The national umbrella body of Botswana’s Non-Governmental Organisations (Bocongo) must do an audit of internal operations of its affiliates.
But before doing that, Bocongo has to conduct an audit of its operations with the view of strengthening corporate governance, accountability and, most importantly, transparency and a culture of following established ethics, especially with regard to finance.
In a democracy, Non-Governmental Organisations are supposed to serve a purpose.
One of the functions of NGOs is to augment Government efforts to empower societies and individuals, but also to check Government excesses on such issues like human rights, individual freedoms and access to basic necessities.
A closer look at our NGOs does not bring to the fore a picture that such obligations are being fulfilled.
In our instance NGOs are power bases which provide a platform to wealth to access to easy money provided by Western donors.
Like the growing number of churches, NGOs in Botswana have become a bastion of organised corruption.
This newspaper has, in the past, called for NGOs to produce audited financial statements.
The fact is that very few do that.
While some of these NGOs occasionally hold board and general meetings, the fact of the matter is that members are to a large extent only used as fodder that rubber stamps decisions already taken by few people who may be employees of these NGOs, and well supported by patrons who would have been planted into the Board of Directors.
To illustrate this point, positions in many NGOs are never advertised.
Instead, National Directors, Executive Secretaries, or whatever they may be called, are wont to staffing the NGOs they run with not just their relatives and friends but also lackeys who do not bring value but are only co-opted as a way of aiding to the trough ÔÇô jobs for pals, as it were.
While these NGOs go out to Western donors to seek money under the pretext that the money will be used to fight worthy causes that uplift the poor, the truth of the matter is that by far a greater proportion of the budgets end up financing salaries of the head offices and footing the travel bills of the NGO executives.
To make matters worse, there is no accountability.
Many of the offices occupied by NGO are actually private properties of executives, rented out to the organisations at rates far higher than the market rates.
This is absurd, to say the least.
The tragedy of it all is that many NGOs have since lost the moral authority to hold the Government itself accountable.
The current economic climate has laid to the bare the structural deficiencies within many NGOs, deficiencies which for many years had been hidden by heavy cushions of easy money from the western donors.
As we speak, a good number of NGOs have closed down or are about to, owing largely to a lack of fiscal austerity on their part.
As the mother body, Bocongo has not shown much exception.
There is no evidence to suggest that the umbrella body could in any way be the guiding compass to its members during these difficult times.
Recent reports indicate that a Chief Executive of the organization resigned a few weeks into her job because she could not swallow the venality exhibited by some board members.
The CEO had tried to bring financial and governance controls.
It is reported she was resisted by those board members who felt very strong that her efforts were meant to close the tap that feeds their honey pot.
Many NGOs have become one man shows, little fiefdoms which are owned, controlled, dominated and, in many instances, terrorized by these founders who frown ferociously against any calls for governance or independent controls.
Of late this culture seems to be extending to trade unions where the membership is only used as voting fodder where workers’ welfare is only a pretext by the leadership and executive staff as a means to laying their hands on the growing subscriptions.
Like their NGO cousins, many trade unions have been transformed into one-man fiefdoms which spawn strongmen who are for most of the part wealthier than the organisations they work for.
We strongly believe that it is not too late for these organisations to redeem themselves and win their rightful places in the eyes of not just the public but the Government as well.
We, however, want to point out that such redemption will be so difficult as to be impossible unless the lords that run these organisations willingly submit themselves to governance checks and balances that are meant to ensure both accountability and transparency.
As for the NGOs, we believe that has to start at Bocongo.
