More staff come out and pin ActionAid bosses
Jul 06, 2014
More ActionAid staff members have come out with information accusing how managers of running down the organisation.
By Chris Kiwawulo
More ActionAid staff members have come out with information accusing managers of running down the organisation.
Two weeks ago, Saturday Vision ran an article about internal wrangles, a land deal and staff dismissals at ActionAid, Uganda.
After that story, an employee, who preferred anonymity, told Saturday Vision that the organisation was steadily going down the drain under the tutelage of country director Arthur Larok.
The employee accused Larok of positioning himself in such a way that no one can question his powers.
“ActionAid policy states that for one to become a member of the governing board, they must be elected. What recently happened is that they (top bosses) secretly looked for people whom they presented to the general assembly for endorsement,” the staff said.
The concerned employee also questioned the manner in which Larok chooses partners that ActionAid funds.
“The previous system was that partners must be pre-assessed. This year, he sent out a list of new partners, without notifying the old ones that he had pulled out. When Irene Kharono, the former programmes director, questioned it, she was served with a two-week exit notice,” the source said.
When contacted, Larok asked for details of the official who raised the issues ‘so that we get to them directly’.
Saturday Vision last month learnt that one of the officials in the organisation petitioned the international secretariat in South Africa, saying the humanitarian organisation had bought land at an allegedly inflated cost, without following proper procedures and that part of it was in a wetland.
The petition indicated that Larok and finance director Edward Iruura were behind the purchase of a one-acre piece of land at sseguku, Wakiso district, at sh600m ‘when the actual value was sh200m’.
However, ActionAid maintains that they did not violate any laws or organisation policy while purchasing the land.
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