This week, the National Aids Coordinating Agency (NACA) disbursed close to P30 million to a number of Non Governmental Organisations and other civic groups involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
While giving out the money to the various HIV/AIDS activists, NACA chief, Mr. Richard Mathare, reminded the organizations to be accountable and to always remember that the money he was giving them was from the national treasury.
Crucially, he did not hide the fact that action will be taken against those organizations and individuals that are found to have abused the financial resources they were receiving.
We stand firmly in support of the NACA chief.
We have long questioned the carefree culture of many NGOs in Botswana, including those involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Corporate Governance is a lesson many NGOs in Botswana are still to learn.
It is an open secret that many NGOs in Botswana never produce financial accounts, let alone the audited ones.
Where they are not one man shows, many of these NGOs have proved to be a collection of social friends whose shared ambition is to loot the money from the donors through hefty salaries they award themselves, opaque allowance structures they adopt and generally loose accounting structures if there are at all.
At the height of Botswana’s HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1990s, the country literally became a hub of cowboy activists, who swamped the country from every corner of the world under the pretext that they were coming to lend a helping hand through setting up organisations that would help the country stave off the scourge.
Literally drowning the government doled out money without any strict vetting controls.
While some of the money no doubt came from Botswana’s development parts and other donors, the truth of the matter is that by far the greatest portion of it was from the national treasury.
But because of the immediacy of the tragedy that was unfolding, it seems like Government for most of the time, waived even the most elementary accounting principles normally expected where public finances are involved.
All of a sudden, the cowboy activists that had recently descended onto the country were seen around town driving luxury four by fours, renting offices in some of the city’s posh areas ÔÇô all of which were, to use Mr. Mathare’s word, a “windfall” from Government.
Not only did people make easy fortunes from the honey pot, careers were also established overnight as Botswana’s HIV/AIDS crisis became a lucrative industry that attracted all sorts of characters.
We cannot emphasize strong enough that Government did its best under the circumstances.
It was not an easy situation that Government had to contend with.
Faced with the possibility of an entire nation being annihilated by HIV/AIDS, the Government rightly felt that enforcing rigid accounting principles could not only divert attention and resources from the main problem but also that many organizations and individuals would otherwise be marginalized.
On that score, we put the whole blame on the NGOs and the activists who took advantage of the difficult position the Government was labouring under to effectively go on a looting spree.
A bizarre culture of blithe and unaccountability set in, which drove the total costs of fighting HIV/AIDs to current levels which are, the bad economy aside, unsustainable.
This bad culture also meant that in the long term many of the NGOs rendered themselves financially unviable ÔÇô obsolete even.
Actually it is this happy-go-lucky attitude among many NGOs that has fast-tracked the collapse of many of them during the slump because, used to flashy life styles and totally unable to adjust, many of them simply could not come to the party when their benefactors told them to tighten their belts.
As the name implies, NACA’s mandate is mainly to coordinate the various national efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
For NACA to succeed, there has to be in place a very strong network of organizations who work as foot soldiers.
This network is mostly made up of NGOs and other volunteer based organisations.
But NACA’s work is itself doomed if the implementing agencies are themselves acting like mercenaries who do not respect the rules of engagement.
On that score, we wholly support the NACA chief when he says those found to be violating the rules will face the wrath of the law.
It is our hope that he means trying them for fraud, corruption and embezzlement.
The State President has repeatedly reminded the nation about the high costs of HIV/AIDS in Botswana.
We cannot as a nation afford to add theft to those already high costs.
