Reflection on Corruption in ABCD, Cambodia

8/14/2019 Reflection on Corruption in ABCD, Cambodia

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Reflection on corruption inABCD, Cambodia.

This is a very rough working draft.IntroductionThe ABCD project of Christian Outreach in Cambodia is unusual in its emphasis onchanging the thinking of the participants. It has now been working for 6 years towardsachieving its objectives. One of these objectives is the formation of a local NGO by thestaff in order to replicate the programme in the future. As the process of NGO formationwas gaining momentum,zambia the director and the management committee had beenformed, an issue of corruption came to the surface. An audit revealed that the majorityof the staff had received money and goods that they were not entitled to. In a few casesthis amounted to several thousand dollars. This issue has resulted in the dismissal ofsome staff and has provided an opportunity for reflection on empowerment and theprocesses of community development. This paper documents the thoughts andreflections of the author who was the architect of the programme and who continues tobe involved in the programme.BackgroundIn addition to the annual reports which comprehensively document the project, there isa project summary called Transformation by Wearing Hats (Tearfund Case Study 1996).The opening paragraphs of the Case Study are as follows:-"You cannot easily change the damage caused by the war, orcaused by the systematic breaking of relationships, or the loss ofdignity. You cannot easily reverse the situation "lack of food". Youcannot easily change the damage done by the meetings held in

fear, or the meetings at which people were harangued bypropaganda. The mind is paralysed by such things so the wayforward is slowly carefully" Meas Nee, a Khmer."The rural communities of Cambodia are characterised by a fragile food productionsystem, often with inadequate water supply and a number of chronic health problems.This state of poverty and subsistence economic activity is perpetuated by a mentalityamongst both individuals and the various village communities which limits their ability tochange their environment.". ABCD 5 Year proposal opening statement."The Agriculture, Business and Community Development Programme (ABCD) startedin 1992 in the rural district of Prey Veng, Cambodia. The International NonGovernmental Organisation, Christian Outreach, funded in part by Tear Fund, started


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the programme in response to invitations from the Government and local people.Despite its name ABCD does not emphasise physical change in agriculture andbusiness. It is focused on the transformation of the participants thinking. Theprogramme is based in three communes (22,000 people) and aims to animate changesin community awareness and respond to felt needs and problems in partnership withlocal communities, through the creation of an environment of change."One of the distinctive features of the programme is its emphasis on the localcommunities agenda. Its funding is constructed in such a way that it is not tied to anagenda created by an outside agency. Funding is flexible to follow the agenda set bythe people."While the main objectives of the 7yr programme concern the villages and theirmovement towards a dynamic proactive community, one of the objectives was that thestaff would form a local NGO at the end of the programme. The process in the villagesleads to potentially sustainable development within the village. However, the resourcesof the village are limited and it seemed unreasonable to expect villagers to activelyreplicate the programme to new villages. There is some limited influence of proactivevillages on their near neighbours, but in order to achieve a planned replication of theprogramme it was decided that the staff might become a local NGO.OwnershipHerein lies the first potential problem. The decision to include the formation of a locallybased organisation for replication in the project objectives was taken by the staff of theNorthern NGO with only very limited consultation. The five year proposal was written ata time when there were only two Khmer staff for ABCD, and so very limited discussionswere held with these two people. Thereafter it was a task of the expatriates to animatethe Khmer staff to some form of ownership of this objective. This of course is not thebest approach. The rest of the programme emphasises that people should be free toset their own agenda, not to be made to conform to a pre-set agenda. And yet thisobjective was pre-set and the staff have been asked to conform to it. In institutional terms, the objective was left very broad. It describes a local organisation.At the time of writing the proposal it was not clear if such a thing as a Khmer Non

Governmental Organisation would be appropriate or even possible. Therefore theoptions ranged from a local NGO to perhaps a team within the District Government.The essence of the objective was that there would be a institutional structure that wouldfacilitate replication of the programme with Khmer ownership. Funding may well need tocome from external sources because replication is a social service, but that fundingcould be North/South aid or perhaps from within the Government budget.As the programme draws to a close, it seems that a Khmer NGO is a feasible optionand the staff have been discussing and working towards this for a number of years. Inthe early years the subject was raised by the expatriates and some interest was shown

by the Khmer staff. After a period of cooling, where the expatriates did not push theconcept, the Khmer staff approached the expatriates and asked about the details of theKhmer NGO. These were the first signs of true ownership. In the last two years detailed


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discussions have been held by the staff to decide the form of the new institution, and todecide on its basic structure.

Understandably there has been a range of ownership and understanding within the 26Khmer staff. The proposal logical framework has as an indicator of achievement that "5national staff undertaking management and animation in community meetings" and " anational organisational structure in place for replication". This was intended to imply

that only 5 staff were really needed to have sufficient ownership of the new organisation.

Discussing ownership and corruption invillages

The programme has a budget of about 120,000 UK Pounds per year. Of this money,the majority of it is spent on staffing. The programme is predominantly animation and itsphysical benefits come from the self help responses of the villagers. Even so, about 15%of the finance is used to start revolving funds within the villages. And a further sum isused to facilitate experimentation and the formation of enterprises.

Since the village development committees (VDCs) are handling resources on behalf ofthe village, the issue of corruption has been a constant discussion point. Socialaccountability is said to help the VDC be responsible. All meetings with the VDC aresuppose to be public and anyone in the village can attend. The VDCs have an annual

workshop at which they put up drawings of what is in the revolving fund and how it isgrowing. They are also animated to feed this information back to the villages in a fullvillage meeting.In Cambodia, as in so many countries, it is very easy to impose an externally generatedagenda on rural people. Local government or an NGO can approach a village andsuggest a course of action that would improve the village. The project cycle oftenmeans that a proposal written by an albeit informed but external person has alreadydocumented what the donors money will be spent on. If the priorities of the villagecommunity are for school buildings, and the NGO proposal is for water supplies, then

either the water supply is put in regardless (so that the NGO can fulfil its quota) or thevillage have to approach another source of assistance (for the school). Even in creditschemes it is very easy for the scheme to be owned and policed by the external agency,and the villagers to merely be joining in with the NGO programme.

In ABCD a priority is the emphasis on the villages agenda. We want to help with whatthey want to do. At the same time, villages have a general deference to the outsiderswhich makes them want to follow whatever the NGO wants to do. There needs to be agreat emphasis on ownership by the village. To do this ABCD had a strategy of non-

policing at village level. The process was argued that if external people asked to seethe details of the credit fund, then there would be a perception that the credit fundbelonged to the agency and was merely "on loan" to the village. Accordingly, in order togenerate a sense of ownership by the village, ABCD staff were encouraged not to ask


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for the details of the fund. They could animate other villagers to ask for details. Therewas a great need for social accountability within the village, but the staff were not askedto police the fund. They were asked to animate the villagers themselves to do their ownpolicing.This at first sight can appear that the programme is being irresponsible with donormoney. However, the objectives of the programme were that the villagers take a

proactive response to their lives, that they take responsibility. Some of the best ways oflearning responsibility is to fail. When people are animated to see failure and to developtheir own response to it, the end result is often more powerful than if the people areconstrained by tight rules . To give an example, the village of Pomme Ville initially hada corrupt VDC who installed handpumps only at one end of the village among theirfriends and relatives, and stalled and delayed on further activity because of internalsquabbling. After about 3 years, the villagers realised that their village was far behind inmaking the sort of improvements that other nearby villages had made. The villagersforced the VDC to step down and appointed a new VDC. The village of Pomme Ville is

now one of the most dramatically visible transformations within ABCD. The currentVDC is more effective than some of the nearby villages. The end effect is morepowerful because of the prior failure.Throughout the programme, the Khmer staff have been encouraged to discuss theconcepts of ownership and corruption as part of their training in animation.

Discussing corruptionCambodia is a society that seems to accept standards of financial practice that wouldbe unacceptable to the majority of Western society. I am being careful with my wordssince there are many times when corruption is found in European society. Theaccepted norm regarding corruption is not necessarily the practice. In Cambodiahowever, the practice of paying bribes is so common that people will discuss it, almostwith a fatalistic acceptance that this is how Khmer society is.In training discussions on corruption, the Khmer staff voiced the opinion that it wasimportant that money designated to improve the life of the poor actually reach the poor.They talked about it being unacceptable if the revolving fund was used solely for theVDC and their immediate relatives.

Real life situations arose that were used as the basis for discussions. When aJapanese NGO delivered bicycles to commune health personnel (a mixture of Govtstaff and volunteers), people were seen giving 10,000 Riel to the commune leader.Was this acceptable? The points noted by the staff were that a) the commune leaderdid not seem to ask for money, but the people gave it because it was an accepted norm,

b) the commune leaders salary is very low and he had given some time to thearrangements for the bicycle distribution, c) it could be considered a thank you for thearrangement, d) 10,000 was still cheap for a bicycle!


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Here an interesting point is raised. When is a thank you gift a bribe and when is it athank you gift? Previous discussions by the author in Africa have noted that thedistinction between finance used to obtain a service to which one has no rights, andfinance used to speed up a service to which one has every right.Another real life example discussed by the staff was the case of a village leader. Hewas accused by a woman of raping her when alone in the fields with her. She reported

him to the police, and the police arrested him. Eventually he was freed when he agreedto pay 400,000 Riel to the woman. She immediately handed over all the money to thepolice, as she had promised them from the start. It turned out that she had a grievanceagainst the village leader (her cousin) and all the village believe she fabricated the rapestory. She has since had to leave the village.She paid the money to the police to ensure their co-operation. In fact Khmer law saysthat when a woman accuses a man of something, and there are only the two witnesses,that the womans story should be believed. In practice........ the police will do what theyfeel like doing and finance may adjust their feelings.These are difficult scenarios. And I have purposely avoided trying to indicate anyanswers.

Regarding false receipts among the staff. The staff presented their own case. Anexchange of dollars for gold (gold is used in the villagers as a medium for transactions).Suppose, they hypothesised to the expatriates, that there are 5 gold sellers all of whomare offering 1 chi of gold at 47 dollars. However, one seller offers at 45 dollars if thestaff member will always return to that seller. The receipt will be made out for 47 dollars

and the staff member can pocket the 2 dollar difference. Staff argued that theorganisation is not losing out, because the best price the organisation could get on theopen market is 47. They did not see this as corruption.Some expatriates accepted this argument because it reflects things such as airmiles.Globally companies try to induce employee to spend corporate money with them byoffering individual airmiles to the employee. So this would seem to be seen as amarketing incentive rather than "corruption". Globally acceptable therefore acceptable?The staff discussed these and related issues over many months, often without clear

conclusions. These discussions although not conclusive were considered empowering.And the staff did seem to make clear conclusions on the opinion that it was importantthat money designated to improve the life of the poor actually reach the poor.Some very strange votingChristian Outreach had not been corruption free. Since 1992, two administrators hadbeen dismissed. The first had filled a 70 gallon tank of petrol with 110 gallons. This waswhile he was still on probation. The second had gradually taken about $4000 by forging

receipts from a garage. A phone conversation had alerted the expatriate administratorto the fact.


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But in late 1997 and early 1998, an interesting sequence of events occurred. The staffwere asked during a special workshop, to vote for the management committee of thenew NGO. The programme had 4 managers and it was decided that this should beexpanded to 5. In order to include the fifth person, each staff member was asked towrite 5 names on a piece of paper. The results caused some surprise among theexpatriates. The two with full votes, Jeff and Irene (names only for the purposes of thispaper), were unsurprising. However, one manager, Fred, who had been with the

programme almost from the start received only 20 out of a possible 25 unspoilt votes. Ayoung man, James, who had been a temporary manager while others were out thecountry training, received equal votes. And the health manager, Janet, received only 16votes, while another temporary manager, Charles, received 14. This demonstrated thatFred did not have the unanimous support of the staff. There had been some commentsmade against Fred during his tenure as manager, but the expatriates basically trustedhim.There were many ways to interpret the vote, but it was the first sign of open dissent

against Fred who alongside Jeff held the positions of greatest responsibility. They hadbeen with the programme the longest and they had received the training in the UK. Itwas assumed by many that either Fred or Jeff would become the director of the neworganisation.Then came a time when it was necessary to vote for the directors position. This too wasa surprising vote. Jeff actively lobbied for staff note to vote for him. At the final vote,Charles, was voted in as director. Although the full dynamics of the situation wereobviously not available to the expatriates, some expats interpreted the raising ofCharles to the directors position as a face saving exercise. he narrowly missed being

on the management committee, and it was seen that this was a way of including him.The directors positions was said to be of two year tenure, and did not hold a veto votefor strategic decisions, and therefore although he became the public face of the neworganisation his powers were effectively equal with any of the managers.

Revealing the corruptionCharles began to act as director in waiting, attending NGO forums, meeting donors,learning new elements of reporting. As he did so he began to share with expatriates hisconcern about whether he could do the job. The expatriates pointed out that it was hishumility and seriousness that made him actually the best qualified for the job.

Charles then dropped the bombshell. He felt he could not lead a new organisation intobeing if there was so much corruption. His statements were supported in writing byJames. James spoke of the expatriates being in a dark cave and he wanted to bringthem a candle. The tone of the letter was accusatory, and there was more than a hint

that the expats knew about the corruption and were turning a blind eye. In reality, theexpatriates were not aware of the corruption.


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An audit was commissioned. An accountant brought in who checked submitted receiptsagainst the merchants own records, and who looked at the VDCs record books,comparing them to receipts submitted. The tracks were open and obvious. Receiptswould show 1000 items purchased, but only 500 were actually bought. Receipts wouldshow $500 handed over to villages but the village record book would show only $400.The staff had not even been very subtle about it, and a clear picture was quicklyestablished.As the audit was commissioned, the programme leader explained the situation to thestaff. Referring vaguely to accusations, he explained that an audit would be undertaken.He offered a grace period that if anyone wanted to confess their crimes before the auditwas finished, and pay the money back, then they could keep their job. During thisperiod some of the staff did just that, although they confessed to very small amounts.The audit showed that they had taken larger amounts. Two managers did not confessanything.When the audit finished another meeting gave people a final opportunity to confesstheir sins before action was taken. This time a piece of newsheet was put on the walland people had to write the amounts taken for everyone to view (and be willing to pay itback). At the end of this meeting, two managers were unmoved and so were dismissedon the basis of the audits results.The corruption in question was not a question of "airmiles" or "thank yous". There wasa deliberate attempt to defraud the organisation and the villagers. They took money thatwas due to be used for village development and kept it for themselves. It is not clearwhether the villagers know this; probably not since they had written into their own

records the smaller amount. Judge against their own standards the staff had beencaught in deep corruption.

Making sense of itSo how can we view these events. There is a Khmer proverb:-"Khmers are clever in making things spoil and disintegrate/"using things up". They are clever in causingthemselves personally to advance." "Khmer chlat kang roliey ohs; chlat kang rihjomrahn kluen eyn." At first sight this proverb is disturbingly negative. But it was the one quoted to theexpatriates after corruption among the staff had been discovered. They said they knewit was destructive but it is the nature of Khmers to destroy.Initially it was very disappointing to discover such hypocrisy within the staff. If we hadnot been participatory, and had only lectured them on the evils of corruption, then theremight be some excuse for continuing in the social norm. But by their own mouths theyhad set the guidelines. As one staff member pointed out, when the government workersaccept gifts, they have such a low salary that it is the only way to survive. But, theywent on to add, these managers were on very high salaries for Cambodia and have noexcuse.


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There was also a culture of fear and threats. Many of the letters accused one of themanagers of pressurising other staff to accept money. There was a story that when oneof the other managers wanted to not accept money, that the manager put sand in theothers Motorbike petrol tank to warn them.So, there is no escape from the sad conclusion that the staff had compromised theprinciples that they themselves had talked about in workshops. The culture of fear was

in direct conflict with the goal statement "...in an environment of loving relationships".They had articulated the need for honesty and integrity to be part of the programme inorder for it to succeed, and yet they contradicted those statements by their actions.

Can we therefore conclude that they did not own those values, or own the programme?A positive lightAs part of its philosophy, the programme encourages the team staff not to talk about

problems but to talk about opportunities. While it is indeed disappointing that staff havecontradicted their "talk" by their "walk", these event s have provided an excitingopportunity. Even as they stand at the current time, the recent events are a very strongendorsement of the process of change embedded in the programme.One must not lose sight of the fact that some of the staff challenged the social norm tobring to light the corruption. They not only overcame their "Khmer" understanding ofhow the world works but they also overcame localised social pressure. This was a worksituation where key managers were encouraging everyone to accept kickbacks. Anumber of staff wrote letters to the expatriates which expressed a hope and concern forthe future. This forward thinking shows an unusual insight, great bravery and anownership of the programme objectives and , its core values.After the solving this problem, the staff that took that initiative are in a very strongposition of ownership for the values of the future replicating programme, for the newlocal NGO and for the process of tackling social ills in Cambodia. The new NGO willhave as its director someone who has experienced the pain of tackling corruption, andwho hopefully will be able to work with villages on such issues. It will be staffed by afew people who have examined their working practices and made a pledge to improve

them. In this sense, the exposure of the corruption and the dismissal of staff can beseen in the positive light of those who remain, who have faced a difficult social issueand learnt from the experience.With hindsight....

Have the staff learnt? Only time will tell. More important for this reflection is thequestion "What can we learn from these events?"

Should there have been an annual audit of the staffs receipts? In a trust situation suchan annual audit is not the normal business practice. In the UK, the VAT man comesevery three years and exercises the right to a random audit of receipts of businesses.The department of Internal Revenue audit only if they believe there is a problem. The


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organisations accountant checks and organises receipts to prepare end of yearaccounts. The accountant is looking to balance the books and to balance budgetagainst expenditure. It is not normal practice to randomly phone suppliers and checkthat the receipts are true.But given the propensity for deceipt that there is in Khmer culture, should an audit havebeen built into the system?As one of the architects of the programme, I have asked myself if I should haveinstituted an annual audit. I have found two reasons why I would not, even withhindsight.

The first concerns the normal corruption practice in Cambodia. As I understand it thenorm is to make a deal with the merchant. If somethings costs 600, then a deal isstruck to write the receipt for 800 and the person buying on behalf of an organisationgets one hundred while the merchant makes some extra profit. In this case a randomaudit interviewing the merchants would not expose the deceit. The audit merely says tothe Khmer staff that the organisation does not trust them, with very little hope of findingthe truth. It is true that the audit as carried out, did indeed reveal the corruption, but Iwould suggest that the staff would soon find a way around the audit unless it itselfbecame ever increasingly complex.Secondly, the idea of an audit is control of people by rule and authority. This rarely ifever works in the long term. It creates a dependency as a child upon a parent. While itis true that a period of rule can provide a safe environment for personal development(as evidenced by parents with young children) - there must come a time when the rules

relax and personal responsibility becomes the guiding force. The heart of the ABCDprogramme is to create an environment of personal responbility. To encourage thevillagers to consider their problems and to take their own steps to find a solution. If thestaff are going to encourage the villagers to be personally responsible for thedevelopment funds then they too must have a sense of responsibility.The counter argument is that the staff are not socially accountable to their "neighbours",that in fact the village development committee do have an annual audit (in that theypresent the status of the funds to the village), and that in the early stages of theprogramme a safe environment was required to help the staff to grow in moral and

personal responsibility.I have said above that I personally would not commission an annual audit. That myhope was, and remains, that the trainings and mentoring given to the staff wouldencourage a set of values that were sustainable in the long term and were consistentwith global standards of financial accountability.

What remains


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There is an interesting opportunity presented in the ABCD staff at the exposure of thecorruption. Some of the staff have shown responsibility by challenging the social norm.They have adopted moral insights not commonly found in their traditional culture, andthey have turned their reflections into action. Others on the staff have seen a processwhere a wrong action has been challenged by people of equivalent social standing andwhere leaders have been challenged and as a result have lost their leadership. Thehave experienced the strength of public accountability and a grace period for

confession and restitution. There is the potential that they may learn from thisexperience and accept greater social responsibility.

Documents

Reflection on Corruption in ABCD, Cambodia