AIDSTAR-Two Project Trip Report – Tunisia Dec. 15 – 20, 2012

The primary objective of the trip was to assess the implementation of the country action plan developed after a regional training on USAID financial management and rules and regulations compliance, delivered in January 2012. The trip report highlights the major findings and accomplishments of the trip, focusing on finance management practices, procurement, petty cash, human resources, travel, vehicle and fuel usage, inventory of assets, and program management. The review of financial documentation revealed several issues, including the lack of memos or advance requests from program staff, no advance vouchers, expense vouchers, or cash reconciliation after project activities, and no approbation level defined for any payment. The review of procurements also identified several issues, including no identified approbation level for procurements, no bid documentation, no selection memo for vendors and service providers, no cost analysis, and no proof of delivery of goods. The review of petty cash management revealed that no payment threshold was defined, no cash reconciliation was done at the end of the month, and no payment slips were found in the file. The review of human resources filing revealed that employee contracts were missing, timesheets were incomplete, and no payment slips were found in the file. The review of travel revealed that no completed travel authorization forms, no completed and validated travel request forms, and no trip reports were found. The review of vehicle and fuel usage revealed that no log book for vehicle usage and fuel distribution to staff was found. The review of inventory of assets revealed that an update was needed to be done in January 2013, and a template needed to be completed with funding source. After the revision of the finance documentation and compliance with USAID funding projects, new tools were designed to support the management of the AIDSTAR-Two partner ATL in Tunisia. Exercises were conducted to demonstrate the utilization and filling out of the new tools with the finance officer. All the tools were shared and attached to a folder named "Recommended tools" with ATL staff and Mena program Coordinator based in Morocco. The next steps outlined in the trip report include starting to use the advance request template for any expenses, reconstituting advance vouchers and reconciliation and payment vouchers from the previous fiscal year, and updating the procedure manual on items related to petty cash management. The report also lists key individuals contacted during the trip, including Aouainia Maizen, the finance officer at ATL Tunis, and Mahjoubi Bilel, the program coordinator at ATL Tunis. The trip report concludes with a description of relevant documents and addendums, including the biodata of the consultant, Boubacar Sow, and the file name, description, and location of the relevant documents. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the findings and accomplishments of the trip and outlines the next steps to be taken to address the issues identified.