Colombo, Indonesia-Relief -- Ernst & Young Indonesia, as reported by Asian Tribune today, has developed a 'Tool Kit' to help organizations that provide humanitarian aid to Tsunami victims, to establish proper systems of accountability and internal control.
Adlair Goldberg, Ernst & Young,
Jakarta, the author of the tool kit named as EYe Tool Kit explained the
details of the tool kit at a brief seminar arranged in association with
the Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies held at Ceylon Continental Hotel,
Colombo, Sri Lanka, last week.
Explaining the details about the Tool Kit Goldberg said that after Tsunami, huge sums of money, goods and services started to pour into the affected countries for emergency relief and rehabilitation efforts from around the world which could be valued at US $ 9 billion.
He said that there is also considerable pressure from the donors, non-governmental and not for profit organizations, local governments and the impacted communities to ensure that these aids are effectively and efficiently spent as intended.
As part of Ernst and Young commitment to support the Tsunami Relief Efforts and to help provide transparency and accountability in this very important humanitarian mission, Golberg said, the Ernst & Young has developed EYe Tool Kit as a resource to help providers establish adequate systems to accountability and internal control within their organizations.
He said that an NGO is required to get the resources needed the plans and budget to do a solid programme and experienced people, proper organization and support systems should be in place and there should be solid relationship with the community of which they serve.
He said that corruption can be described as representing non-compliance with the arm's length principle under which no personal or family relationship should play any role in economic decision making, be it by private economic agents or by government officials.
The suggested control mechanisms are, community-based monitoring and reporting systems, anti-corruption watch dogs, integrity packs. Anti-corruption statements, public hearings and audits should be carried out on Financial, Performance and Compliance aspects.
The Tool Kit also suggests a number of internal controls for the NGOs to follow. It intends to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of an NGO's operational activities.
Goldberg revealed that his company is involved in three large humanitarian relief organizations in Ache Province and following the guidelines of their EYe Tool Kit could eliminate all corruption, whereas it was believed that in that the country the corruption rate could be as high as 50 percent. =A9 dil