Annual Report 2019

When we opened our doors 2 years ago, we knew that the task ahead would not be an easy one- but with the dedication and commitment of our small team, as well as the support we received from the donors, media and select groups within the public and private sector, we have significant strides in the field of anti-corruption.

From mobilization campaigns to capacity building workshops at a grassroot level – it has been a busy but fruitful two years for our integrity heroes. But, the real heroes of our story are the courageous 1000 people who have join us to date.

We celebrate integrity builders who have risked their lives like Integrity Club’s members who travelled every month close to 5km from Luberizi to Tengetenge to monitor the rehabilitation of Irrigation Canal and report mismanagement in its implementation, and the Integrity Club member who compromised their school participation to expose graft at their school in Sange. We also acknowledge CERC staff members who reported several cases of corruption in road traffic in Uvira and has been continuously victimized and harassed for their assistance in helping us highlight the corruption. These are only a few examples of the courageous, but difficult journeys that our integrity heroes had to travel when facing corruption. These individuals are key to the work that we do at Centre de Recherche sur l’Anti-Corruption. They enable us to speak with authority of the public and to amplify the experiences of the ordinary members of our community. Our Integrity heroes have assisted in strengthening our democracy and in ensuring that public resources are deployed in the public interest.

We are also continuously overwhelmed by the support that we receive from the general public. Many people might not have a case of corruption to report to us, but still express interest in our movement.

We are grateful to all those that have shared the fruits of our work across all social networks, have engaged with us and joined our mobilization campaigns, as well as the donations that we received in their biggest or smallest forms – we are thankful. It is through this support that we continue with our work for the next few years to come and provide a key service to the Congolese people.

2019 was a politically charged year. Corruption in presidential and legislative elections, and of governors, the overwhelming files of corruption involving the government officials are all examples of the growing dissatisfaction of the general public who are seeking change from the current state of leadership.

Heri Bitamala
Founder and Executive Director

History

CERC was created in 2017 by the Heri Bitamala with the aim of empowering youth to fight against corruption and build integrity in their communities.

CERC has grown into a network of 1000 young people supporting each other and their efforts to monitor vital projects and services where they live, and to solve the problems they find.

Mission statement

We believe in the power and potential of youth to create solutions to some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

Driven by this belief, our mission is to “support youth to create positive change towards a more accountable, open, inclusive society”. We do this by providing skills development, capacity building and technical supports.

Anti-corruption

We are committed to fight corruption and helping create a corruption-free society by:

• Encouraging and enabling people to expose corruption by asking them to report their expiries and knowledge of corruption to us;
• Encouraging people to refuse to participate in corruption, through mass media campaigns that inform the public about their rights and the negative consequences of corruption;
• Building networks of integrity heroes and creating environment that does not tolerate corruption;
• Making every effort to ensure that those who engage in corruption will be punished, by referring our reports and investigations to law enforcement authorities;
• Using our communication platforms and our partnerships with the media to name and shame perpetrators of corruption;
• Actively participating in public campaigns to improve the policy and legislative environment, and
• Gathering data that we are able to identify corruption hotspots and provide the public with information that enables them to hold their leaders to account.

Youth participation in decision-making

We believe development works best When youth participate in decision-making in their own communities. When youth work with their leaders to ensure their needs are met and public commitments are fulfilled. We strive to ensure youth have the knowledge, skills, abilities and tools to make that a reality.

1. Give youth a stake in their own communities

Our programs help youth engage in the planning and monitoring of government programs in their communities. Youth gain and share knowledge to help communities make decisions, along with the skills to constructively engage, with authorities and hold public officials accountable. Increased youth participation also means more public oversight and less opportunity for corruption.

2. Community feedback mechanisms

For youth to exercise effective accountability, they need a set of standards that those responsible are expected to meet, indicators against which performance is measured, and monitoring frameworks to produce data that assesses performance. Most of our programs use community monitoring on the quality of services to improve their effectiveness in achieving intended results, involving a range of instruments, including citizen reports and community scorecards, citizen budget monitoring and expenditure tracking, and using media pressure.

3. Connecting citizens to their local governments

Our programs encourage dialogue between youth and their governments. Citizens and service providers commonly have a shared objective of improving the quality of public services. Many of our programs focus on improving citizen feedback to service providers, supported by hard evidence and data and the preparation of authorities to receive citizen feedback. The result is better communication, better decision making, and better development results.

Promoting integrity is an intergenerational process. At CERC, we focus on young people as catalysts for change for several reasons:

1. young people are more mobile and dynamic. We can develop their know-how and their ability to make decisions in order to generate new ways to support the promotion of transparency;
2. young people are often marginalized by hierarchical, opaque and unequal decision-making structures and are better placed to change these systems if they have the tools, knowledge and resources they need;
3. More than half of the Congolese population is now under 35 years and it is imperative to engage this group in the development of a system that works better for them;
4. Young people today are more connected than ever thanks to the tools that allow them to discuss, share and collaborate. This offers an unprecedented comparative perspective in the society and the replication of good practices from one place to another online and offline;

Led by local people, we tackle the causes of corruption at the root, and rebuild hope after decades of widespread corruption and mismanagement that undermined the social services in South-Kivu. We are dedicated to making integrity a practical option for as many people as possible, and these figures highlight some key successes in 2019.

In line with its strategic plan 2017-2021, CERC has since its inception left no stone unturned to engage youth in the promotion of integrity and good governance by adopting novel and impact-oriented approaches. One of these approaches gearing towards grooming a new breed of reasonable citizens has been the setting of integrity clubs in secondary schools since 2017.

The philosophy behind the project is that youth must be empowered and provided with right opportunities to engage in the fight against corruption because they have power to change socio-economic setting. ICs are such platforms where youth can reflect on the problem, voice out their views and interact with through a myriad of community monitoring activities.

In 2019, the project has gathered momentum and reached 55 clubs which are now operational in secondary school in Uvira and Bukavu (South-Kivu). From feedback received, impact has been visible in the short term, in very many schools, for example students and staff are more cautious about their behaviour and promote their right conduct. We have also seen a growing number of young people participating actively in anti-corruption activities such as debate, sketch, painting, production of short films etc. Clubs members are now being encouraged to consider moving out of schools’ boundaries to promote integrity and organise inter-ICs activities.

“With Integrity Clubs established in 55 secondary schools in Uvira and Bukavu, students, parents and the whole community have better ability to hold schools accountable for quality of education services provided.”

Heri Bitamala, Executive Director

A series of initiatives have been undertaken by the CERC to boost up the Integrity Club project. In 2019, a training of School Facilitators (educators designated by Principals to guide members and assist the clubs) was conducted in January and February 2019 to empower them on the essential of the anti-corruption legal framework, and discuss ways and means to render ICs more interactive and visible.

Over and above a series of interactions on the concept of “Integrity”, the CERC so organised a march against corruption at provincial level with 100 members of ICs in December 2019 in in response to high-level corruption in education and key social sectors in South-Kivu. The ICs member led by the CERC handed over the memorandum of demands to government officials, which included a demand for government intervention in the fighting corruption in the education sector. The ICs members also urged the government to rehabilitate and equip the schools to allow the little Congolese to study in the best conditions.

More so, after leaving school, members are encouraged to pursue their engagement against corruption via other established platforms such as “Les bâtisseurs de l’intégrité” and the Independent Agency Against Corruption. We expect that the youth, imbued with the principles of integrity, demonstrate resistance and intolerance to corruption and malpractices.

This financial review covers the second year of the project Students Acting for Honesty, Integrity and Equality (SHINE), from 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2019, carried out by CERC with funding from Integrity Action (NORAD, project reference NORAD/SHINE/DRC2). It is based on the project’s financial statements, closed at 30 September 2019 by the finance and accounting services of CERC, and on the audit report of Group BEAG (Group Bureau d’Études, Audits et Capacitation en Gestion, Uvira), principal auditor Aluma Armand, chartered accountant (Expert Comptable Agréé), dated 14 October 2019, in Uvira. The audit was conducted in accordance with international standards on auditing. Amounts are in Congolese francs (CDF), as in the audit report. The figures for 1 October 2018 – 30 September 2019 have been audited.

All projectsConsolidated statement – all projects

Income, expenditure and balances of all projects combined, compared with the previous year (October 2017 – September 2018).

Categories: staff costs (salaries and benefits); programme activities (work with students, schools, communities and youth organisations, research, advocacy, awareness raising and training of beneficiaries); travel and transport where reported separately; rent, running costs and equipment (rent, office, utilities, communication, supplies, printing, equipment, other direct costs and bank charges); professional fees, staff training and audit; administration and overheads. Audited: SHINE audit, year 2. Audited: SHINE audit, year 1 (notes 1, 3 and 4).

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.

¹ Students Acting for Honesty, Integrity and Equality (SHINE), Oct 2018 – Sep 2019. Opening balance: the year 1 balance of 2,623,050 CDF (notes 1 and 4 of the audit). Closing balance at 30 September 2019: 2,027,803 CDF. In US dollars, each year is converted at its own average rate, hence a small difference of US$24.76 between the year 1 closing and the year 2 opening balances.

Policy 002Compliance and reporting standards

This section applies to this report the corrections made on CERC’s financial accountability page (cerc.cd/en/our-financial-accountability/): the compliance of each grant with Policy 002, every difference between reports, accounts and audits – explained, or open and shown in red – and the score of this report against the reporting standard of Policy 002, for a target of 80%.

Compliance with Policy 002: 100%

Average of the rules met (1), partly met (½) and not met (0) by each grant in Oct 2018 – Sep 2019.

Differences between reports, accounts and audits

Reporting standard of Policy 002: 88%

This report meets the target of 80%.

Restricted fundsFunded projects

All the figures in this review relate to one project, funded by a grant from Integrity Action, with funding from NORAD, and restricted to that project.

• SHINE – Integrity Clubs in 55 secondary schools in Uvira and Bukavu (South Kivu), through which students, parents and the whole community hold schools accountable for the quality of education services; training of School Facilitators, teachers, headteachers and Integrity Club leaders; tablets for youth monitoring; and advocacy and policy engagement through joint working group (JWG) meetings.

IncomeIncome

The funds available to the project for the year amounted to 75 825 450 CDF: the balance from year 1 (2 623 050 CDF) and two tranches of 36 601 200 CDF each from Integrity Action/NORAD (note 1). In all, Integrity Action transferred 73,202,400 CDF during the year (note 4); CERC made no contribution of its own to the project’s funds.

The auditor notes that the balance from year 1 had not been taken into account in resource planning (note 4).

ExpenditureExpenditure

Expenditure at 30 September 2019 amounted to 73 797 647 CDF, against a budget of 75,368,480 CDF including overheads: an expenditure rate of 97.9 % and a variance of 1,570,833 CDF (note 3). Direct project costs amounted to 66,946,147 CDF and overheads to 6,851,500 CDF. The main headings were personnel (24,960,000 CDF, spent in full), training and capacity building (12,587,147 CDF), Integrity Clubs expenses and monitoring (11,949,500 CDF), and awareness raising, sensitisation and engagement with schools and communities (5,903,150 CDF).

Spending exceeded the budget on two lines. On line 3.a, spending reached 128.4 % of the budget because the global partners workshop, planned in Kenya, took place in Nepal, and the flights cost more; bank charges (line 7.a) reached 115.3 % of the budget. Nothing was spent on line 3.c because the awards ceremony was postponed to December 2019, as students could not be brought together during the long holidays (June–September).

AuditIndependent auditor’s report

Group BEAG audited the accounts of the SHINE project for the period from 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2019, in accordance with international standards on auditing. The auditor’s opinion reads:

“On the basis of the checks carried out, our opinion is that the financial statements of the Students Acting for Honesty, Integrity and Equality (SHINE) project, closed at 30 September 2019 by the finance and accounting services of CERC, give a true and fair view, in all material respects, of the position and its state at 30 September 2019, in accordance with the accounting rules, the procedures of CERC and Integrity Action’s guidelines for the justification of expenditure.”

Aluma Armand, Principal Auditor, Group BEAG

Without qualifying this opinion, the auditor noted that the main observations concern gaps in applying CERC’s procedure manuals for the purchase of goods, and the partial implementation of the previous audit’s recommendations.

Funding policyOur sources of funding

CERC is funded by institutional donors, through grants restricted to projects, and by donations from its supporters. In 2018–2019, the SHINE project was funded by Integrity Action, with funding from NORAD. The project has its approved budget; expenditure is justified in accordance with CERC’s procedures and Integrity Action’s guidelines for the justification of expenditure, and the project accounts are independently audited – the year 2 audit also reviewed the implementation of the previous audit’s recommendations.

Note 1Funds available, 1 October 2018 – 30 September 2019

Note 2Income, budget and actual (CDF)

As printed in the audit report. The difference between 75,368,480 and 73,797,647 is 1,570,833 CDF, the variance shown at the foot of the expenditure table below.

Note 3Overall project expenditure, budget and actual (CDF)

Note 4Cash balance at 30 September 2019

The auditor notes that the previous year’s balance had not been taken into account in resource planning, which explains the difference between the variance in the financial report (1,570,832.62 CDF) and the cash balance (2,027,803 CDF).

The audit also certifies the project’s assets and equipment for year 2, of 2 918 000 FC: one laptop, one voltage converter, one cupboard, one router and 17 smartphones.

Source: audit report of Group BEAG, 14 October 2019 (translated from French; amounts in Congolese francs, CDF, as in the original). Full report: audit report 2018–2019 (PDF).