Uniform format for reporting progress and financial information

The Uniform Format for Reporting Progress and Financial Information combines the Uniform Format for Annual Financial Reports (UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/12/37, Annex III) with the Implementing Agencies input to the Consolidated Progress Report (UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/10/40, Annex IV). The combined document will be included as part of the Consolidated Progress Report.

It will be submitted to the Secretariat and the Executive Committee in diskette form in the spreadsheet or data base programme used at the Fund Secretariat and the entries should be listed in alphabetical order by country.

The reporting period will include financial data and progress status since the previous reporting period through the end of the preceding full quarter of a year. For example, if a meeting were held in May, the reporting data would be through the end of the first quarter.

The Implementing Agencies’ annual audited financial reports to the Treasurer should be prepared in accordance with the financial audit regulations of the agency. The information included through the Uniform Format for Reporting Progress and Financial Information should be reconcilable with the annual audited financial reports presented to the Executive Committee through the Treasurer, especially with regard to approvals and expenditures.

DEFINITIONS

Administrative support - Administrative costs incurred by the agency in delivering a programme or activity approved by the Executive Committee.

Approvals - As listed in the Report of the Executive Committee.

Approved funding - Funds as initially approved by the Executive Committee (additional allocations listed separately).

Completed projects/activities - Projects that have been commissioned and the ODS has been phased out. For activities without an ODS phase-out, when the activity was completed.

Date of approval - The date of the Executive Committee Meeting at which the approval was initially given expressed in month and year (e.g. 08-93 is August 1993).

Date of financial completion (For completed projects only) - The date at which all expenditures were reported and the account is closed. The absence of a date in this column means that the account has not been closed.

Date of implementation (actual and proposed) - Date when project was commissioned and the ODS was phased out or the date proposed for the ODS phase out as listed in the project proposal. For activities, the date at which the activity is expected to be implemented (e.g., when a workshop was held).

Funds disbursed - Actual expenditures by agency.

Interest earned - Interest collected on funds held by the Implementing Agency.

Number of approvals - Number of activities approved by calendar year.

Number completed - Number of activities for which ODS has been phased out or the activity has been completed.

ODP phased out (to be phased out) - The amount of ODP phased out for completed projects and the amount of ODP to be phased out as listed in the project proposal.

Ongoing projects/activities - All approvals not classified as completed.

Planned commitment in current year (For ongoing projects only) - Money set aside for continuation of project/activity for the current year.

Project number plus region - The project number assigned by the Fund Secretariat. The project number includes the country abbreviation (e.g. THA is Thailand), the sector abbreviation (e.g. REF is refrigeration), the number of the Executive Committee Meeting (e.g. 08 is the Eighth Meeting), the type of project (INV is investment project), and the sequential number assigned by the Secretariat. A regional abbreviation should also be included (LAC is Latin America) according to the regional designations used by the Secretariat.

Project title - The title listed in the approval recorded in the report of the Meeting of the Executive Committee at which the project was approved.

Rate of disbursement - Funds disbursed divided by approved funding.

Savings or deficits (For completed projects/activities only) - Approved funding minus funds disbursed.

Savings plus deficits (For completed projects/activities only) - Savings plus deficits reported on an annual basis.

Status/lessons learned/remarks - Implementing agencies should specify the physical progress achieved towards the goals of projects/activities (e.g. possibly in per cent completion). Lessons learned should be noted in accordance with any monitoring and evaluation guidance.

I.    REVISIONS TO DATA BASE FORMAT FOR PROGRESS AND FINANCIAL REPORTING

Modalities

Implementing agencies will submit their data tables for Progress and Financial Reporting in the spreadsheet format used by the Fund Secretariat (currently Microsoft Excel 5.0) on diskette or as specified by the Secretariat. The data base used by the Fund Secretariat (Microsoft Access 2.0) may be used if the data base formats are interchangeable with the spreadsheet format.

Two reports will be presented per year for reporting periods ending 30 June and 31 December. The diskette should be received in the office of the Secretariat on 1 September for the 30 June report and 15 March of the following year for the 31 December report unless otherwise notified by the Secretariat.

For presentation purposes, all project data should be grouped by status, e.g., completed, ongoing, transferred and closed projects should be included in the data base. Data within these groups should be presented in alpha-numerical order according to Agency, Country, Sector, Meeting Number, Type, Inventory Number, and Region. Agencies should provide totals where appropriate for each column.

All provisions of decision 17/22 that are not specifically revised remain in effect, for example, data totals should continue to be presented at the end of the data tables as per decision 17/22. Since administrative support is included in the data totals, it should no longer be required on a per project basis. Administrative support costs will continue to be presented in the annual summary table.

It should be noted that progress and financial reporting does not replace the requirement in the agreements between the Implementing Agencies and the Executive Committee for annual audited financial reports to be submitted to the Treasurer prepared in accordance with the financial audit regulations of the agency. However, the information included through the Uniform Format for Progress and Financial Reporting should be reconcilable with the annual audited financial reports presented to the Executive Committee through the Treasurer, especially with regard to total expenditures (disbursements and obligations) and approvals.

Format Revisions

This section addresses additional information that should be included in the progress report data base and proposed revisions to the format approved in decision 17/22. All relevant definitions provided in decision 17/22 still apply.

Required Revision

The first additional information is required from decision 18/16.

Date when equipment was first purchased toward implementation of investment project, or date of any expenditure toward implementation of non-investment project.

Suggested Additions

It is proposed to add the following information to the format:

Adjustments to the initial approved funding level. For projects where budgets need to be adjusted, an amount will be indicated under the column entitled “Balances”. In some cases, agencies may otherwise indicate that a change in the budget is needed. After the Executive Committee has approved any change in the budget of an approved project, the amount adjusted will be reflected under this column entitled “Adjustment”.

Status should be designated with one of four terms: ONG for ongoing; COM for completed; CLO for closed; and TRF for transferred to another Implementing Agency.

A three digit code that the sector designation should be changed to one letter (e.g. refrigeration from REF to R) and a sub-sector code should be added (e.g. DOM means domestic refrigeration sub-sector). This will enable the Committee to be provided with summary statistics by sub-sector which are pertinent to business plan monitoring and cost-effectiveness thresholds. The Secretariat will provide the Implementing Agencies with both the new codes and the existing codes for immediate insertion into the agencies’ data bases.

Implementation Characteristics

Agencies may implement projects differently. Some projects are implemented by the agencies and others by national governments or the enterprises themselves. Some projects are approved for a one-year or three-year period and their completion represents the end of a period of time instead of the accomplishment of a project objective. For example, 33 per cent disbursement on a three-year institutional strengthening project means that funds have been advanced for one-year. A 33 per cent rate of disbursement on an agency implemented investment project may mean that the project’s objective is 33 per cent completed. Also, some agencies may disburse funds as a project is implemented or only disburse funds after the project is implemented. These difference make it difficult to assess the importance of performance indicators such as proportion of funds disbursed.

To distinguish performance by funding and implementation characteristics, three columns should be added to the format. The first column should indicate if the project is being implemented through agency (A) or national (N) implementation.

The second column will indicate if the project is implemented through a time (T) or objective-sensitive (O) account.

The third column will specify the disbursement method: disbursement during implementation (I), disbursement for retroactive (R) projects (projects approved after the ODS has been phased out); and disbursement for projects begun after Executive Committee approval (D).

A column should be added to the annual summary data table that indicates the amount of interest being returned to Fund for use at the Executive Committee Meeting when the progress report is being presented.

Suggested Revisions

The following revisions to the format adopted in decision 17/22 are recommended:

All dates should be provided in a numeric format. For example, May 1995 should be entered “199505”. This entry should not have spaces, commas, dashes or any other punctuation marks.

Each item in the project number should be listed in a separate column.

A definition for the revised date of implementation should be added to decision 17/22 as follows: Revised date of implementation is the date when the investment project is currently expected to be phased out or in the case of non-investment projects, when the activity is currently expected to be implemented.

Planned Commitment in Current Year should be provided for both completed and ongoing projects and in the annual summary table.

“Rate of Disbursement” should be renamed “Per Cent of Funds Disbursed”.

Change sector code to designate sector with one letter (A for aerosol, F for foam, etc.) followed by a three digit sub-sector code to enable data on resource allocation and phase-out categories.

A column entitled, “Balance”, should replace “Savings/Deficits” and is defined as the difference between approved funding plus adjustments minus funds disbursed. This should be specified for completed, ongoing, transferred, and closed projects. For projects with a date of financial completion, no information should be provided unless an action for a final adjustment needs to be made at the meeting when the progress report is presented.

Since a status column is being added, completed, ongoing, closed and transferred projects will all be included on the same worksheet. This means that the following headings have been changed and are defined according to the status designation:

ODP Phase Out for completed projects or ODP to be Phased Out for ongoing projects.

Date of Financial Completion for completed projects or Revised Date of Implementation for ongoing projects.

Date of Actual Implementation for completed projects or Proposed Date of Implementation for ongoing projects.

The savings/deficits column should be deleted from the Annual Summary table. Columns should be rearranged per Part II.

II.   REVISED DATA BASE FORMAT FOR PROGRESS AND FINANCIAL REPORTING

Project Data

The following column headings should be presented for closed, completed and ongoing projects:

Annual Summary

The following column headings should be presented for annual summaries which should be presented in the Implementing Agencies’ progress report narrative by implementation characteristics:

III. FORMAT FOR THE NARRATIVE OF AGENCY PROGRESS REPORTS AND THE CONSOLIDATED PROGRESS REPORT

Section              Title

I.                      Project Approvals and Disbursements

                        A. Annual Summary (paragraph 2 of Part II)

                        B. Summary by Type (CPG, DEM, INS, INV, etc.)

II.                     Project Completion

                        A. ODS phased out Since Last Report

                        B. Non-investment Projects

III.                   Global and Regional Project Highlights

                        A. Global Projects

                        B. Regional Projects

IV.                    Performance Indicators

                        A. Agency’s Business Plan Performance Goals

                        B. Cumulative Completed Projects

                        C. Cumulative Ongoing Projects

V.                     Status of Agreements/Project Documents and Project Preparation, by country

                        A. Agreements/Project Documents to be signed/executed/finalised and when they will be ready for disbursing

                        B. Project Preparation by country, approved amount, and amount disbursed.

VI.                    Administrative Issues (Operational, Policy, Financial, and Other Issues)

                        A. Meetings Attended

                        B. Interagency Co-operation

                        C. Adjustments

                        D. Other Issues

Annex I             Country Developments and Institutional Strengthening Unit Highlights

Annex II            Data Base (note: completed, ongoing, closed, and transferred will be part of one data base).

IV.  FORMAT FOR THE NARRATIVE OF AGENCY PROGRESS REPORTS AND THE CONSOLIDATED PROGRESS REPORT

[Note: Project preparation and investment projects are not part of UNEP’s portfolio and will not be addressed in UNEP’s progress report narrative. UNEP’s clearinghouse, networking, and regional training activities will be addressed under Section III.]

I.    Project Approvals and Disbursements

      A. Annual Summary (per paragraph 2 of Part II)

      B. Summary by type (CPG, DEM, INS, INV, etc.)

This section should have one or two summary sentences and tables for approvals and disbursements by type of project/activity and a list of sectors by country for which total phase-out has been funded. The data should be listed by implementation characteristics.

II.   Project Completion

      A. ODS phased out since last Report

      1    Summary

      2    Approved Amount, Expenditure, ODP tonnes phased out, and whether additional disbursements are anticipated. The data should be listed by disbursement method.

      B. Non-investment Project Completion Since Last Report including approved amount, expenditure to-date, and whether additional disbursements are anticipated.

      1    Country Programmes

      2    Technical Assistance

      3    Training

      4    Workshops

This section should have a few sentence summary of completed activities and tables as indicated for each completed activity.

III. Global and Regional Project Highlights

      A. Global Projects

      B. Regional Projects

This section provides for a brief narratives, about 200 words, for activities on Global and Regional Projects.

IV.  Performance Indicators

      A. Agency’ Business Plan Performance Goals

      Each agency stipulates its performance goals for the annual business plan. This sub-section should present those indicators and address in a few sentences how the agency is meeting those goals. The data should be listed by implementation characteristics.

      B. Cumulative Completed Projects

This sub-section provides summary information for each sector and region according to indicators that can be derived from the data base. It enables the agencies to present a summary of all of the projects that the agency has completed since the beginning of the Multilateral Fund. The data should be listed by implementation characteristics.

      C.   Cumulative Ongoing Projects

This sub-section provides summary information for each sector and region according to indicators that can be derived from the data base. It enables the agencies to present a summary of all of the projects that the agency is currently implementing. The data should be listed by implementation characteristics.

V.   Status of Agreements[3] and Project Preparation (where applicable), by country

      A.   Agreements to be signed/executed/finalised and when they will be ready for disbursing

      B.   Project Preparation by country, approved amount, and amount disbursed.

This section could begin with a few sentences about the subjects and should follow with a table on agreements and one on project preparation. Project preparation should be listed by country and by approval, i.e., if the Committee approved separate requests for project preparation for aerosols, foams, etc., each request should be listed separately under the country heading.

VI.  Administrative Issues (Operational, Policy, Financial, and Other Issues)

      A.   Meetings Attended

      B.   Interagency Co-operation

      C.   Adjustments

      D.   Other Issues

The agency will list those meetings attended and any interagency (including bilateral agencies) co-operation undertaken during the reporting period. This section also allows for adjustments to previous approvals and any other issue that the agency may wish to bring to the attention of the Committee.

Annex I Country Development and Institutional Strengthening Unit Highlights

This annex will be listed by country for the countries in which the Implementing Agency is involved. The first paragraph (about 200 words) will address highlights of projects and activities under agency implementation.

The second paragraph (about 200 words) will address the activities of institutional strengthening units whose funds are allocated by the concerned Implementing Agency. It will focus on the goals, objectives, and activities funded through the institutional strengthening unit allocation provided by the Executive Committee. The narrative should also address any additional requirements specified by the Committee in its decision concerning institutional strengthening renewal.

Annex I Data Base (note: completed, ongoing, closed, and transferred will be part of one data base). The data should be summarised per decision 17/22 by implementation characteristics.

(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/19/64 Annex IV).

(Supporting document: UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/19/4).