PartnersGF -2005-04-05 

Re: [partnersgf] Of Transparency and Management Information (2)
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[Mods Note: Peter Burgess writes the following in continuation of a recent discussion thread on the effectiveness or lack thereof of organizations such as the Global Fund and the potential gaps in financial and management information. Do other colleagues share similar views? How can civil society help address these gaps in the multilateral organizations?]
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Dear Colleagues,

I am grateful for the feedback from anonymous [http://eforums.healthdev.org/read/messages?id=4893]. I apologize for rather broad strokes and sweeping generalization in my earlier comments [http://eforums.healthdev.org/read/messages?id=4887], but few of you have the time to read a more carefully stated and much longer message. I am, however, on record many times lauding the performance of great individuals while at the same time being very critical of the general performance of the official relief and development assistance (ORDA) community. As Deming would have said, it is a system problem, not a worker problem.

Last Friday I attended a forum on Africa at Columbia University. Professor
Sachs and UN Special Envoy Lewis both spoke. Masterly eloquence. It was impressive. During the course of the day the panelists all called for more money to solve the problem. Everyone seemed to understand that there was a problem, a huge problem. And everyone seemed to think that more money was the solution. At some point late in the day I suggested that more results from the same amount of money was a possible way to go, and then more money on top of an efficient performance. I did not get the impression my question was well received.

The ORDA community, and it includes academic researchers, are all in line for more funding. My proposed approach was not a good idea!

Meanwhile there is a huge problem that needs serious attention. The number of 20,000 premature deaths a day seems to be the current number in fashion. That ought to be the cause of a mobilization of global resources second to none. Why is the world not getting it? There is something terribly wrong.

I know something of management, especially I know about management information. I know about ways to stop money getting used for inappropriate purposes. I was the CFO of a corporate organization. I installed computer driven management information systems. Few people if any in the ORDA community have much background or experience in these matters, and then they wonder why the funds go missing. It is plain ridiculous. At a recent (December 2004) conference / workshop run by Transparency International out of 44 VIP/speakers only one had any accounting experience or background. At the recent launch of a report about the Chad Oil money problems, I was the only accountant in a roomful of ORDA people interested in the issues. It is not surprising that management information is ineffective in the ORDA world. It is a silly situation yet very serious.

And bringing in PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) is not going to solve the fundamental problem. It is great public relations (PR) for PWC but does not solve the systemic problem. In fact the recent involvement of PWC and its pro-bono work in connection with OCHA and tsunami funds is quite hilarious if it was not so serious. As I understand it, their focus will be on advice and on forensic work to find out where the funds have been lost and misappropriated. I would prefer to see some work on fixing the barn door before the horses have run away.

As anonymous pointed out, there are a lot of good people doing amazing work and struggling like crazy to do good stuff while the basic systemic framework is constraining them at every turn.

When there is a decent management information system, it will be possible to get resources (money and materials) to the right place without massive leakage. It will be possible to get feedback about good performance (costs in versus value out) and it will start to be possible to get more resource flows to things that are effective and much less to things that don't deliver value.

Plugging the leaks is a big job, but in my view it is key to any real success in the ORDA arena. In a good modern management information system, we can also take into consideration the value derived from free services ... the value of grandma as a caregiver is huge and not very costly ... the value of a lot of studies is not very much and the cost is huge. Most health workers don't get paid very much, and they do very valuable things. But where are the medicines? Where are the salaries? We know what GFATM has disbursed, but we don't know much at all about what it has been used for and the value it generated.

African students at the Columbia forum quietly expressed their agreement with me, but pointed out that if they were to graduate they needed to agree with their professors.

I would love to listen in on a "no-holds-barred" meeting with GFATM leadership, but I think we might make more progress establishing an efficient feedback process about GFATM resource use that is excellent and independent of the funder (GFATM). Again, this is a bit like the corporate management information model. Line management does NOT keep the books, but the accounting department does the bookkeeping and they report on the costs and results ... and are not very popular. They are valuable. They are independent. And within the accounting system there are controls to make sure that the accounts stay honest (this seems to have broken down in some recent corporate scandals, but that is the exception).

I believe GFATM management information needs a make-over. For GFATM it would be radical, but for professional management information people it really is no big deal.

Sincerely

Peter Burgess
Transparency and Accountability
a global not-for-profit Network
peterbnyc@gmail.com
Tel:               212 772 6918       
Profitinafrica@aol.com