2. Organize for the Receipt and
Management of Funding
Once a grant is approved, open a file for the
project for all major actions from grant award
to closeout. This file should include the
following:
1. grant agreement
2. grant budget
3. correspondence with donor in ascending order
from earliest to latest
3. 4. Financial reports filed with donor
5. program progress report
6. audit report
7. project closeout document etal.
Study the terms & conditions of the award
compared to your approved grant application.
Sometimes, there are mistakes in preparing
final agreement that need to be rectified
promptly with designated officials.
4. Hold a project initiation briefing with project
and all other staff that are going to work on
the project (direct & indirect). In this meeting,
we should ensure that everyone understands
every essential term and condition of the
grant as well as their own responsibilities.
5. Develop a Task Management Plan
• This means that there is the need for the
refining activity/implementation plans as in
most cases, staff at awarding time may be
different at the application time.
• There may be other reasons for this revision of
work plan.
• Having this revised work plan in place before
staff go off for work will help in the project
monitoring & quality control.
6. Establish a System of Compliance
Management
• All grants have strings attached as grants are
not gifts. Therefore, we must ensure
compliance with these strings.
• Some grants are given to promote certain
policies or discourage others. This may
emanate from a legislation, executive orders
or a policy document.
7. • The grant award letter and the accompanying
agreement normally contains information on
the applicable compliance requirements. You
have to familiarize yourself with these
requirements.
• Start by developing a check list that are
applicable to the grant and actions required to
demonstrate compliance.
8. Maintain a Good Financial
Management System
• A very critical aspect of grant management is
the establishment of a sound financial
management system. This has 3 aspects:
– accounting system that meets the GAAP for
public and non-profit organisation.
– a system of cost management and controls
to ensure proper cost allocation and
compliance to the imposed by donor
9. – A reporting system that fairly and accurately
record the grant expenditure.
Normally donors do not specify accounting
system to be used by Implementing Partners
(IPs). The most important thing is to be able
to charge the costs to grant as allowable.
Questions involving cost allowability &
charging are probably the most frequent
source of headache in grant management.
10. Charging Costs to Grant
Costs are charged to grant if:
i. Allowable according to relevant policies
ii. Included in the approved budget
iii. Not excluded by the terms of grant agreement or
award letter
iv. Capable of being allocated
v. Treated consistently when charged
vi. Reasonable
vii. Necessary to the project
viii. not disallowed by law, executive order or the donor
regulations
11. Maintain a Sound Procurement
System
• Most grants policy requires that we develop
and maintain a procurement system that is
fair to all, ethical, and promote full and open
competition.
