While I agree with this overall direction to make things more transparent, I have a few problems with the way it is required to be presented.
This way of presenting account often hides the impact of the work. While many people and many donors are worried about overhead costs and whether expenses are made on people or materials or transport etc, I don't feel the distinction is really useful nor fair. It is much more important to see what the money was spent for - what did it achieve and how effectively was it spent.
Just a focus on arbitrary account heads and not relating it to the actual results and the cost for the results delivered (and if you want cost per person provided with winter clothing etc), makes NGOs want to cut certain costs at a real cost to efficiency and effectiveness and reach and time. I think it is important that we keep these in mind and develop better accounting structures that measure results and the costs associated with them, instead of just looking at some arbitrary cost heads.
I would like people to see something like
xxx people provided food at a cost of yyy
zzz people provided winter clothing at a cost of www
...
And then finally general coordination expenses of abc
This will give us a much better sense of things. I have a serious problem with NGOs generally hanging around or doing things inefficiently - so spending less on certain "overhead" areas but also doing much less than they could - so in result terms their overheads are very high! Cost must always be seen only in relation to the value they have added. I think as we demand more transparency, we also focus on results. Ultimately I believe that it is this results vs costs that needs to be focussed on as pure focus on outlays and expenditure without corresponding focus on outcomes has been the detriment of our country - even more than misuse of the money meant for particular purposes.
Unfortunately I don't have the time to work on this format. I hope you can take this up and develop it further.
Thanks
Balaji
On Sat, Dec 6, 2008 at 9:34 PM, ashish ranjan <ashish.ranjanjha@gmail.com> wrote:
here is what i have written both as inline text and as a pdf doc.
Dear ......
Greetings from AIDers! We need your help to give our donors and
community at large accounts of the money that we have spent in your
partnership in providing relief to the people devastated by the recent
floods in Bihar and Orissa.
When so many of our activists are raising the slogan of "Hama Paisa
Hamara Hisab" and demanding transparency from the public authorities,
we as active supporters of Right to Information Act, 2005 cannot but
demand the same from ourselves. Given this context we would like to
let people know how their money was spent. We therefore request you to
give us a detail accounts of the expenses made for relief and
rehabilitation. We would like to get this by end of January but please
let us know if you need more time.
Here is a suggested format for the sake of uniformity across groups
but please feel free to modify as per your accounting process.
Summary of Accounts for the period of ....... to ......
Total donation received from AID
Total expenditure made on flood relief
Expenses made under various heads:
1.Travel
2.Communication (phone, fax, internet charges etc)
3.Food
4.Office expenses
5.Honorarium
6.Accommodation
7.Relief material purchase
8.Others
We would also like to have breakups of the heads in suitable format.
Some of the things that should be captured are given below. You can
capture the same information using a format of your choice.
Travel:
Train
Bus
Airplane
Vehicle on Hire
Petrol/Diesel expense
Boat
Tractors
Lorry
Auto
Others (rickshaw etc)
Communication:
Phone recharge
Mobile set purchase
Others (Fax, PCO calls etc)
Food:
Common kitchen expenses (cost of raw ingredients, gas, etc)
Hotel/dhaba/restaurant bills
Others
Office expenses:
Rent
Photocopy
Electricity
Computer/Laptop
Printer
Furniture
Stationary
Others
Honorarium
Designation/Post
Period
no of of days/months
Number employed
Amount (per day/month)
total
volunteer
29/08/2008- 4/10/2008
30
10
50
15000
coordinator
25/08/2008 -4/10/2008
1
2
4000
8000
Accommodation:
Hotel/Guest house charges
Others
Relief Material (refers to things that were bought for distribution
amongst the flood affected people. If anything was bought for the
organization should come under other relevant heads)
Name of material
Quantity
Amount spent (in Rs)
Choora
1000 Kgs
14000
Others:
Please specify what others are.
On Sat, Dec 6, 2008 at 7:32 PM, ashish ranjan
<ashish.ranjanjha@gmail.com> wrote:
> i did n't see this email..i will draft an email and send it to you by tomorrow.
>
> thanks,
> ashish
>
> On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 9:46 PM, Rashim Singh <rashim_aid@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> hi
>>
>> I think a lot of you are not able to open the document so i am pasting the
>> contents here.
>>
>> Also, Ashish, if you can form a general email regarding this, i can send it
>> all partners. And one more thing i wanted to highlight that it might be
>> possible that a big chunk of money AID send was used in transportation and
>> mobilization of local relief and resources, so it would be a good idea that
>> the partner give details of accounts in that context otherwise to the donor
>> it may seems that most of the money send did not reach people directly.
>>
>> thanks and regards
>> Rashim
>>
>>
>> S. No.
>>
>> Project (Approval date)
>>
>> NGO (partner)
>>
>> Amount
>>
>> By
>>
>> From Funds
>>
>>
>>
>> Orrisa
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 1
>>
>> Orrisa Flood Relief (immediate) (061908)
>>
>> Unnayan $ AID India
>>
>> (Dhanada Mishra)
>>
>> $ 10,000
>>
>> EB
>>
>> RRF
>>
>> 2
>>
>> Orrisa Flood Relief (immediate) (092208)
>>
>> AID India
>>
>> (Dhanada Mishra)
>>
>> Rs. 4,00,000
>>
>> EB
>>
>> RRF
>>
>> 3
>>
>> Orrisa Flood Relief (immediate) (092008)
>>
>> AID India
>>
>> (Dhanada Mishra)
>>
>> Rs. 2,37,650
>>
>> College Park
>>
>> Chapter
>>
>>
>>
>> West Bengal
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 4
>>
>> West Bengal Flood Relief (immediate) (062308)
>>
>> Kajla Jankalyan Samiti
>>
>> $10,000
>>
>> EB
>>
>> RRF
>>
>> 5
>>
>> Nandigram Relief (for the victim of Nandigram violence)
>>
>> Asha
>>
>> $5,000
>>
>> EB
>>
>> RRF
>>
>>
>>
>> Assam
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 6
>>
>> Assam Flood Relief (immediate) in Nalbari District (102208)
>>
>> Gramya Vikash Manch
>>
>> Rs. 1,77,000
>>
>> EB
>>
>> RRF
>>
>> 7
>>
>> Assam Flood Relief (immediate) in Majuli Island (101208)
>>
>> Rural Volunteers Center
>>
>> Rs. 2,25,000
>>
>> Boston
>>
>> Chapter
>>
>>
>>
>> Bihar
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 8
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate) (083008)
>>
>> AID India (Dharmendra Kumar)
>>
>> Rs. 4,00,000
>>
>> EB
>>
>> RRF
>>
>> 9
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate) (082808)
>>
>> CHARM (Kamayani and Ashish)
>>
>> Rs. 1,00,000
>>
>> EB
>>
>> RRF
>>
>> 10
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate) (090208)
>>
>> CHARM (Kamayani and Ashish)
>>
>> Rs. 1,00,000
>>
>> EB
>>
>> RRF
>>
>> 11
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate) (092208)
>>
>> AID India (Dharmendra Kumar)
>>
>> Rs. 4,00,000
>>
>> EB
>>
>> RRF
>>
>> 12
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate) (090808)
>>
>> Aakar Charitable Trust (Vivek Umrao)
>>
>> Rs. 4,00,000
>>
>> EB
>>
>> RRF
>>
>> 13
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate) (090308)
>>
>> GOONJ (working with AID India)
>>
>> Rs. 4,00,000
>>
>> EB
>>
>> RRF
>>
>> 14
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate)
>>
>> BSFC (Daniel Manzgaonkar)
>>
>> Rs. 2,00,000
>>
>> EB
>>
>> RRF
>>
>> 15
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate)
>>
>> AID India (Dharmendra Kumar)
>>
>> Rs. 1,00,000
>>
>> Bay area
>>
>> Chapter
>>
>> 16
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate)
>>
>> AID India (Dharmendra Kumar)
>>
>> Rs. 40,000
>>
>>
>>
>> Seattle
>>
>> Chapter
>>
>> 17
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate)
>>
>> AID India (Dharmendra Kumar)
>>
>> Rs. 80,000
>>
>> Blacksburg
>>
>> Chapter
>>
>> 18
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate)
>>
>> AID India (Dharmendra Kumar)
>>
>> Rs. 1,50,000
>>
>> Clemson
>>
>> Chapter
>>
>> 19
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate)
>>
>> AID India (Dharmendra Kumar)
>>
>> Rs. 1,25,000
>>
>> Columbus
>>
>> Chapter
>>
>> 20
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate)
>>
>> AID India (Dharmendra Kumar)
>>
>> Rs. 2,50,000
>>
>> Boise
>>
>> Chapter
>>
>> 21
>>
>> Bihar Flood Relief
>>
>> (immediate) for Saupul district (102208)
>>
>> AID India (Dharmendra Kumar)
>>
>> ...
>>
>> [Message clipped]
>
>
>
> --
> Last ball.
> 3 runs to win.
> What a shot!
> They are running...
> One...four! India!!
> oneforindia.org
>
--
Last ball.
3 runs to win.
What a shot!
They are running...
One...four! India!!
oneforindia.org
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Madad Bihar 2008" group.
To post to this group, send email to madad-bihar-2008@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to madad-bihar-2008+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/madad-bihar-2008?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
No comments:
Post a Comment