Annual Report 2018

Many will remember 2018 as the year the DRC elected a new President. Corruption in the mining sector and in the electoral process, devastating suicide attacks and the spread of Ebola in the Beni region filled the headlines. By the end of the year, it was hard to find much to celebrate or to hope for.

Many people will recognise this gloomy picture. Yet at CERC we also saw many reasons to stay hopeful in 2018. The following pages tell some of the stories that inspired us during the year.

Our community monitors and volunteers worked hard to reduce corruption and build integrity in their schools and communities, often at great personal risk, and some achieved exceptional results. These results transform the lives of people in communities affected by widespread corruption. They prove that investment in local efforts can reduce corruption and build integrity, even in some of the most difficult contexts. Much of this work can be scaled up and replicated. But this requires international donors who are willing to shift the balance of power in favour of local integrity builders, including with more funding.

This report covers January to December 2018. It shows how CERC created and strengthened the demand for transparency, kept raising the voice against corruption and, in many cases, helped bring positive change in policies and practices for the control of corruption and for good governance in the country.

I thank government leaders at national and local level, who have always welcomed us with open arms and been ready to work with us. This partnership has brought positive change.

Capacity building plays a significant role in strengthening the skills of people and communities to fight corruption in the DRC. CERC trained a number of stakeholders on transparency and accountability. As a lead anti-corruption organisation in eastern Congo, we started or joined networks and coalitions of like-minded organisations, and we value these collaborations greatly.

We have made significant progress, but we have a long way to go. Our confidence rests on the credibility and integrity of what we do and, above all, on growing public support. Catalysing change for that public is our solemn responsibility. We sincerely welcome your ideas, critiques and suggestions for the journey ahead.

Heri Bitamala
Executive Director

CERC is a Congolese NGO set up in April 2017. It works to curb corruption in all its forms and to promote the principles of good governance. Its main objective is to engage citizens in the fight against corruption, and so to advance transparency and accountability. CERC also works to strengthen respect for basic human rights, as declared in the Congolese Constitution and in international charters.

We use every necessary means to fight corruption, improve quality of life and encourage civil society to act for transparency and accountability. We push for reform by focusing on systemic improvement of public services, and we build coalitions with other anti-corruption actors: the government, parliamentarians, the private sector, media institutions, the international community and civil society organisations.

Our approach

We work across four areas that depend on each other: the power of local people, values, institutions and laws.

• People. We are a movement against corruption, and we believe that local people are central to solving their own problems. Integrity imposed from outside rarely lasts, so we build public demand for integrity from the bottom up.
• Values. Ethics and values drive lasting change. We educate people to live by their highest ethical values.
• Laws. Effective law enforcement is crucial to prevent a culture of impunity.
• Institutions. Institutions across our societies must become more transparent, to counter corruption and be accountable to all.

Our strategy 2017–2021

Our four-year strategy (2017–2021) aims to deliver more impact for communities affected by mismanagement and corruption in public services. It grows out of our commitment to give young people who risk their lives fighting corruption, in a challenging environment, the resources they need for their work, and to amplify their voices and their actions. It has four goals:

1. Diagnose corruption issues and use the findings to stimulate more informed debates and to design further anti-corruption projects.
2. Build and support partnerships and coalitions of civil society organisations to fight corruption more effectively.
3. Engage citizens and young people in promoting integrity more actively.
4. Build the foundations of our organisational governance and our operational structure.

2018 was the second year of the strategy, and we made encouraging progress towards these goals. The stories that follow show how.

Under the third goal of our strategy, CERC works for transparency and accountability in public services, with a special focus on education. Integrity Action funds our projects in this area, and much was achieved in 2018.

SHINE is a community monitoring project. It promotes transparency and social accountability in Congolese education by mobilising students to track the services provided in secondary schools. Its approach is new: it combines integrity education, in Integrity Clubs at school, with community monitoring on the ground and the use of ICT.

In 2018, the programme supported 300 students, 40 teachers and 20 principals from 20 secondary schools. It gave them the resources and skills to fight inefficient and corrupt education services and infrastructure projects in Uvira. The project covered the communities of Uvira, Kiliba, Sange, Luberizi, Bwegera and Luvungi.

The young people received thematic and technical training in anti-corruption, citizenship, transparency and accountability, inclusion and gender equality, leadership, and Community Integrity Building. They learned to identify problems linked to corrupt governance, and to mobilise stakeholders to make secondary schools more transparent and accountable. The project also gave youth monitors the means to follow education services in schools and infrastructure projects in their communities.

Students taking part in CERC programmes around the Uvira territory reported feeling significantly more confident in overcoming barriers to education, making decisions about their education, setting goals for themselves and voicing their own opinions. And thanks to the fast, effective monitoring and advocacy of the Integrity Clubs, 1,780 students across Uvira can study in safer conditions.

Targets are CERC’s share of the SHINE results framework; full figures in the SHINE project report 2017–2020. “–”: not reported.

The Integrity Club saved my life.

Yvette Rosalive Meucca, Integrity Club leader

Instability, poverty and natural disasters have undermined the delivery of basic services such as education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and many schools across the country have deteriorated. Millions of children, girls in particular, have very limited or no access to education. Pervasive corruption in the education sector also hinders schools’ ability to teach well. Children already distressed by violence and poverty can be broken by corruption that never finds practical solutions.

The SHINE project, funded by Integrity Action, is having a great impact on secondary education in the DRC. It mobilises young people to monitor education infrastructure and services, and to work with stakeholders to make sure problems are fixed. Faced with a lack of adequate school buildings and education materials, 300 students (148 boys and 152 girls) were trained as community monitors. They inspect education services and advocate with decision-makers and key stakeholders to find and carry out solutions.

Since February, these students have monitored infrastructure and education services in 20 secondary schools, and helped to resolve 22% of the problems identified in education.

Three toilets for 590 students

In January, CERC formed a group of community monitors to oversee education services at a school in Luvungi. They found that the school did not meet minimum education standards: it had too few toilets and classrooms for the number of students enrolled.

Some students sat three or four to a desk, with 70 to 90 students in a classroom built for only 50. In some classrooms, water poured onto the students when it rained, and lessons stopped until the rain ended. There were only three toilets for 590 students.

The monitors brought all the key stakeholders together to raise awareness of the problems and agree on solutions. In these meetings, they convinced school officials to build extra toilets and classrooms.

In October 2018, the new classrooms were completed. A block of eight latrines was under construction, and the school kept raising funds to rehabilitate other classrooms. Students in the improved schools now have better sanitary facilities, and classrooms with enough space for every student on the school benches. One school in Luvungi also built separate sanitary facilities for girls and boys.

Empowerment and participation give young people, people living with disabilities and members of marginalised groups the knowledge and skills to act responsibly and to play an active role in social, economic and political decisions. CERC actively sought out students from marginalised minority groups, who faced many barriers and challenges because of their identity and of systemic oppression.

With the SHINE project, CERC built gender equality and social inclusion into every part of its Community Integrity Building programme, and supported partner schools to reduce inequality and exclusion. In 2018, Integrity Clubs reached 277 girls, and 47 people with disabilities took part.

With this investment, women, girls and everyone at risk of exclusion in the communities where CERC works can act with integrity and demand it, and take an active part in building institutions for a state that is open, accountable and responsive to their needs.

Students from minority groups took on extra leadership roles in their groups. Taking part empowered them: they monitored education and infrastructure services in their schools and communities, and many of them felt less excluded as a result. The diversity of the young people also made the groups stronger.

On 8 and 9 December 2018, CERC worked with 35 secondary schools in Uvira to involve students in International Anti-Corruption Day, under the slogan “United Against Corruption for Development, Peace and Security”.

The campaign aimed to raise public awareness of the costs of corruption in education, to draw attention to national and local efforts against corruption, and to promote integrity and good governance in education.

The 2018 campaign was remarkably successful. It won public commitments from national governments to fight corruption, strengthened dialogue between civil society and governments, and raised awareness of the costs of corruption, encouraging people to take a stand against it.

CERC Executive Director Heri Bitamala issued an official statement on International Anti-Corruption Day. He stressed that tackling corruption is essential to build responsive, capable and inclusive institutions that meet the needs of their people.

The campaign had strong media coverage. Radio programmes widely covered national activities before, on and after the day. Posts on Twitter and Facebook promoted the launch events and helped reach thousands of people. Public events such as a 3-kilometre march drew large crowds. CERC estimates that the campaign reached about 15,000 people.

In January 2018, we launched the ALAC. It follows a model developed by TI and used in more than 30 countries around the world, adapted to the Congolese context.

ALAC allowed CERC to mobilise pro bono lawyers to handle corruption cases. Programmes on local radio stations brought ALAC to people living outside Uvira city.

In 2018, 193 people contacted ALAC for legal advice: at the CERC office, through a dedicated WhatsApp number and by email. Awareness-raising activities, radio spots and communication materials made ALAC more visible, which explains the high number of reports.

Of the 193 contacts, 83% sought legal help for cases unrelated to corruption, a recurring problem for CERC. These cases mainly concerned land disputes (25% of all cases unrelated to corruption) and justice cases (19%). People who came to learn about ALAC’s mission made up 2% of all contacts. Finally, 15% of contacts came to report a case of corruption. Nearly half of these contacts were young people.

Most corruption reports (89%) were sent, with supporting files, to the OSCEP (Observatoire pour la Surveillance de la Corruption et l’Ethique Professionnelle) at the High Court. The ALAC team also compiled complaint files (7% of reports) and wrote letters to the government institutions concerned (4% of cases).

By the end of 2018, the closure of the ALAC project appeared inevitable.

Research, analysis and information on corruption are dominated by external actors, think tanks and universities. Much of this research is valuable, but very little of it draws on the experience and knowledge of local practitioners on the frontline of corruption, or is led by local organisations. Without the local perspective, the analysis of the context is incomplete and, at worst, dangerously misleading. We aim to change this.

Households Corruption Perception Report

In 2017, we published our report on households’ perception of corruption. It followed a citizen consultation in 7 territories of South Kivu, in which around 980 people were interviewed. In 2018, we shared the report with local civil society organisations and directly with the government institutions cited as most corrupt. We also distributed it at multi-stakeholder meetings with OCHA. Our partners regard it as a key resource in the field.

People Choosing Integrity

In December 2018, we launched an online platform, People Choosing Integrity, to give more voice to people who actively promote integrity, through its Integrity Building mapping feature. Each month, the platform will map live incidents of corruption and integrity building initiatives, so that People Choosing Integrity can offer focused, expert analysis of data on corruption and integrity building.

In 2019, we will make sure that the People Choosing Integrity blog features the best local analysis of corruption issues and integrity building responses, and we will make the site more interactive to increase online engagement.

Local organisations rarely get the chance to engage with governments and others in power. There are many reasons for this. Government leaders, local organisations and the UN often do not know that local organisations are there. Local organisations struggle to travel to and communicate with governments. And in the dominant model of aid, donors and governments deal with a small number of large international NGOs.

We are determined to change this. When local people can share their knowledge and views with those in power, the policies and practice of governments and others are more likely to meet the needs and realities of people living in communities affected by endemic corruption.

We work with allies across sectors to increase advocacy, support and participation in decision-making, policy and practice for integrity building. Our marketing and communications strengthen our position with key audiences as a leader in locally led integrity building, and in mapping, convening and supporting local integrity builders.

Local Voice for Integrity

In 2018, we supported an Integrity Exchange Workshop in Bukavu, where 6 local integrity builders from across South Kivu and North Kivu came together to discuss the current and future prospects for integrity. The workshop brought together 13 people from 6 local organisations and 2 Ministry of Education representatives to analyse the causes of corruption and the prospects for integrity. They also received full Community Integrity Building training.

The workshop aimed to build networks and to share practical experience and good practice on these themes:

• effective integrity building training for CSOs;
• involving CSOs in monitoring the implementation of development projects and services, including monitoring impact and using technology;
• public participation in the development, implementation and monitoring of community projects and services;
• advocacy: planning and conducting an advocacy campaign to raise awareness for transparency in the education sector.

The initiative lets local organisations learn from each other, share best practice, and exchange ideas and strategies to build integrity and prevent corruption in their communities.

In the DRC, an access to information law is a necessity. It would allow civil society to obtain information on the activities of governments, private companies and international organisations.

In coalition with the DRC chapter of APNAC and the Collectif24, we advocate for the adoption of the Access to Information law. It would enhance transparency and accountability, and strengthen the rule of law and civic participation in the DRC through access to information and through protection for people who report corruption (“whistleblower protection”).

Throughout the year, we called for greater support to local integrity builders through our active part in thematic groups and meetings at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), including the Education Cluster, the Child Protection Working Group and the Gender Equality Working Group.

We stepped up our advocacy to the government by hosting an event with government officials, UN mission representatives and local civil society organisations. We also facilitated meetings with high-profile figures and funders, including a meeting with South Kivu provincial ministries and Steven Sharp, Country Director of Counterpart International, on community-based integrity building.

Reaching the public

We took part in several outreach events and activities, including festivals and talks, to bring CERC’s work to more people. They raised awareness of CERC, drew interest in its mission and reached new members of the public in person and through radio programmes.

Our weekly radio magazine “The Integrity Builders”, produced in Swahili and French, aired on 2 community radio stations throughout Uvira. It reached an estimated 2,000 households, in communities where electricity and televisions are rare luxuries.

Our work generated more than 5 million global media impressions, and 16 or more articles were published about the Integrity Clubs. CERC uses several social media platforms to reach a wide range of people. Our Facebook page, CERC- Centre de Recherche sur l’Anti-Corruption, gained 5,000 new likes in 2018.

Our plans for 2019

• Visit development agencies and embassies, including those of Canada, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
• Keep developing and improving how we gather stories from beneficiaries, to support advocacy.

As always, we owe our first debt of gratitude to our community monitors and teachers. They work on the frontlines of conflict and corruption, at great personal risk, to stop corruption and build integrity. Their bravery continues to inspire us, and we are honoured to work with them.

As in previous years, we could not have reached our goals without the support of a range of donors and supporters. We are grateful to Integrity Action for its continued support for our work in South Kivu. We also thank our individual donors, who continue to sustain CERC and to believe in what we do.

Last but not least, we thank the staff and volunteers of the Centre de Recherche sur l’Anti-Corruption, who give a great deal of time and effort so that the organisation achieves impact for people living in corrupt environments.

• SHINE. Integrity Action funds our projects for transparency and accountability in education, including the SHINE project (Integrity Action / NORAD). The project gave small grants of no more than 200 USD each, 3,500 USD in all, so that youth monitors could follow education services in schools and infrastructure projects in their communities. The infrastructure and education services the students monitored in 20 secondary schools are valued at over $1 million.
• ALAC. Despite CERC’s efforts to find funding, no grant could be secured during the year, and the end of the ALAC project at the end of 2018 appeared inevitable.
• Fundraising. We invest in fundraising to build strong relationships with supporters, and to diversify and grow our income. Our plans for 2019: keep developing and improving how we gather stories from beneficiaries, to support fundraising; develop a proposal for institutional and advocacy funding; attend relevant funding meetings and reach out to new donor communities.
• Thanks. We are grateful to Integrity Action for its continued financial support for our work in South Kivu, to our individual donors, and to Netsuite, which once again provided us with a free accounting application that helps improve our financial reporting.

This review covers the project SHINE, funded by Integrity Action and implemented by CERC from 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2018. It is based on the project’s audited financial statements. The accounts were audited by Group BEAG (Bureau d’Études, Audit et Capacitation en Gestion), Uvira, South Kivu; the report, signed by ALUMA Armand, principal auditor and chartered accountant (Expert-Comptable agréé), is dated 29 October 2018. The audit was carried out in accordance with international standards on auditing and covers the receipts and expenditure, the assets and equipment, and the cash position of the project. All amounts are in CDF, as in the audit report.

All projectsConsolidated statement – all projects

All of CERC’s income for the period came from one project, SHINE. This is the first year of funding: there is no previous year to compare with.

Statement of funds, by grant

For each grant: the balance brought forward from the previous year, the funds received, the funds spent, the funds returned to the donor or transferred to another grant (and adjustments), and the balance carried forward. A negative balance means spending ahead of funding. Each line says whether its figures are audited, and by which audit.

Restricted fundsFunded projects

The figures in this review cover one restricted grant: Integrity Action’s funding for the SHINE project.

• SHINE – A community monitoring project in Uvira that supported 300 students, 40 teachers and 20 principals from 20 secondary schools, through Integrity Clubs, to monitor education services and infrastructure projects; small grants amounting to 3,500 USD supported the youth monitors.

IncomeIncome

Over the period, the project received 93,925,930 CDF from Integrity Action / NORAD in three instalments: 51,006,890 CDF, 32,519,040 CDF and a third instalment of 10,400,000 CDF paid as an advance. CERC’s own contribution was 0 CDF (note 1).

ExpenditureExpenditure

Expenditure totalled 91,302,880 CDF, 89.1% of the budget of 102,481,500 CDF (note 3): 81,845,380 CDF on the seven direct project headings and 9,457,500 CDF on overheads. Personnel, the largest heading, was spent in full (32,520,000 CDF). Training & capacity building used 19,994,500 CDF of its 28,100,000 CDF budget (71.2%), and advocacy & policy engagement 2,999,550 CDF of 4,500,000 CDF (66.7%). Other costs directly related to the project – communications, office supplies, printing and bank charges – were overspent (6,196,080 CDF, 134.7% of budget), and overheads slightly exceeded their budget (101.5%).

According to the auditor, expenditure did not reach 100% mainly because the training of civil society organisations planned in Kinshasa was held in Bukavu, the budget being too small for Kinshasa (flights, accommodation, training costs) and too large to be fully spent in Bukavu, as all participants came from North and South Kivu. Bank charges were well above budget (248.0%), owing to fees on transfers through FBNBank and its intermediary bank in the USA and the Central Bank of Congo’s levy on transfers above the equivalent of US$10,000; CERC changed banks to reduce them.

Receipts of 93,925,930 CDF less expenditure of 91,302,880 CDF left a balance of 2,623,050 CDF at 30 September 2018, held in CERC’s cash box (note 4). The auditor also certified the project’s assets and equipment, valued at 7,576,000 CDF (note 5).

AuditIndependent auditor’s report

On the basis of the checks carried out, our opinion is that the financial statements of SHINE project, closed at 30 September 2018 by the financial and accounting services of CERC, give a true and fair view, in all material respects, of the situation and of its position at 30 September 2018, in accordance with the accounting rules, CERC’s procedures and Integrity Action’s guidelines for the justification of expenditure.

Without calling this opinion into question, the auditor noted that the project’s budget narrative, the financial reporting tool (an MS Excel database), the electronic and paper cash books and the supporting documents for all sampled expenditure were in place. The main observations concern shortcomings in applying CERC’s procedure manuals for the purchase of goods and the management of human resources: no regular or surprise cash counts, an inventory of project assets of limited quality, income tax and social contributions not paid on staff salaries, employment contracts not validated by the State employment office, and low salaries that do not reflect the positions actually held or living conditions in the area.

Funding policyOur sources of funding

CERC is funded by institutional donors, through grants restricted to projects, and by individual donors. In 2018, Integrity Action funded the SHINE project: CERC accounted for the project’s expenditure under Integrity Action’s guidelines for the justification of expenditure, and the project accounts were independently audited for the period to 30 September 2018. Netsuite provided CERC with a free accounting application, which helps to improve its financial reporting. No grant could be secured during the year for the ALAC project, despite CERC’s efforts to seek funding; for 2019, CERC planned to develop a proposal for institutional and advocacy funding and to reach out to new donor communities.

Note 1Receipts by instalment and source of funding, 1 October 2017 – 30 September 2018

Note 2Receipts against budget

Note 3Project expenditure against budget

Note 4Cash position at 30 September 2018

The cash balance of 2,623,050 CDF was held in CERC’s cash box.

Note 5Project assets and equipment

The auditor certified the project’s assets and equipment, valued at 7,576,000 CDF: 2 office desks, 3 plain wooden tables, 2 wooden shelves, 3 wooden shelving units, 6 red-wood cane chairs, 1 printer, 1 laptop, 1 desktop computer, 2 wheeled office chairs, 1 power generator, 1 Wi-Fi modem, 10 ITEL Android phones and 10 TECHNO Android phones.

Source: audit report of Group BEAG (ALUMA Armand, Expert-Comptable agréé), 29 October 2018 (translated from French). Full report: audit report 2017–2018 (PDF).