This policy is owned by the Director of Finance on behalf of the Finance Committee.
Heads of Institution are responsible for ensuring that all expense claims are in line with this policy, the Annex: How to apply the policy, and the related information contained in FPM5b. They may delegate approval tasks, in writing, but they remain accountable for decisions taken by their approvers.
Institutions are required to include expense claims authorisation/chain of approval within their Delegated Authority document, which contains a register of authorised signatories and their authorisation levels. The chain of approval must ensure that:
- approvers cannot approve their own expense claims
- claims must always be approved by an employee senior to the claimant, unless specific approval has been delegated by the Head of Institution
The Delegated Authority document must be made available to the Finance Division upon request.
Approvers must ensure they have sufficient authority/permission to approve all items within the claim (i.e., under their institution Delegated Authority document).
Claimants must ensure that all claims are accurate, appropriate and in accordance with this policy and the related annex.