10 Grant letters of agreements (GLOA) must be the subject of a formal agreement that is linked to an approved work plan for a WHO activity and for country offices and the Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS). As GLOAs are non-standard contracts and the terms and conditions are specific to the agreement, a GLOA is prepared in each case. If the standard template, prepared by LEG and FNM (available in the GLOA Standard Operating Procedures and in the Related Content of the eManual), is not used, the proposed agreement must be cleared by LEG before it can be finalized. The agreement must include a proposed budget, using the WHO standard budget categories and the period over which the expenditures are to be incurred. The Letter of Agreement - Grant in GSM is an internal commitment used for processing Grant Agreements in GSM. The GSM obligating document is not sent to the supplier since the supplier receives and signs the off-line GLOA. The GSM commitment must be fully approved (based on a draft GLOA) before the GLOA agreement is signed with the supplier. The countersigned GLOA is then uploaded in GSM before the commencement of work.
20 If another WHO budget centre provides financial support to an activity to be implemented through GLOA in that country, the funding must be distributed to the implementing Country Office (CO) and award budgeted to the relevant CO workplan before implementation can begin. Any exception to using the CO workplan must be approved by the Director of Administration (DAF) in advance and documentation uploaded to support that prior approval.
30 Implementing partner capacity assessments (IPCA) are required if the implementing partner (IP) is expected to receive over USD 150,000 per year (cumulative for all WHO grants to an IP for that budget centre). IPCAs are to be undertaken by 3rd party professional assessors, following the UN system standard for IPCAs. The IPCA is a key tool that is used to determine whether and how WHO financing can be provided to an entity and to help determine the assurance activities to be conducted on the grant/grantee. Once an IP has been assessed, following this standard, the assessment is valid for 5 years, unless a significant change takes place in the management or performance of the IP.
40 All GLOAs must be appropriately planned and be supported by a justification memo. To ensure that grant funding constitutes good use of public resources, an established review mechanism for assessing and selecting grant beneficiaries and evaluating the reasonableness and economy of financial proposals is in place – the Grant Review Committee – GRC - refer to eManual XVI.3.3 and FIN.SOP.XVI.003 - Grant Letters of Agreement
50 The activity described in the agreement must commence within three months from the date of the agreement and must be completed (activities delivered) before the award end date. Where the funded activities will be implemented in more than one calendar year, an interim financial implementation report shall be provided within fifteen (15) days after end of each calendar year (i.e. by 15 January of the following year). In all cases it must be ensured that GLOA activities are in compliance with donor requirements. The cost estimates must be reviewed for reasonableness by the responsible officer. A Funding Authorization and Certification of Expenditure (FACE) form is the key tool for both requesting advances and reporting on DFC activities and expenditure - UNSDG | Funding Authorization and Certificate of Expenditures Form
60 For
GLOA purchase requisitions over $300,000, quality assurance compliance
pre-checks of GLOA POs are performed by the second line of defense before
submission to Project Approvers.
70 The final deliverable, the "GLOA Report" has two parts, which are due within 90 days of the completion of the activity:
- a technical report whose level of detail is commensurate with the value of the grant; and
- a FACE report which includes an expenditure breakdown and certification using the standard budget categories as included in the original budget. The FACE report must be signed by the grant beneficiary and certified by the WHO responsible officer. The GLOA report (including both the technical report and the FACE report) is uploaded to the ECM when recording the receipt of the final deliverable in the GSM.
80 Further
payments will be withheld from a Partner who has not spent previous payments
made in accordance with the Agreement or who has not submitted GLOA reports on
a timely basis. Any unutilized or unspent funds must be repaid
immediately or recorded as refunds receivable. Any refunds
receivable will be deducted from further payments.
90 Any misuse of grant funds, including through fraud or corruption, constitutes a material breach of the GLOA, and gives rise to the right on the part of WHO (in addition to other remedies that may be available to it) to terminate the Grant LOA and demand reimbursement of any payments made under the Grant LOA to date. The GLOA contract is available on the LEG intranet: Library & Resources (sharepoint.com) - the template can be found in section VI. LEG resources - VI.g.2.
100 The Finance Department shall publish on an annual basis after finalization of the previous year’s accounts on the WHO public website (under ‘Accountability’) information concerning WHO’s grants financed by the European Commission (EC).
110 The following information will be published: EC contribution number and title, WHO Major Office, grantee name, grantee country, amount of the grant in US$, date of signature of the grant letter of agreement and a brief description of the activities to be performed. The grantee country names should follow the official names of WHO Member States, as per the WHO style guide.
