Image
With the 31 May 2010 deadline for submission of over 29 consolidated annual MDTF reports to over 50 donors, the MDTF Office began preparations before the New Year.
The Office estimates that it will receive 1700 individual financial project and joint programme reports for the 2009 annual reporting cycle.
With the 31 May 2010 deadline for submission of over 29 consolidated annual MDTF reports to over 50 donors, the MDTF Office began preparations before the New Year.
The Office estimates that it will receive 1700 individual financial project and joint programme reports for the 2009 annual reporting cycle. This is a significant increase from the 2008 reporting cycle where 887 project reports were due covering total expenditures of $500 million.
Considering the growth of the portfolio and the number of MDTFs, the reporting workload is significant for both the Participating Organizations and the MDTF Office. In response to the steep increase in project and JP reporting, and the associated complexity, the MDTF Office has introduced several business process improvements in 2009 to simplify and streamline the reporting process and increase outreach, transparency and accountability.
Close collaboration with other units in UNDP Bureau of Management, notably OIST and OFA, was essential to bring these change initiatives to a successful completion.
As a first step, a separate MDTF General Ledger Business Unit on the Atlas ERP system was introduced. Combined with new separate MDTF bank account, the separate Business Unit has reinforced the UNDP MDTF Office’s accountability as Administrative Agent for all “pass-through” funds.
Secondly, UNEX, a financial data upload facility to receive financial reports, was also launched to receive the annual financial reports. The system allows Participating Organizations to automate reporting of financial data to the MDTF Office by extracting data from their respective accounting systems for uploading via the UNEX web-interface in one single excel spreadsheet.
The new system has reduced the reporting workload on Participating Organizations by reducing the number of individual financial reports submitted and the number of signatures required. In the new system, only one excel spread sheet is submitted per Participating Organization and the annual statements (known as Schedule A) are automatically generated by UNEX.
Thirdly, in 2010, the new MDTf Office Gateway has opened to the all stakeholders, partners and public to increase transparency and access to data and information, including: