18 September 2008

El Obeid, Sudan: As a Receiving and Inspection (R&I) Assistant in the General Services Section, my job consists of receiving, inspecting and certifying the acceptance or rejection of all items purchased by the organization for the mission and/or transferred from other UN missions.

We have two categories of items we receive in R&I. The first are 'expendables' or consumables; movable property with an original cost less than about US$ 500 each or a serviceable life less than 5 years. For example chairs, spare parts, IT software and so on.
 
Then there are the non-expendables, 'assets', which are movable items valued at over US$ 500 or with a serviceable life of at least 5 years. However, some items with an original cost less than $500 are considered as assets due to their nature, like cellular telephones, cameras, recorders and monitors.

I have to ensure that items received are supplied according to all of the United Nations purchase order requirements, contract specifications and terms and conditions. Then I inform the relevant Self Accounting Unit (SAU) upon arrival of the consignment for appropriate inspection and takeover of the items.

A lot of the work is technical, such as bar coding of newly-purchased assets. There are a couple of logistics systems I have to know intimately, such as 'Mercury', the United Nations Procurement System and the 'Galileo' database, a United Nations Inventory Management System.

So I issue Mercury reports for items received for vendor payment by the finance section, and record items in Galileo for inventory purposes. There's quite a long process as I ensure that items received have been inspected, handed over to the relevant SAU, reports raised in Mercury and Galileo and then submitted to SAU for acknowledgement, and finally to finance for the payment process.

Back home, I was working with the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) as an R&I Senior Clerk. It was almost the same work as what I’m doing now in UNMIS. I'm on my first assignment as a UNV volunteer, and have been in Sudan since July 2007.

I was originally recruited for the Property Management Section as a Materiel Inventory Assistant, but on my arrival in the mission, I asked to move to the General Services Section in R&I. Here I feel I can really contribute to the success of the UNV project with UNMIS.

My first impression when I reached Sudan wasn't good, but I realize now that there is something I can do for this population and it is my responsibility to identify what to do to make this experience great for me and people around me. In El Obeid, where I'm working, I promptly registered myself on the voluntary blood donation and voluntary activities organized by the city council.

It is a great pleasure being a UNV volunteer and contributing to peace in Sudan in the same way as those who volunteered to spend time away from their families to build peace in my own country, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

I hope there will be more opportunities to help in many different ways and I think I would have missed a lot if I had stayed back home.