Glossary
Utilisation certificate
The auditor-certified statement that a government grant was spent on the sanctioned purpose.
A utilisation certificate ("UC") is an auditor-certified statement that a government grant received by the NGO has been spent, in full, on the purpose for which it was sanctioned, and only on that purpose. The certificate is filed on Form GFR 12-A under the General Financial Rules, 2017.
For most central government schemes the UC is a hard prerequisite for the next tranche of a multi-year grant, and for any future grant from the same ministry. Unspent balances at year-end must be either refunded or explicitly carried forward with the sanctioning authority's approval.
Corporate CSR funders often adapt the same format — an "audited utilisation statement" — as their standard closing document, so the discipline of maintaining project-wise expense heads carries across.