1. Scenario 1: Reimbursement of the actual cost of the ticket:
In case of missions/AFPs want UN Volunteers to travel to their home country due to COVID 19 situation or any other official travel and the price of the most economical and locally available commercial flight is higher than the quotation provided by UNV travel unit, UN Volunteer will be reimbursed for the actual cost of the ticket/cost difference upon submission of receipt and review and approval by Volunteer Service Centre. R&R, personal travel, etc. are not included.
This also applies to the mission volunteers who use UN/ UNHAS and commercial flights for home visit and repatriation travel.
Global COA of travel for volunteers based in Agency Funds and Programmes and mission COA for mission volunteers
COA for global charges are available here
The reimbursement can be done through payroll.
No DSA or terminals are to be paid with 120% lump sum. Please refer Interoffice memo
In case of actual ticket cost reimbursement to volunteer, terminal expenses need to be included.
OA -Team Leads approve cost difference up to 20% more than quotation provided by UNV travel Unit. If the cost difference is more than 20% than the quotation, VSC Chief approves the cost difference.
In case of mission volunteers, if the cost difference is within 20% more than the quotation provided by UNV travel unit, OA Team Leads approve. If case of more than 20%, VSC needs to get approval from mission.
1.1. Scenario 2 - Authorized travel changed due to COVID 19 (Assignment travel):
If authorized assignment travel changed due to COVID 19 restriction such as cancellation of flights and volunteer has to rebook, UNV travel monetization practice will follow. Addition cost of rebooking will be charged to HE’s COA. Please refer to section 3 of UNV Administrative Guidelines for more details.
The COA of the HE will be used for such reimbursement for volunteers based in Agency Funds and Programmes. Mission COA is used for mission-based volunteers.
The reimbursement will be done through voucher.
1.2. Scenario 3 – Authorized travel changed due to COVID19 (Home Visit):
If the volunteers have already purchased the ticket and airlines cancelled the flights due to COVID 19, the volunteer asks for the alternative travel arrangement from the airlines first.
If alternative option is not immediately available and the price of next available ticket is higher than the quotation provided by UNV travel, the difference amount will be reimbursed to UN Volunteers upon submission of supporting documents.
Volunteers share the proof email from the airlines about the cancellation, share new itinerary which includes new cost and get approval from VSC before purchase the new ticket.
The Global COA of travel will be used in such cases.
COA for global charges are available here.
OA -Team Lead approves cost difference up to 20% more than quotation provided by UNV travel Unit. If the cost difference is more than 20% than the quotation, VSC Chief approves the cost difference.
In case of mission volunteer, if the cost difference is within 20% more than the quotation from UNV travel unit, OA Team Leads approve. If case of more than 20%, VSC needs to get approval from mission.
All F10s with claims need to be certified from HE/Mission.
1.3. Scenario 4 – Reimbursement of cost difference in normal cases:
If UN volunteers cannot buy ticket within the quotation provided by UNV travel;
- UN Volunteer writes to OA and inform about it, provide the quotation and request to review the quotation.
- OA requests travel unit to send the revised quotation.
- OA send new quotation to UN Volunteers which covers the cost of the ticket.
OR
- UN Volunteers inform OA about the cost difference between the quotation provided and actual cost of the ticket.
- OA Team Leads/VSC Team Lead agree to reimburse the cost difference upon submission of all relevant documents.
Payment of the cost difference will be charged to Global COA of travel. The reimbursement will be done through payroll
COA for global charges are available here
OA -Team Lead approves cost difference up to 20% more than the quotation provided by UNV travel Unit. If the cost difference is more than 20% than the quotation, VSC Chief approves the cost difference.
In case of mission volunteer, if the cost difference is within 20% more than the quotation from UNV travel unit, OA Team Leads approve. If case of more than 20%, VSC needs to get approval from mission.
All F10s with claims need to be certified from HE/Mission.
1.4. Scenario 5 – Reimbursement of ticket in absence of 120% quotation from UNV Travel Unit:
When UNV travel confirms that there is no availability of flight for a particular travel route, while the volunteers can purchase tickets for these itineraries;
- OA asks volunteer to provide the itinerary of most direct and least economy class fare. (or available flight option. Due to COVID19, various options may not be available).
- OA contacts travel unit and confirm if provided itinerary is most direct and least economy class or not or close to it.
- Once Travel Unit confirm, OA advice volunteer to purchase the ticket.
Volunteer claim for reimbursement with all Supporting document.
COA for global charges are available here.
All F10s with claims need to be certified from HE/Mission
1.5 PA/OA/SO - Verifies the documents - PA/OA/So verifies the documents.
If supporting documents are missing, contact UN Volunteers (in case of scenario 1 & 3).
All F10s with claims need to be certified from HE/Mission
2. GP Admin - Process reimbursement - GP Admin process reimbursement through payroll using existing element of travel for authorized travel using global COA (excluding assignment travel changed due to COVID 19, Scenario 2).
3. OA - Process reimbursement - OA process the reimbursement through voucher for any cost difference which occurred following rebooking due to COVID 19. The HE COA will be used for this payment.
4. If the lump sum payment has already been paid to the volunteer and volunteer could not manage to book the flight, deduct the lump-sum amount that has been processed from the next payroll.