May 7th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – Local South Sudanese aid entities have to pay bribes to qualify for grants from donor organizations according to a report by the Washington based organization, Devex.
A director of a local aid group who identified himself as Frank Lam told the Washington organization that he had to pay a financial officer an amount of $5,000 kickback to qualify for a $30,000 grant.
“He said there were a lot of ‘mistakes’ in our concept note, and if we didn’t want future funding to be affected, we had to pay,” Lam told Devex.
Lam said the head of his organization whom he said hadn’t received funding in years, was “desperate” and paid the bribe. Their organization won the contract afterward.
A senior political analyst and a lecturer at the University of Juba – Jacob Chol – said “If the bribery and nepotism compromising the recruitment process isn’t reined in, aid groups will be no different than the country’s fraudulent government.”
Corruption relating to the allocation of grants and jobs in South Sudan’s aid sector is rife, according to South Sudanese humanitarians, civil societies, private organizations, and local aid groups who shared their stories with the Washington-based organization.
