Pact warns partners to avoid corruption
Pact Cambodia, an international NGO working collaboratively with local organizations to build organizational capacity, warned December 17 that it would terminate its contracts with all organization partners when it found that corruption or mismanagement had been intentionally committed.
The warning was given after PACT had discovered that mismanagement and corruption had been committed by three local NGO partners over the last year.
In its letter sent to the director of the VOD, [Pact] also stated that corruption exists at all levels in Cambodia, and that the issue affects the living standard of Cambodian nationals, schools, hospitals, the fishery sector and other fields.
At the same time, corruption has also been seen in NGOs. Pact requires that all local NGO sub-grantees organization partners sign an anti-corruption clause in their contract, to promote transparent and accountable management geared towards avoiding corruption.
In PACT’s view implementation with transparency provides opportunities for organizations to be publicly responsible for their activities, and at the same time transparent. If small problems happen unexpectedly, NGO management should make necessary corrections and give explanations of integrity issues to stakeholders, so those small problems are prevented from becoming bigger.
In its letter to VOD, Pact did not mention the names of the three organizations which had their sub-grants terminated.
(Source: Corruption Monitor Bulletin, Issue 2, January 2008)