CHF Sudan 2015 Standard Allocation Budget Guidelines for NGOs Implementing Partners: FULL PROJECT PROPOSAL

Transcription

1 CHF Sudan 2015 Standard Allocation Budget Guidelines for NGOs Implementing Partners: FULL PROJECT PROPOSAL Contents 1. Purpose Submission of Full Project Proposal Budgets New Elements Method of Submitting the Budget and General Principles Budget Classification and Cost Categories Shared Costs Quarterly Forecast Sector Specific Budget Parameters Cost Effectiveness Analysis Eligible and Ineligible Budget Expenditures

2 1. Purpose These guidance notes have been prepared to assist NGOs implementing partners submitting their Full Project Proposal Budgets. 2. Submission of Full Project Proposal Budgets Once the HC approves the list of pre-approved concept notes, implementing partners are invited to develop full project proposals for technical review. The full project proposals will also be submitted online using the GMS, starting from the pre-approved concept notes that will have been upgraded to full project proposal by the CHF Technical Unit. Implementing partners will revise existing project s budgets based on the recommendations received by their sector leads, taking into consideration the outcomes of the PRG s strategic review of their concept notes. Particularly, implementing partners will be asked to review their original budgets based on a recommended budget amount for the full project proposal. In addition, sector specific budget parameters will be set for Staff and Other Personnel Costs and General Operating and Other Direct Costs. 3. New Elements The structure and budget categories of the full project proposal budget will remain the same as the one submitted with the pre-approved Concept Note. However, when submitting the full project proposal budgets, implementing partners should: i. Revise and re-design the budget within the recommended budget amount from PRG s strategic review; ii. Adhere to sector specific budget parameters (see section 8); iii. For each budget line add quarterly forecast of expenditures (see section 7); iv. Perform allocation of budget lines to standard activities (see Cost Effectiveness Analysis section 9) 4. Method of Submitting the Budget and General Principles The budget should be manually edited on GMS in the Budget tab of the Project Proposal: To facilitate the preparation of the budget, implementing partners can download an offline Excel version (of the template that can be used to edit and perform/verify the calculations. The implementing partner may use the offline version to copy and paste budget details directly onto GMS. The following considerations should be made when completing the online budget: 2

3 I. The budget should be submitted in US$; II. The budget should be in line with the project proposal background, the logical framework, and the workplan included in the full project proposal application; III. For each budget line provide Unit Quantity, Unit Cost and Duration (by month, day or lump sum). Use the Duration field to indicate the frequency of the cost (in the case of an annual salary for example, the Duration would be 12, the Unit Quantity the number of staff, and the Unit Cost the monthly salary). Lump sum costs can be accepted by providing satisfactory description on what the lump sum covers and how it is estimated in the section notes (V). The lump sum should be entered in the Unit Cost field, and both Unit Quantity and Duration should be set to 1. IV. The budget should set out the funding being sought from CHF as a % of full cost of the project charged to CHF on a line by line basis; V. The budget should include sufficient details to justify the budget estimates and notes to explain assumptions, approach and calculations are required in the section notes provided. VI. At the end of each budget section, it is possible to add extra lines by selecting this option: VII. Each change or addition to the budget should be saved by clicking on the Save and Stay option: V. III. IV. 5. Budget Classification and Cost Categories The project budget is classified into nine broad categories: 1. Staff and Other Personnel Costs 2. Supplies, Commodities, Materials (Project Inputs) 3. Equipment 4. Contractual Services (DO NOT USE) 5. Travel 6. Transfers and Grants to Counterparts 7. General Operating and Other Direct Costs 8. PSC Cost 9. Audit Cost 1. Staff and Other Personnel Costs Costs and entitlements of national and international staff involved in the implementation of the project contracted directly by the agency (including consultants). Such costs may be included as a shared cost percentage of the monthly cost corresponding to the time that the person will dedicate to the project. Staff and other personnel costs should be grouped and sorted by two sub-categories: 1.1. Direct Staff Salaries, social security contributions and other related benefits for staff working directly on the project (e.g. programme personnel like health officers, teachers, etc.). 3

4 1.2. Support Staff Salaries, social security contributions and other related benefits for staff engaged in management, support and administrative activities (e.g. country representative, administrative and finance personnel, human resources, logistic managers). Note on seconded staff: personnel working on the project, and being paid by the CHF budget (through the implementing partner), although not directly contracted by the implementing partner (for example Ministry of Health Staff working on specific health or nutrition related activities). These budget lines should be included in section 2, on the basis that the staff is not under the NGO s payroll and working on specific direct project activity. Editing Staff and Other Personnel Costs on GMS I. Itemize each national and international staff by function and grade/level; II. Describe the function / expertise of the consultants hired for the project; III. Insert D if the personnel is a Direct Staff or S if a Support Staff as for the definition provided above. IV. Provide Unit Quantity, Unit Cost and Duration (by monthly or daily rates) for each position; V. If a position is cost-shared, budget the portion of monthly cost that the person will dedicate to the CHF project. VI. Do not include personnel contracted by grantees implementing partners (which go under budget category 6); 2. Supplies, Commodities, Materials (Project Inputs) Costs of inputs for activities directly related to the achievement of the objectives stated in the implementing partner s project proposal, including: Procurement of consumable supplies for project implementation (e.g. drugs, food, NFIs, tents, seeds, tools, etc.); Costs associated with the delivery, storage and distribution of consumable supplies procured by the project, such as transportation, freight, customs, insurance, warehousing and other logistical requirements; Construction works: only the labor costs and known essential materials shall be budgeted and itemized, providing unit /quantity and unit cost. The budget narrative should explain how construction costs have been estimated on the basis of a standard prototype of building (latrine, health post, shelter), type of materials (wood, prefabricated, brick/cement/concrete) and formula or rationale used to estimate construction costs (e.g. per square foot or meter, previous experiences, etc.). Training costs associated with the direct implementation of the project (e.g. Technical training for direct personnel like training of community nutrition workers on Infant and Young Child Feeding practices); Communications materials for training and awareness raising, such as posters, pamphlets, etc., as well as the reproduction of these items. 4

5 Seconded staffs: personnel working on the project, and being paid by the CHF budget (through the implementing partner), although not directly contracted by the implementing partner (for example Ministry of Health Staff working on specific health or nutrition related activities). Editing project inputs costs on GMS I. Provide details of good and services under each header, including description /unit / quantity/ unit cost and notes for each type of input to be procured; II. If an input is in the form of a kit, provide an itemized list of the content of the kit in the notes section. III. All budget lines included in this section should be categorised as Direct. 3. Equipment Procurement of non-consumables for the benefit of project recipients and directly related to the project implementation (e.g. IT equipment for registration, medical equipment, etc.). Low value items should be included in budget section 2. CHF generally does not fund the purchase of vehicles. If included, a strong justification is required. Editing Equipment on GMS 4. Contractual Services (DO NOT USE) All costs for good and services should be inserted in budget section 2, irrespectively of who is providing the service (implementing partner or third supplier). 5. Travel Travel costs of staff, consultants and other project personnel, such as daily subsistence allowance, local flights, hazard pay and other travel entitlements, fuel and vehicle/boat rental costs for staff. Details of the position who will be travelling should be indicated and staff travelling must be posts included in the budget under section1. Editing Travel cost on GMS I. Itemize by international and internal/national travel, cost type and indicate whom the travel cost is for. II. For staff, consultant and other personnel travel, provide details on the number of days, DSA rate and national and international flight costs (round/single trip). 5

6 6. Transfers and Grants to Counterparts Entities receiving sub-grants could be NGOs, government or other non-commercial entities. For each transfer and/or sub-grant provide the estimated cost breakdown of partnership agreements by: 1) staffing; 2) direct project activities and 3) programme support costs: Staffing in a sub-granting amount refers to the cost of personnel recruited by the implementing partner to carry out the services sub-contracted by the agency; Direct project activities are purchase of goods and services categorised by standard activities as appearing in the agency s project logical framework; Programme support costs (PSC) refer to the general operating and office running costs for the partner to carry out the services/works for this project. These should be covered by the overall maximum 7 per cent PSC for the project. Editing Transfers and Grants to Counterparts on GMS 7. General Operating and Other Direct Costs General operating costs, including office running costs, office stationary/supplies, and utilities such as telecommunications, internet, and office rental for the implementation of this project. For these costs provide information of office location. Also to be included in this section other general operating costs such as technical supervisory support, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting. General Operating Costs originating from Khartoum country offices, or from other locations other than the one where the project implementation takes place, are allowable under the conditions for inclusion of shared costs (section 3 of this document). Editing General Operating and Other Direct Costs on GMS I. Lump sum costs can be accepted provided satisfactory description on what the lump sum covers and how it is estimated. II. All budget lines include in this section should be categorised as Support. 6

7 8. Programme Support Costs (PSC) PSC are indirect costs incurred by the implementing partner regardless of the scope and level of its activities and which cannot be traced unequivocally to specific activities, projects or programmes. These costs typically include corporate costs (i.e. headquarters and statutory bodies, legal services, general procurement and recruitment etc.) not related to service provision to a particular project. PSC is charged as a maximum 7 per cent of the approved direct project expenditures (categories 1 to 7) incurred by the implementing partner. Editing PSC on GMS I. PSC costs do not have to be itemized, but entered as a percentage of the direct project expenditures (maximum 7 per cent). I. 9. Audit Cost (for NGOs only) All NGOs must allocate 1 per cent of the direct project expenditures to be retained by UNDP/FU to undertake independent project audits. 6. Shared Costs Sharing costs between different donors and projects under a country programme of an implementing partner is an acceptable practice. The implementing partner may share certain country office costs to different uses and projects, for example staff, office rent, utilities and rented vehicles. The following guidance shall be observed when including shared costs in the project budget: All shared cost must be directly linked to the project implementation and allocated to the CHF project in direct proportion to the benefit or time input the project derives from that shared costs. All shared costs shall be itemized in the budget, following standard accounting practice and based on a well-justified, reasonable and fair allocation system. 7

8 The implementing partner should at any time be able to demonstrate how the costs were derived and explain in the project proposal/logical framework and the interim/final financial report how the calculation has been made (e.g. pro-rata, averages). For staff-related costs, if a position is cost-shared, the percentage of the monthly cost corresponding to the time that the person will dedicate to the project shall be budgeted. Non-staff shared costs should be shared on the basis of an equitable cost allocation system. Accordingly the percentages in the budget are to be assessed and approved by the CHF Technical Unit. 7. Quarterly Forecast The cost of each budget line must be broken down by quarter clicking on the icon appearing on the top right hand side of each budget section : 8. Sector Specific Budget Parameters Budget Parameters have been defined for 2015 Standard Allocations. Staff costs and General Operating and Other Direct costs benchmark % are based on sector specific averages calculated on 2015 preapproved concept notes. Programme Support costs remain allowable to a maximum 7% of other direct costs. All implementing partners must include 1% for audit costs. Implementing partners must ensure that their budgets remain under these % benchmark targets. Please study them carefully and ensure that these costs are fully reflected in the budget. Sector Staff Costs Benchmarks for 2015 (%) General Operating and Other Direct Costs Programme Support Costs Audit Costs COORD. AND COMMON SERVICES 7% 1% EDUCATION 14% 10% 7% 1% NON-FOOD ITEMS AND EMERG.SHELTER 24% 10% 7% 1% FOOD SECURITY AND LIVELIHOOD 16% 10% 7% 1% HEALTH 38% 10% 7% 1% NUTRITION 33% 10% 7% 1% PROTECTION 23% 10% 7% 1% REFUGEE MULTI-SECTOR 17% 15% 7% 1% WATER SANITATION AND HYGIENE 21% 10% 7% 1% 8

9 9. Cost Effectiveness Analysis The purpose of this module is to allocate the budget lines defined for the project under each Standard Activity defined in the Logical Framework module. Note: Only budget lines contained in section 2 Supplies, Commodities, Materials (Project Inputs) and 6 Transfers and Grants to Counterparts will have to be allocated to Standard Activities. Step 1. Navigate to the page: to navigate to this the Costs Effectiveness Analysis page, click on the button visible on the top left corner of the Budget tab of the project proposal. Step 2. Add Standard Activity header. In this page the implementing partner will have to add Standard Activity Header to be allocate by clicking on the button. On click of this button, a dialog will be displayed where the user can select the Standard Activity to be allocated. Note: only Standard Activities previously defined and associated in the Logical Framework will appear in this dialog box. In case Standard Activities were not assigned in Logical Framework, this list would be empty. After providing the required information, the user can click on Save button in the dialog. On click of this button, the header would be saved and a new row for the Header would be displayed. A header code would be generated which would begin with H1 and would get incremented sequentially. Screenshot of the same is displayed below: 9

10 Step 3. Allocate budget lines to Standard Activities. Once the budget header has been added, the Standard Activity name would be displayed in the Budget Header list for each budget line in Project Budget Details section at the bottom of the page. Under this section, all the budget lines for the project which have not been allocated to a Standard Activity would be displayed. The implementing partner can now go to each line and select the Standard Activity: On selecting the Standard Activity, the budget line would move from the budget section and will be placed under the Header Selected. The total cost of the selected budget line would be added to the total of the Budget Header cost: In case the implementing partner wants to remove a Budget line from a Header, the user can select the None Budget header option. On selecting this, the budget line would be moved from the specific Header to the original Budget Section of the Budget line. At the end of the Budget Header sections, we would display the Total Grouped Cost. This would display the total cost of the budget lines that have been allocated to a header. The balance of the Total cost and the Grouped cost would be displayed under Total Ungrouped Cost section. For each Budget Header, the user will see to icons to edit and delete the header. On click of the edit icon, the Edit Header dialog would be displayed with the selected Header details populated. Above the Budget Header sections, user will see a button that can be used to navigate back to the Budget Tab. In addition to this, the user will also have an option to export the Budget Headers along with the budget lines associated with the same in an excel format. Note: The Headers added / edited by the user will be saved immediately. However, the user will have to click on the Save and Stay or Save and Exit buttons after linking budget lines under budget header. 10

11 10. Eligible and Ineligible Budget Expenditures Eligible Expenditures: The budget must contain costs that are necessary and reasonable for the delivery of the objectives of the project. Ineligible Expenditures: Ineligible expenditures will be automatically removed and deducted from the budget. They include: Debts and provisions for possible future losses or debts. Interest owed by the implementing partner to any third party. Items already financed from other sources. Incentives in the form of hardware to government entities. International travel unless directly linked to the delivery of the project objectives. In any case international travel will have to be approved on a case-by-case basis when requested to support project activities. Purchases of land or buildings. Currency exchange losses. Costs related to establishing reserves such as severance reserves or cessation benefits accrued by the implementing partner, contractors or staff. Government staff salaries except with those cases where the government staff has been fully seconded to a CHF funded project. Hospitality expenses, provision of food/refreshments for project staff (potable water is allowed). Incentives, mark-ups, gifts to staff. Fines and penalties. Duties, charges and taxes when these are recoverable by the implementing partner. Global evaluation of programmes. 11