Mais c'est normal en Cameroun!
In Cameroon, founders and directors of local NGO's and organisations seem to have developed an interesting pension scheme.
They apply for grants and funds with international agencies to run their organisation: to pay for trainers and trainings, materials, project costs etc. All very well and good organised, proposals look solid.
Then an audit is done to see that the money is spent accordingly. And usually it's the organisation hiring the auditor.
But then you come, and you look into the spendings yourself, you check why suddenly a thrustworthy member of staff leaves or hire an auditor yourself.
And that's where the pension scheme comes in.
Suddenly it seems that hard working people only get a percentage of the wage they sign for. Their payslip may say 100.000FCFA but in practice the person goes home with only 50.000FCFA.
When you question this with the responsible of the organisation the reply is usually something like "Mais c'est normal en Cameroun".
And to a certain extend it is.
People who start a little NGO usually see it as their baby and a good way to get funds from international agencies. They may be doing good work all along (improve livelihoods, give training and built trainingcentres), but it has become absolutely acceptable to cheat on the accounts and steal to save for later, start a private business or whatever.
It is not only Broederlijk Delen who is coming across these issues but the majority of our friends here working in international development are coming across similar situations.
It creates a catch-22. Do you stop all collaboration with the organisation in question but then jeapardize all personnel as well who will be going from a small income to no income? Or try to work with the organisation to improve their habits, knowing that behavioural change is about the hardest thing in the world to do...
