obtained by the programme unit. Do not confirm an order without a waiver. A copy of the waiver should be placed in the respective procurement file.