2015 Grantmaker Survey Due Diligence, funding

Transcript:2015 Grantmaker Survey Due Diligence, funding:
2015 Grantmaker Survey Due Diligence, funding agencies, and surveys as an action-research tool Notes for a presentation to funding agencies Phnom Penh, Friday 4 March 2016 Comparing the 2014 and 2015 Surveys More grantmakers approached for the survey agreeing to participate: 69% vs 47% More funding agencies participating: 18 vs 7 More funding agencies sharing partner level data: 72% vs 29% More LNGOs covered: 93 vs 51 The 2015 samples of grantmakers and of the LNGOs funded by them are still not statistically representative of the Cambodian NGO sector 2015 LNGO results support the picture emerging from the 2014 data Data about the 47 co-funded LNGOs covered by the 2015 survey tell an interesting story about grantmakers 2 The survey Topics Funding agencies were requested to share assessments of Their LNGO partners’ quality of financial management Their LNGO partners’ quality of governance The presence/absence of fraud These data were triangulated with information from audit firms with LNGO client portfolios 3 The 2015 Survey Results How to interpret the statements about LNGO problems The grantmaker survey responses and the audit firm information are used as an evidence base for estimating the prevalence of LNGO problems The relationship between the various problems and the differences between grantmaker judgements about LNGOs are reported as present in the dataset. 4 2015 Results LNGOs problem incidence rates A quarter of the LNGO sample is reported to have serious problems by at least some of its funders Fraud: estimated at 15-20% Serious Financial Management problems: estimated as at least 25% Serious Governance problems: estimated as at least 25% 5 2015 grantmaker survey results: LNGO problems are highly interrelated 6 2015 Audit Firm Survey Results Nearly two-thirds of serious Financial Management issues (62%) not brought to light by previous external audits For fraud cases the proportion was even higher: 82% of the LNGO fraud cases that also had serious Financial management issues had previous audits that did not point out these systemic issues Conclusion: the longer NGOs (are able to) avoid proper scrutiny of their systems and are able to operate for a longer duration of time without the presence of checks and balances provided by such proper systems, the greater the likelihood of the opportunity for fraud turning into actual fraud 7 2015 Survey Results: What do they tell us about funding agencies? Triangulation with the audit firm information shows that grantmakers as a collective are