Signing Legal Agreements and Requests for Disbursement

In accordance with the UNDP Internal Control Framework, Grant Agreements, as well as all other legal instruments such as Sub-recipient (SR) agreements, contracts and related documents (e.g. amendments to the above), should be signed by a UNDP Resident Representative (RR). However, the latter may delegate his or her signature authority to other senior UNDP officials in the country, such as a Deputy Resident Representative (DRR) and/or a Country Director (CD). This ensures that, when a RR is away, decisions can be made without delay and UNDP operations can run uninterrupted.  

The authorities delegated should be identified formally and in writing, and accepted both by the delegator and delegatee. The delegation should include the relevant sources of authority (e.g. the Financial Regulations and Rules and UNDP Programme and Operations Policies and Procedures (POPP)), the description of authorities being delegated, the effective date of delegation, and any specific limitations, such as restrictions on further delegation. 

The Global Fund must be notified about the officials authorized to act on behalf of UNDP. This is done by listing UNDP authorized representatives in the face sheet to the Grant Agreement. In addition, the Country Office (CO) must submit to the Global Fund a standard notification for signing legally binding agreements and/or requests for disbursements (templates available for Principal Recipient confirmation letter and CCM Funding Recipient confirmation letter). Finally, the CO must fill out a contact information form, required by the Global Fund and available through the Global Fund’s online SalesForce system.  

UNDP and the Global Fund each keep a copy of the original signed Grant Agreement. However, since the delivery of original grant documents often takes time, an exchange of signed electronic copies usually takes place to effect conclusion of the Grant Agreement. As a rule, UNDP signs first and obtains in-country written acknowledgements from the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) Chair and a civil society representative on the CCM. It then sends a signed copy to the Global Fund, along with a notification that the original grant documents are being sent. 

Practice Pointer

All legal instruments must be signed by an authorized representative of UNDP. The Global Fund must be notified in writing about the officials at the CO authorized to sign on behalf of UNDP. Standard templates for confirmation of signatory authority (as Principal Recipient or CCM Funding Recipient) should be used for this purpose.

Once the Grant Agreement is signed, the CO should send a copy of it and the related project document to the Comptroller’s Division, Bureau for Management Services (BMS), with a copy to the UNDP Global Fund/Health Implementation Support Team.