2.8. Acceptance and payment

Risks

• Acceptance of deliverables which are not according to the required standards.
• Payment of illegitimate requests and without sufficient justification.
• Delays in acceptance and/or payments, which may indicate issues that may be connected to quality of deliverables, payment schedules or kickbacks.

Good practice

• Monitor that the acceptance is done according to the agreed rules and quality standards. Engage Helvetas staff or external experts to monitor acceptance of deliverables, and/or undertake independent (third party) field visits.
• Document the acceptance of deliverables via signed reports and/or minutes of meeting, with proper and clear justifications for every item. Document potential delays, substitution of products, etc.
• Monitor payment schedules of the partner to avoid unnecessary delays.
• Check regular reports, monitoring/evaluation reports and/or audit reports before processing payments.
• Use the warranty period to fix issues which may have occurred after the preliminary acceptance.
• Activate the bank guarantee and apply penalties in cases where acceptance is not in accordance with the contract.