A UN agency that will remain unnamed wrote us a check for our services but asked us not to cash it until they managed to get cash in their account. The funds are already months overdue, the program and evaluation close to horribly compromised.
Another financial institution is six months late paying my staff, in spite of a contract. I am advancing my RAs personal funds as we speak, just to keep them afloat.
This is all bad enough, but imagine I were a small local NGO with no liquidity or ability to borrow. That describes half my colleagues in Uganda and Liberia–remarkable people with remarkable community organizations, strung out cashless by their irresponsible donors.
If we could move the debate from paying more aid to actually paying out the existing aid, I would be a happy man…
Unfortunately, this is not unique to the aid industry. As a working freelance journalist, my pay check is actually a bunch of small payments. And, unfortunately for me, I spend as much time chasing over due invoices as I do chasing payment. I actually stopped working for a certain pale blue-logo-ed news org because it was just that difficult to get paid.
This is a revealing post. I'll be wary of loan applicants who say they have blue-logo contracts. Of course with the recent procurement scandals, the head offices are probably vetting more invoices
This is actually very common at certain international organizations. Procurement and disbursement guidelines are strict and there are many people involved in reviewing a transaction before cash is paid for anything. Indirectly paying for goods or services is a nightmare, close to impossible. Paying consultant fees is easier. Easiest may be to set up consultant contracts for your RAs with that organization, instead of relying on having their compensation disbursed to an NGO or university first.