12.3 Distribution directly from warehouse

In rare cases during an emergency response, it may be necessary to distribute goods or commodities directly from a warehouse to recipients in the warehouse compound. In such situations, the following procedures must be followed:

  • Ensure adequate security and crowd control. Please refer to section 7 Site security.
  • Obtain an authorised recipient list, usually prepared by a government official or community leader. The official or community leader must sign the list.
  • During the distribution, the Programme Manager maintains a tally of both the number of persons served and the quantities received. Keeping a tally in this manner is similar to tallying the amount of inventory loaded onto trucks at the time of a dispatch.
  • When distribution is completed, the Programme Manager signs the tally sheets.
  • Based on the tally sheet total(s), the authorised warehouse manager prepares the ‘dispatch information’ section of the waybill(s) and the Programme Manager completes the ‘receipt information’ section. A community leader should also be identified to sign the recipient list and the ‘receipt information’ section of the waybill, together with the Programme Manager. All such distributions must be documented with waybills.
  • The recipient list and the tally sheets are attached to the waybill as supporting documents and the waybill is routed as normal.