[General] meaning "at the direction"

[jirickova]

Dear UK native speakers,
I am a translator and I am proofreading a translation from UK English right now. I am a bit confused by "at the direction" in the following sentence. I can understand it that money are directed to sb.; however, the translator´s translation says that money are paid upon call/demand for it. I hope you can understand my explanation and here is the sentence:
[FONT=&quot]Also prohibited are improper excessive political, campaign [/FONT][FONT=&quot]and charitable contributions made at the direction of, or for the benefit of, persons with whom we [/FONT][FONT=&quot]conduct business or that can influence the business decisions of others where we have a [/FONT][FONT=&quot]commercial interest.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Also prohibited are improper excessive political, campaign [/FONT][FONT=&quot]and charitable contributions made at the direction of, or for the benefit of, persons with whom we [/FONT][FONT=&quot]conduct business or that can influence the business decisions of others where we have a [/FONT][FONT=&quot]commercial interest.

Thanks in advance,
Marketa
[/FONT]

 

[jirickova]

many thanks for explanation.

 

[basist]

Hello everybody! Glad to have found such a forum.

I'd like to continue the subject of "at the direction" in general and "direction" in particular.
The context is as follows - an incident happened to a manufacturing unit and a higher official of the company directed the respective subordinate person to provide explanation of what had actually happened. So, as I see it, the subordinate provided his explanation at this official's direction.
So, when I translated the mail of this subordinate, I wanted to use "following the direction of yours, please find below..." but it would be great to know if it is a right way to say "following the direction of yours (your direction), please find ...". Will it be clear as to who is following whose directions and who is finding the information in the mail? The original Russian text is straight forward and literally says "following your command (direction), I am hereby providing you with the information" but the phrase "please find below" seems a lot more laconic and to me.

After some time of editing I decided to be on the safe side and used a different structure - more clear in terms of meaning although might be not as English-looking as the first one:
"As a follow-up of the direction of yours, I am hereby briefing you about the breakdown of ..."

Thank you very much for your response!