Highlights

The year 2019 represents the achievement of several key milestones for financial and accounting reforms as part of strengthening its internal operations and as the MRC continues to transition into a leaner and more efficient organisation towards a financially self-sustainable organisation by 2030. These milestones notably include the establishment of an independent Audit Committee and the revisions of operations manuals (i.e., Administration, Finance, Procurement, and HR).

The completion of these milestones have culminated in the MRCS passing the European Union (EU) Pillar Re-Assessment in November 2019, which provided reasonable assurance to the European Commission and other development partners as well as MCs, that the MRC fulfils applicable requirements with regards to the assessed pillars: internal control, accounting, external auditing, and procurement.

Equally important, if not even more meaningful, is that the strengthened internal operations and the subsequent specificity, clarity, and certainty it brings to the “rules” have resulted in encouraging changes at the staff level in terms of morale and productivity. These instances of isolated positive results are anticipated to increase substantially and become more ingrained in the culture of the organisation, thereby helping propel it to successfully transition to a leaner, more efficient, self-financed organisation capable of delivering its 1995 mandate in the most transparent, accountable, and cost-effective manner.