CONTACT

The United Nations developed CONTACT (Country Assessment in Accountability and Transparency) to provide the international development community with a comprehensive tool to assess the financial architecture and integrity systems of a country.

The main objective of CONTACT is to assist governments in conducting a self-assessment of their financial management and anti-corruption systems. In addition, it helps consultants, hired by development agencies or governments conduct missions to support governments in their self-assessment efforts or to review cooperation with a government.

CONTACT is a tool for quality control, performance and task measurement, and recommends improvements at desired stages of the accountability process.

The overriding reason for developing CONTACT was to provide an international, uniform and comprehensive set of guidelines to any stakeholder in financial accountability. The different approaches applied by members of the international donor community have led to overlaps, duplications, and a waste of scarce development resources. These guidelines were developed to guide the (self-) assessment of financial accountability and to streamline this process into a uniform, comprehensive and efficient methodology that leaves no room for doubt or misinterpretation. Once accepted by the international donor community and endorsed by the international professional organizations such as the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and the International Records Management Trust (IRMT), the implementation of CONTACT will be greatly beneficial to the developing world.

These guidelines are the result of a broad consultation and collaboration, led by the Institutional Development Group of the Bureau for Development Policy (UNDP/BDP/IDG). Comments and advice received from professional staff within and outside the United Nations and the World Bank have helped shape this publication, and have been duly incorporated.

The custodians of CONTACT are fully aware that internationally accepted accounting principles, auditing standards, records management standards, information and communications technology are in constant development, and that their evolution will impact the validity and effectiveness of the guidelines.

This Web site has been set up to receive comments and advice to further improve its quality. The CD-ROM version includes a copy of the Web site for users who may not have access to the Internet, a copy of CONTACT and of other files in the Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF).