Money, Money, Money!

The other day, my counterpart took me to meet a women’s group. What a walk! But anyways, the groups is a bunch of women who have a boutique in which they sell millet and rice, pickled vegetables, died fish and juices. Mostly a bunch of agricultural products as they have a small plot of land. Their clientele is mostly local people with a few larger orders coming from around the region and Dakar.

After walking into the compound, we were directed into the first building and told asked to sit, at which point our host left us. This happens a lot. I walk into a house and am immediately taking the ‘salon’ or living room and left to my thoughts. I guess I’m supposed to relax and marvel at the lavishness of the family’s wealth, which is usually demonstrated with pealing linoleum, moth-eaten couches, and cable TV.

After a few minutes, she returned and took us to another building, in which door number 1 hosted the boutique. Wow, that could do with some marketing tips, but on the upside, things were clearly labeled and priced. Behind door number two, was the ‘processing room.’ This made me smile and remember where I was. In this unlit room was one old African woman sifting through a bowl of millet. Around her were empty pots and pans. It was the quintessential African production line. Behind door number three was the “office,” and where my opinion of the group altered. In this nicely painted, tiled, and spacious room I learned that my host was the president of the organization and also did some treasury work, which in Africa, just spells disaster. And for some reason, there was a mattress and an armoire in the room. She brought out the accounting books and little notebooks of log entries and showed me how the finances work. It is a great system, and clearly she had been taught it. The only problem was, it didn’t add up. She had this individual book for bank deposits and withdrawls, which did not correspond with the numbers in the accounting book. None of the monthly profits matched the deposits into the bank account and I couldn’t figure out why. Then, she told me that my predecessor had helped them to find funding for the “office.” Yeah… that’s right… the room I was sitting in with the mattress and the armoire. Something seemed to be amiss.

The president told me the groups three goals are (1) electricity, (2) a computer and (3) money for raw materials . As the conversation continued, I learned that the electricity had been cut for a failure to pay the bill because the group didn’t have the funds. The President told me the amount she needed for the bill and I nearly hit the floor. Nothing they had shown me needed electricity. Then my counterpart asked for previous bills, but they conveniently couldn’t be found. As far as the computer was concerned. Why? What for? They don’t need one. They were managing just fine and I doubt that any of them know how to use them. Finally, why do they need money for raw materials? I thought they had land. This all refers back to what had been pounded into my head during training. The people here do not know what they truly need.

All of this does make sense one you learn that the group’s building is located inside of the president’s home! Electricty, a computer, money for raw materials. Sounds like the president is trying to line her own pockets.
On the way home, my counterpart gave me some other examples of mismanagement and told me that on our way out the president had asked him to persuade me to work with them. I think they’ve already reaped the benefits of a volunteer and other funding.
Afterwards, I was shocked, but then came to my senses and remembered I was in Africa. But this is commonplace, and obvious. So why do these NGOs allow this to happen? The president of an organization shouldn’t be allowed to line her own pockets. I’d have to say the problem lies with the NGOs and other development groups. They themselves are not always financed with their own money, and often have governmental funds to mismanage. But why not monitor and set in place practices that will discourage or block corruption? Isn’t that the “Teach a man to fish” argument? Maybe because that is too costly and it is less expensive to throw out tons of money and rely on statistics than it is to hand out what is necessary and monitor it. In this case, then I’m saying it’s “Teach a man to fish” versus “Superiority of numbers.” Who will win?

The problem is corruption is an institution, and it’s abetted by careless donors who throw money and then turn around and say ‘look at what we did’. At what point does a child’s misbehavior become the fault of the parents? I suppose it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and effectiveness of a training program that say teaches 100 girls to make and sell bisap juice and then forget to teach ethics. So maybe the underlining problem is our own complacency with ethics.