16.3 Distribution monitors

The primary role of distribution monitors is to verify compliance with CARE and donor programme requirements and accountability standards. Distribution monitors must therefore be trained in the following areas:

• Humanitarian principles and their application
• principles of internal control
• basic inventory accounting
• physical counts of inventory
• warehouse management practices
• recipient registration procedures
• methods to detect fraud and theft
• sampling of goods or commodity to assess quality
• sampling of documentation for review
• observation of actual distribution of commodity, such as scooping procedures and measures
• reporting procedures.