In the northern Ugandan town of Kalongo Janet Humphreys, the financial controller for aid agency GOAL, has to be back within the confines of the town by 4pm for security reasons. If she is outside the town’s limits she has to be in radio contact at all times. Once back in town she has to be safely locked up in the Irish NGO’s compound by 9pm.

There can’t be many financial controllers anywhere that have to observe such security measures, but then, of course, there are few FCs that work in places like Kalongo.

The town, one street of shabby concrete shops, cafes and hostels, surrounded by hundreds of neatly thatched mud huts, sits in the lee of Mount Kalongo, one of the few features to punctuate the surrounding arid plain in the Padar district. This area was once at the heart of the Ugandan government’s 20-year war with the bizarre but brutal Lords Resistance Army.

Once tagged as the world’s ‘forgotten war’, by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, the conflict saw the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) launch raid after raid on the local population perpetrating massacres, raping indiscriminately and kidnapping children to become child soldiers. The fighting managed to displace up to 1.7 million people, or around 90% of the local population.

At the height of hostilities the population of Kalongo leapt from around 9,500 to a staggering 35,000. Indeed, night shelters had to be built to accomodate at least 11,000 people each night to protect them from LRA raiders. These days, peace talks with the LRA are well underway, the population is down to around 14,000 as people return to their homesteads and the night shelters are barely used. Despite the poverty here, there is an air of optimism about the town and its people that is remarkable given recent history.

Even so, remnants of the LRA are thought to be camped in the bush outside Kalongo and the rigid security measures remain in place.

Sanitation and health remain difficult problems. When the troubles were at their worst there was little or no running water and few wells. The lack of clean water and hygiene quickly turned from problem into crisis and risk of disease including cholera, respiratory illness and the ubiquitous diarrhoea. A big part of Goal’s work in Kalongo has been building effective latrines and ensuring they are properly emptied ­ a crucial step in maintaining public health.

Crisis recovery
But when Humphreys visits from her office in the capital Kampala, GOAL has shifted from dealing with an emergency to what the non-governmental organisation (NGO) professionals call crisis recovery. The sanitation and hygiene work continues but so does health education, especially against the rate of HIV infection which stands here at 8%, against a national figure of 6%.

Humphreys is in town to see that record keeping and delivery of the local projects are being maintained to the highest standard.

Her enthusiasm for the work is obvious and, unlikely as it may seem, Humphreys ends up sitting on the porch of a nearby hut in the warm glow of an African evening to review cashbook reconciliation statements with finance assistant Petrolina Akello.

They had wandered out among the huts of Kalongo ostensibly to pose for photographs.But as soon as they were in position they began a very real conversation about the cashbook.

Earlier, Humphreys said: ‘I can’t understand why more people don’t want to work in the NGO sector.’ And as she sits there in the village, in the peace of the evening and Mount Kalongo looming in the background, it’s difficult to imagine why a recruitment would exist.

Humphreys is CIMA-trained and has been with GOAL for two years previously spending nine years with Xerox as a currency manager in the UK, US and Ireland.

She hints that she used to be very well paid, but working for an NGO had been a long held ambition, one she finally sought to satisfy after a soul searching conversation with a colleague. The difficulties under which she now works seem justification in themselves for stepping out of the high paid corporate post she once held.

‘I know I could have perhaps taken a good job in New York, and it would have been very different. There are stresses and strains here, but that’s what make it so worthwhile.’

Those ‘stresses and strains’ are self-evident. For starters there’s the much more modest pay, then the task of being financial controller for a budget of ?7.8m (£5.8m) and the security situation, already mentioned.

Then there’s the difficulty of working with local culture, customs and administrative regulation. Finally there’s the unexpected. As if to underline this point, as she arrived back from Kalongo Humphreys learned that GOAL’s project in the west of Uganda, at Bundibugyo, had closed down following an outbreak of Ebola, which reportedly killed 16 people. No staff were affected.

Through all this it becomes apparent after a week with GOAL in Uganda that Humphreys and her staff are imposing an extraordinary level of financial control.

At a GOAL project in Bugiri, four hours east of Kampala, I am treated to a tour through cash and safe book routines that indicates that every single Ugandan shilling of spending is tightly controlled and accounted for.

Even a small sum for a project worker to fill the petrol tank on a motorbike goes through three levels of sign off.

preconceptions
As a result, any preconceptions that NGOs might neglect record keeping or checks evaporate as quickly as a puddle in the African sun.

Humphreys is unequivocal and earnest on this matter. ‘NGO work in the new millennium is all about accountability, accountability, accountability. We are responsible to donors and even more responsible to the beneficiaries ­ we owe them that respect.’

Bugiri does raise some interesting questions however. GOAL is the funder of local charitable groups in the area, asking in return for a framework of checks and systems to be put in place to safeguard the money. It also provides expe rtise, advice and pays for audits of local projects. But local groups also have to reapply each year for funding.

Fair enough. But the application process can take up to six months while they go through GOAL’s checks.

This can result, sometimes, in funding gaps as groups end one funding year before having the next year’s in place. Perhaps then the systems are too rigid to deliver the aid in time?

Humphreys once again, is forthright on this. ‘I’m a strong believer in systems and processes, working in a timely manner. My corporate background means that I don’t want to put systems or processes in place for no reason.’

In Kalongo the same issue arises over the tender process put in place for local contractors drilling wells and bore holes. ‘Our contract process, though detailed, is saving a great deal of time later. What we have to be careful about is that we don’t reinvent the wheel each time someone new comes along.’

In fact, what really appears to concern Humphreys is making sure she and her team are adding value by making sure the systems that they do have function well and ensure the money is spent in the right places.
‘We have gone from closing accounts in 10-12 days to six, which frees up time that we can devote to the challenges that face spending.’

Humphreys wants to develop a firm idea of what the future will bring.
‘We have been working on forward projections and we can see a problem with funding going down. But it means I can highlight the needs back in Dublin,’ says Humphreys.
The battle is also finding funding, especially cash from state agencies that is only guaranteed for 12 months at a time ­ not exactly the ideal period for managing an aid project.

‘There’s not enough donors in the world,’ says Humphreys. And then adds: ‘Budgeting and making the most of the funds we have is the biggest challenge I have as a financial controller.’ You can’t imagine she would have it any other way.

For more information go to GOAL-UK.org or email mkibelloh@goal-uk.org