CARE International in Tanzania P.O. Box Dar es-salaam, Tanzania Tel: , , Fax:

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1 dkdkdkdkdkd CARE International in Tanzania P.O. Box Dar es-salaam, Tanzania Tel: , , Fax: November 2011 ALTAN #423 Subject: Updated Communication Policy We would like to share with you the attached, updated communication policy for CARE International in Tanzania. I would also like to express my appreciation to Jacqueline Mwinyimvua for her work in reviewing and drafting the updated policy. The policy is responsive to the rapidly evolving world of communication technology. We still use older communication systems like landline telephones, letters, and hard copy files. We are also accommodating new communication systems including mobile phones, internet, digital filing, SharePoint and more. Important new sections of the policy include: Airtime. Who is entitled to it, and how is it managed. SharePoint. How to access CARE Tanzania s SharePoint site and how you can use it. Please familiarize yourselves with our new and updated communication policies. Sincerely, Paul R. Barker Country Director CARE International in Tanzania

2 INTRODUCTION COMMUNICATION Effective communication is essential to the proper functioning of CARE Tanzania. Both management and other staff have to ensure they help CARE Tanzania to communicate effectively. CARE Tanzania has established several means of communication which are: ALTANs, Pouches, Telephone and Facsimile, File circulation, Internet and E mail. ALTAN Literally All Tanzania is used for communication that is addressed to all CARE Tanzania staff. The message is usually an announcement on policy, information or action to be taken by all staff. An ALTAN must be sent to all CARE Tanzania offices, whether for distribution to groups of office staff or to specific individuals in every office. ALTAN relates to Country Office wide policies therefore to avoid confusing or contradictory policies, they will be sent out by the Country Director or Assistant Country Directors. Should there be a need to send an ALTAN related to your work function, contact the Country Director or Assistant Country Directors. ALTAN will be sent out by e mail followed by a hard copy that has a signature of the originator of the ALTAN. All signed hard copies are filed in sequence in ALTAN file. All Program and field offices will have a copy of all issued ALTANs. The Front Desk officer at the head office is responsible for maintaining and issuing ALTAN numbers, printing issued ALTAN on a CARE letter head, ensuring hard copy ALTAN is signed by either Country Director or Assistant Country Director and filed in the ALTAN file. The Front Desk Officer is also responsible for filing both hard copies and soft copies of all ALTANs in their respective folders. In addition to numbered ALTAN letters, there is a group e mail address TZA ALLTAN@co.care.org which can be used by other Senior Leadership Team members for country wide communications as necessary. This address has been restricted to reply to all. Recipient can only reply to the sender. POUCHES Pouches in form of small bags or parcels or envelopes contain hard copy communication, documents, etc. from one CARE office to another. All pouches must be sent out with a transmittal memo that will list the contents found in the pouch. The recipient (Program Office Administrator or a front desk officer) must sign the transmittal memo and send it back to the sender as evidence of receipt of the contents of the pouch; inconsistencies should be reported to the sender. CIRCULATION FILE To ease information access and retrieval, documents are supposed to be circulated and filed on timely basis. All hard copy documents received are date stamped to indicate the date they have been received. At the head office, they will be taken to the CD or designate for review and subsequent sharing with the other staff. In the program office, the file will be taken to the Team Leader or designated and in a project office, the file will be reviewed by the Program Initiative Manager or designated before it is circulated. The last person on the circulation list should return the document to the reception office and the front office should file the letter for future reference. THE OFFICE TELEPHONE SYSTEM The telephone is a vital link to business. Courtesy, tact and patience are always required. Good telephone manner is an asset and a poor one a liability. Staff should always remember to speak slowly

3 and clearly on the telephone as this makes the organization sound more professional. It should be a standard procedure that after receiving a call, whoever receives it should say. Good morning/good afternoon this is CARE Tanzania, may I help you Taking messages Details of telephone messages taken for somebody not present in the office when the call comes through must be written down on the telephone message form. Once the telephone message has been taken, the form should be placed on the relevant person's desk for the message to be seen when they return. Alternatively a quick should be sent to convey the message. It s important that the message should indicate: - Who called (by name, position and office i.e. name of institution/organization)? - What was the message? Telephone should be used for all URGENT messages. Out going Telephones For control purposes, it is desirable that all outgoing telephone calls should be made from a central point by the designated staff. Each office should maintain a telephone call record book for all landline and non post paid mobile numbers available for office use indicating: Date, Name of staff requested the call, telephone number called, name of office/person called, personal/official, cost charging instructions (Project number and Fund code), etc. The information will be used when processing payment when bills are received. FAX One person in each office should be designated with the responsibility of managing facsimiles machine. Even so, all staff should be aware of the procedures to follow when receiving or sending a fax. Receiving a fax When a fax arrives, and there are more than one page, the originals should be stapled together, stamped and dated. Then two copies of the fax should be made, one copy to be circulated to the appropriate staff and another filed into the incoming fax file. Remember if a facsimile paper is used, some become faint after sometime, therefore a copy has to be made immediately after receipt. Sending a fax All outgoing faxes should be given to the designated staff, responsible for managing faxes. All details on the fax being sent out must be recorded in the Out Going Fax Register. The details will include: The date the fax is sent Fax reference number (international or local) Country (international) or region (local) Author or sender of the fax The person the fax is addressed to (receiver) The subject matter or content Should indicate clearly whether it is an official or personal fax The number of pages Fund code to be charged (if applicable) Project number (if applicable) Signature of the person sending the fax For any official fax sent, a copy of the fax and the fax report produced by the machine will be stapled together and placed in proper order in the out going fax file. The fax will then be circulated and filed. It is important that staff members remember to file copies of any fax sent; this is referred to during the settlement of relevant bills.

4 Once monthly telephone bills are received, all private calls are identified and the concerned staff member is informed of the amount he/she is supposed to pay to the cashier. All users are given their respective bills to identify all private calls and have to pay to the cashier. In principle, staff should pay for private calls. Administration Office should ensure that private bills are paid accordingly and on time. Upon receipt of telephone bills from all service providers, the designated staff will process the paper work and attach all supporting documents for payment of the same. It is the responsibility of the designated staff to make sure all telephone bills are paid on time. USE OF CARE LETTERHEAD STATIONERY CARE Tanzania letterhead is to be used when communicating with authorized external persons or offices. Program Administrator or designate in all offices are responsible for safe keeping and issuing of letterhead. The respective Program Administrator should keep a record of a number of issued letterheads to staff member that uses them and be aware when the CARE employee uses the letterhead. A letter that is printed on letterhead must have a reference number and well recorded in an outgoing log book for future reference. CARE letterhead should be treated with care and caution. Unauthorized staff should strictly be deterred from possessing and using letterhead. Under no circumstances should a non CARE person be allowed access to CARE letterhead. All CARE business letters to non CARE Tanzania recipients should be delivered using envelopes with CARE Tanzania logo. MOBILE TELEPHONES The policy established as guidance to employees, who by the nature of their work, are required to be accessible by telephone regardless of the time of the day, day of the week, or geographical location. CARE Tanzania will provide mobile telephones to the Country Director and Assistant Country Directors with post paid subscription. While purchasing mobile telephones CARE Tanzania procurement department shall ensure that the organization buys a standard type of mobile telephones for the Country Office such as NOKIA at a reasonable cost which should not exceed $100 or equivalent in TSH. Acquisition of other expensive types of mobile telephones shall be discouraged. If an individual staff would prefer to have other than the standard type and in case she/he intends to acquire a more expensive mobile telephone, procure she/he has to buy a personal mobile telephone. All other employees who are required to be in contact with the office will be using their own mobile telephones and the organization will provide airtime by pre paid service to enable them make calls. Staff members benefited from this arrangement are those whose responsibilities require them to be in 24 hours contact with the office/rest of staff regardless of their position or location. CARE employees who will benefit from this arrangement are strongly encouraged to use the service for CARE business. Staff members concerned should make sure that their mobile telephones are safe, charged and kept on throughout the day (24 hours a day). All staff members should use their mobile telephone responsibly and are prohibited from conducting organization business on mobile telephone while operating a motor vehicle or a motor cycle. If there is an emergency when it really is essential, the driver will know what to do. Provision of Airtime and Pre paid voucher Cards CARE Tanzania staff members will use a mobile telephone service provider with wide network coverage so that a staff member remains accessible at all times. For easy administration and payment

5 of vendors, it is encouraged that one service provider is used for the entire country office; in exceptional situation a different service provider can be used. In order for the designated staff member to use his/her mobile telephone while communicating on CARE business, CARE will provide a certain amount of airtime to the staff member. Criteria for establishing provision of Airtime Service 1. Establish need for provision of airtime. The following is the basic criteria for establishing need for provision of airtime. a. A need to contact individual after normal business hours on a constant basis. b. A need for the individual who spends reasonably more time outside the office during working hours on official business and communicates constantly with the office or other staff c. A requirement to travel frequently on CARE s business d. Large amounts of time 50% spent away from the office e. A need for the individual to communicate constantly with the office while at home or traveling f. Personal safety concerns for individual while traveling, working evening hours, working in an isolated areas or working in high crime areas or in a very remote location 2. Administration officer or designate will make a service plan based on individual approved request a. Approved request will be submitted before 20 th of the month, signed by Budget Manager who has evaluated and confirmed the need and budget availability. b. The approved request letter with signatures will be submitted at CARE Tanzania head office to the administration officer or designated by hard copy or e mail or fax. c. The administration officer will acknowledge receipt of the request d. All approved new requests will be processed at the end of the month for the service to start in the next month. The required vendor or service provider will receive CARE s request on or before 25th of every month. The required vendor or service provider will remit the service on the 1st day of the month. e. If the service has not been provided, the staff members entitled to airtime from service provide will inform the Administration officer or designate at the CARE Tanzania head office who will contact the service provider on behalf of the staff member. f. New users will be added to the list to be submitted to service provider once in a month. g. The budget Manager will from time to time review the list of users in a program office for correctness of the information. h. Every month Administration Officer or designated staff will request from Human Resource Office a name of staff member who has left the organization in order to have a user removed from the list i. All changes in a list of names to be submitted should be documented. The amount of Airtime to be provided when applicable to staff member will be guided as follows: Position Telephone TZS New Provider Modem TZS Old Provider Modem TZS 2 Directors, Managers, Team Leaders, Coordinators, Heads of 30,000/= 5,000/= 10,000/= Units, Deputy Financial and Financial controller. 3 Transport Officers, Accountants, Program Administrators, 20,000/= Procurement officer, Administration Officer Officers in Program initiatives 20,000/= 5,000/= 10,000/= 4 Drivers 15,000/= Depending on the budget, positions and number of staff members in an office, the Budget Manager has discretion to provide a lesser amount of the standard one to staff member.

6 Provision Of Airtime With Exceptions Programs which are implemented in very remote locations have staff who spend more days in the field and their only means of communication to reach the beneficiaries and the rest of the world is by mobile telephone. Therefore, they are likely to have a need for additional airtime. In such cases the Budget Manager should provide a justification and seek approval from the respective Grant Manager or higher authority for the amount to be increased. Suggested amount of Airtime to be provided when applicable to remote staff members is as follows: Position Telephone TZS Modem TZS 1 Program Managers 50,000/= 5,000/= 2 Program Officers 40,000/= 5,000/= 3 Drivers 25,000/= Procedure for Providing Airtime Budget Managers will approve for staff members to be provided with monthly air time. The approval document will be used as a supporting document for the basis of payment of the provided service. CARE office will select a required vendor to provide the service (airtime or pre paid vouchers). For easy and proper administration of airtime bills, all new authorized requests should be submitted to the Administration office by 20 th of the month. The list of all CARE staff to be provided with the air time will be submitted to the service provider on or before 25 th of the month. If a request from the budget manager arrives after 20 th of the month, it will be included in the next month s list. Administration officer or designate that manages provision of airtime by using vouchers will request for airtime vouchers guided by procurement procedures. Airtime vouchers will not be paid using petty cash. The staff receiving the vouchers will acknowledge receipt of the airtime vouchers. It is the responsibility of the staff member to inform the Administration officer or designate when his or her mobile number changes. Airtime Billing Procedures All payment for airtime service or pre paid voucher cards will be made by cheque, petty cash will NOT be used to make payment for airtime or pre paid vouchers service. An approved vendor or service provider will submit an invoice to the Administration officer or designate who will confirm bills. The Administration officer or designate will submit supporting documents for payment of the service according to Procurement Guidelines. Each budget Manager will ensure that their communication account or donor line item has adequate funds to cover airtime service to include any changes or excess of standard amount. Pre Paid Air Time Vouchers While On Travel In order to maintain communication with family or office while on travel, a staff member may use up to 10000/= for pre paid airtime voucher when on business travel. The pre paid vouchers for airtime while on business travel will not be paid using petty cash. All necessary communication done while on travel, will be indicated on Travel Expense Report (TER). Mobile Modem To Access The Internet CARE will provide mobile modems to staff members whose works need to maintain constant e mail communication while they are located in the field or after working hours. The mobile modem is to enable them to have access to the internet so that they can download e mails. The modem to be used should be the one for a service provider with wide coverage and cheaper internet bundle so that the cost is affordable.

7 Pre paid airtime to designated staff with modem will be provided by CARE service providers who have relatively lower cost of internet bundle; should a different service provider preferred, the staff will pay for the service. INTERNET Internet use has made communication faster and simple. Because of its wide usage especially on social networking sites e.g. Twitter, facebook, You tube, netlog, Linkedin etc. it is prohibited to use the CARE logo on these sites. Should there be a need; staff member has to seek for approval from the Country Director. SharePoint CARE Tanzania has a SharePoint site SharePoint is a browser based collaboration and document management platform from Microsoft. Microsoft SharePoint makes it easier for people to work together. Using the SharePoint site staff members can use it to share information with others, access documents, manage documents from start to finish, tasks and publish reports to help everyone make better decisions. Different tools are available in the SharePoint. In order to log in the SharePoint site use your e mail user name starting with CO\ and the password. Log in screen will look like this: Refer to Policies on Internet, E mail and SharePoint usage in CARE Tanzania IT Policy document.