Internal organisation

War Child’s articles of association were updated in 2012. They include a description of War Child’s objectives and governance. War Child’s governance structure is further detailed in an authorisation matrix, which details mandates on procurement and payments per manager.

War Child’s head office and field locations follow a monthly financial reporting cycle and provide a narrative report at 4, 8 and 12 months on progress toward targets, goals and key performance indicators, as well as on budget spending. In 2012, head office management visited all programme countries (except for Sierra Leone, visited in January 2013) in order to monitor progress on country plans and to support our country managers. In addition, War Child maintains a system of internal auditing for projects in the field. In 2012, the operations department audited DR Congo, Lebanon, Colombia and Burundi. This way, we create continuous improvement on processes and procedures. We also use the visits to share good practices and lessons learned with all field offices.

Audit committee

War Child’s audit committee met twice in 2012. As a commission of the Board of Trustees, the audit committee monitors the functioning of internal planning, control and risk processes, and War Child’s financial management. Also on the 2012 agenda were the renewal of the reserve policy, the administration of gifts in-kind and IT-security.

Accountant

War Child’s accountant PwC composed two accounting reports: one in April on the Annual Report 2011 and one interim report in December as a preparation for the Annual Report 2012.

Lessons learned

The internal auditing of projects in the field highlighted the need for a long-term planning tool, which was developed later on in the year by our operational support managers from the field and finance staff from head office; development of the tool will be continued in 2013. Also, we worked together on the operational manual. As a follow up on the accountant’s findings, War Child improved the quality and security of its basic IT infrastructure, the proper administration of authorization of mandates in its systems, and the quality of financial management in the programme countries.

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