Unicef Malawi has plugged its tap of financial support to a Development Aid from People to People (Dapp) Malawi project, describing Dapp’s risk rating as having increased to high.
The UN agency’s decision has led to Dapp cutting short its Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (Wash) project which was being implemented in Thyolo, Chiradzulu and Blantyre.
The project was supposed to run up to December this year but now it concludes this month end.
Dapp has since communicated to its field officers about the termination of their contracts and end of the project on June 30.
Unicef disclosed its decision on Dapp in response to our inquiry regarding complaints which the field officers have raised about Dapp’s conduct in the project.
In a May 30 2016 letter which they wrote to Unicef, the field officers detailed how Dapp has been denying them financial support in the implementation of activities of the project.
The officers highlight 13 activities which they have had to carry out without funding from Dapp, yet the organisation received money from Unicef for those activities under the project.
Among others, the officers have been using their own money to buy airtime, pay some of the brick layers in the project and take public transport to project sites. However, Dapp has not been refunding them.
They also report that some of the activities such as orientation of Area Development Committees which are supposed to champion the implementation of the project were done at low cost, suggesting that some of the money meant for the exercise had been misused.
According to the letter, the field officers’ salary has been K77,000 per month. But other than tax and pension contributions, Dapp has also been forcing them to contribute monthly a specific amount of their salary to an account whose use they do not understand.
“…Dapp deducts money from some of us. They say it’s a contribution for the common interest, but we are not wilfully contributing,” reads the letter in part.
On this suspicious contribution, Malawi News can report that the workers are made to complete a document titled “The Joint Account Association: Deed of Contribution” in which the workers swear to “share life, honour and welfare under designation joint time, joint economy, and joint distribution.”
“I will from time to time transfer money to The Association. It is thus with this Deed of Contribution that I give such money to The Association to be used for the benefit of the join interests arising from joint time, joint economy and joint distribution,” reads the oath.
The workers also commit not to claim the return of any money they pay to the association.
“Once any money has been paid by me to The Association, I shall have no claim thereto or to the assets of The Association whatsoever,” reads the document.
In their letter to Unicef, the workers have asked for protection “because once we are spotted/ noted, we may either lose our jobs, some of us may even loose our lives.”
In its response to our questions, Unicef did not indicate it had decided to withdraw its funding on the basis of the grievances from the field officers.
But the UN organisation said as part of its due diligence, it carries out a range of activities to monitor and review partners’ operations and implementation of programmes.
It said this is aimed at ensuring financial and operational effectiveness and transparency.
These activities include programme visits, spot checks and periodic audits, it said.
“Recently such activities were carried out on programmes implemented with Dapp. As a result of spot checks and monitoring visits, the partner’s risk rating was increased to high, and consequently Unicef took the decision to reduce its engagement, and draw agreements to a close,” said Angela Travis, Chief of Communication, Advocacy and Partnerships at Unicef Malawi.
We can also report this is not the first time that Dapp has courted the wrath of Unicef Malawi.
In a communication which we have seen from the then Chief of Communication Victor Chinyama to a Ms Fritzler, Unicef said it had conducted financial spot checks with Dapp’s teacher training initiatives and discovered that Dapp was charging students fees which Unicef had already paid for.
“We raised this issue with Dapp and demanded that students be refunded and Dapp duly obliged,” reads the communication dated December 14 2011.
In the current case, Dapp said the organisation has clear policies and procedures on how it deals with development project in terms of the communities who have been benefitting, the district authorities who have been part of the project and Dapp staff.
“Dapp has always ensured that the expenses for project activities and allowances, which the staff has been entitled to, have been paid and will continue to do so,” said Dapp Malawi Country Director Lisbeth Thomsen.
On the suspicious contribution from the workers’ salaries, Thomsen said:
“Dapp pays all salaries in full and in accordance with the employee’s instructions on how the salary should be paid, less mandated withholdings such as PAYE and Pension.”
Unicef’s action comes on the back of the naming by a US donor advisory organisation of Dapp Malawi as “part of a nefarious conspiracy” of organisations intent on amassing wealth for themselves and their leaders.
The organisation implicated Dapp in a misappropriation of 70 percent of US$100 million which was sourced from the United Sates government by Dapp’s partner organisation, Planet Aid.
The advisory organisation, the Charity Navigator Donor Advisory Issuance Committee, has since put Planet Aid on a watch list.
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