10 Expenses for the provision of food or refreshments may be incurred during activities such as meetings, retreats and working lunches, for staff members and/ or other participants when considered appropriate.
20 It is expected that costs borne by WHO from events which principally include staff members are infrequent and amounts are minimal. However, when this is appropriate, the following situations can be considered courtesy:
- Meetings: The cost of minor refreshments (soft drinks, tea, coffee, fruit etc.) and meals at meetings where part of the participants are guests or staff from another duty station (considered as guests for this purpose, but not for hospitality as described in this eManual).
- Working lunches: The cost of sandwiches and light beverages served during a meeting including internal and external participants where it is considered beneficial not to break for lunch.
- Retreats: meals and incidental expenses as appropriate.
30 Should the related expenses take place in a hotel or restaurant, they should conform to normal local standards and be on a modest basis.
40 The applicable limits per participant related to the per diem of the venue concerned, or the "elsewhere" rate as the case may be, are:
- Dinners 20%
- Luncheons 15%
- Breakfast 10%
- When no meals are served i.e. reception 10%
50 Tips, where expected and required, may be reimbursed if they are included on the receipt/payment and as long the amount of the tip is within the standard level for the location where the expense is incurred and that the total cost of the expense, including the tip, remains within the stated maximum allowance.
60 If the participant is covered by a Travel Authorization (TA) and entitled to per diem allowance, the receipt of courtesy meals should be noted on the TA and the relevant meal portion of the per diem (10% per meal)must be deducted from the per diem paid to the traveller. Cost of refreshments (tea, coffee, biscuits etc.) need not be deducted.
70 All Project Approvers are responsible for ensuring that courtesy costs are reasonable, within the limits defined above under paragraph 30, and correctly coded, i.e. that when Purchase Requisitions (PR) are submitted, the service category "Meetings, Workshops, Training/ Catering, Courtesy" is selected to account for these expenses.
For more details refer to FIN.SOP.XII.025 Hospitality and Courtesy Expenses
