Handicap International is a non-profit making organization as defined in the law of 1901, founded in Lyon in 1982 and recognized to be of public interest by the State in 1997/ or state-approved. It can therefore be subject to an audit by the Auditors Court and the Inspectorate-General for Social Affairs (IGAS). In fact in January the fifth chamber of the Auditors Court was asked to audit the use of funds collected THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS AND INTERNAL AUDITING

All decisions concerning the tsunami (types of intervention, allocation of donations etc.) were taking following the organization's standard procedures requiring consultation, validation and reporting on all levels (program directors, board of directors, bureau, administrative council, reporting at general assembly).

Within the framework of monthly steering for all the organization's activities, monthly management charts were created to monitor the progress of specific activities concerning the tsunami. These included both the collecting of donations and other funding and the expenses linked to the implementation of our projects in the field.  The administration of funds allocated to tsunami projects, their temporary investment and their use were all subject to Handicap International's standard internal procedures.

These procedures comply with the rules fixed by the “Comité de la charte” (The International Committee on Fundraising Organizations –ICFO) in its code of ethics for social and humanitarian organizations who solicit donations from the public (http://www.icfo.de/http://www.comitecharte.org/). The committee has two objectives: to create and continually update and improve a collective code of ethics concerning budgetary rigour and transparency in accounting and to inspect its members on an annual basis to ensure they adhere to the charter. During the month of October the “Comité de la charte” defined a highly-detailed format for communicating information to donors concerning the use of their donations following the tsunami. The information in this document complies with these recommendations and is subject to inspection by a censor named by the committee for each member organization.

When Handicap International provides financial support to its local partners a written contract is signed with this organisation which guarantees the justification and auditing of the expenses incurred by that partner following the tsunami.

FREQUENT EXTERNAL AUDITS

Each year an independent statutory auditor guarantees that Handicap International's accounts are honest and they are made public. In February the National Council of Statutory Auditors (la Compagnie Nationale des Commissaries aux Comptes) asked the profession to be particularly vigilant concerning the management of funds dedicated to the tsunami and reminded us of the necessary checks and the specific rules to be followed.

Finally the organization's institutional funding bodies carry out regular audits of the projects they finance.