Madam, - It is of course legitimate to complain about corruption in Uganda, as John O'Shea of Goal does repeatedly, and also about some aspects of the manner in which the last election was run. It is also reasonable to question the real agendas of some of the aid organisations, their programmes, their methods of working, etc.
The purpose of basket funding - ie direct payments to government for use as general revenue support - is to help build up responsible government by locating decision-making in the recipient country. This must be a good thing; but it also puts huge temptations in the way of people who are no more venal than elsewhere in the world, only less adept at covering their tracks. At one time 14 expatriate accountants were located in the finance ministry to ensure proper procedures were followed; now there is one.
Might I suggest that, with all his skills of communication, John O'Shea should be positive and should try to persuade donors to put in place proper and permanent procedures to follow the money trail. When the Global Fund sent in auditors to Uganda's ministry of health, large sums of money were recovered. The pity was they were not there from the start - not to interfere with legitimate decision-making and prioritising, as those belong to the recipient country, but to ensure that the money goes where it was intended.
Most people working on the ground believe that much aid is wasted, even when delivered direct to NGOs, principally because local people are not really engaged in the work because they did not initiate it out of their own perceived need. That is why the Mountains of the Moon University is different. It was conceived at the grass roots; and it is staffed by local people with a real sense of mission, wanting to do things in a new way and knowing they will make a real difference to their country if they succeed.
Without the generous support of one or two individuals we would never have reached the position we are now in, beginning to be recognised as a new and creative force in the field of education in Uganda. - Yours, etc,
Dr PATRICK DAVEY, (Volunteer with Volunteer Missionary Movement), Vice Chancellor, Mountains of the Moon University, Fort Portal, Uganda.
Madam, - Prof Michael Fitzgerald (July 22nd) tells us to disregard the call by John O'Shea of Goal to stop wasting taxpayers' money by channelling it through a government that his experience tells him is corrupt and venal. Prof Fitzgerald rather pompously tells us that he has satisfied himself to the contrary. Can I ask in what way he is qualified to make such a judgment and whether his visit to Uganda was supported by a vested interest?
I do not know what his professorship is in, but I would need a lot more convincing to disregard the opinion of John O'Shea, whose authority on these matters is well earned by experience in the field. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL ANDERSON, Moyclare Close, Baldoyle, Dublin 13.