Corruption in the NGO sector is high on the agenda in the Norwegian NGO community, with Norwegian People’s Aid too.
More openness about this issue has led to increased debate and greater mutual learning between organisations as to prevention and handling of such cases
Alert us about corruption
Norwegian People’s Aid has a turnover of over 1 billion kroner, working with long-term development work and humanitarian mine clearance with local partners across the globe. Many of the countries in which we have a presence are considered to be among the most corrupt and conflict-filled nations in the world. This is the day-to-day situation to which we have to relate. We therefore recognize the problems but refuse to accept them. For this reason, Norwegian People’s Aid has zero tolerance for all forms of corruption. We work for a unified attitude and common approach across the whole organisation in relation to corruption and strive for full openness concerning this work.
Deficient systems and local culture often provide the seedbed of corrupt behaviour and the combination of great poverty and low wages its trigger. The problems are worst for those at the bottom of the ladder.
Corruption makes itself known in many ways but is always linked to disloyal behaviour and crime. Corruption has therefore become a taboo issue and it often requires both courage and knowledge to acknowledge that this may be a problem among one’s own ranks too. This is why Norwegian People’s Aid is concerned about creating openness and defusing the issue of corruption within the organisation.
How we work to combat corruption
We are continuously updating our anti-corruption processes and the work of improving our whistle-blowing routines and systems
Norwegian People’s Aid’s anti-corruption policy ensures that the Head Office in Oslo maintains a system for receiving and processing reports of unwanted actions or situations wherever they might arise within the organisation. In addition, we wish to include assessments of the risk of corruption in relevant tools and processes within the administration and in our project work both at home and abroad. Norwegian People’s Aid maintains an incident reporting function for all incidents that may involve non-compliance.
Responsibility for reporting incidents to Head Office lies with the individual in the programme concerned, whether in Norway or abroad. The reporting system has a wide embrace to include cases that lie in grey areas where the definition of corruption is concerned. The system helps create greater ownership of our anticorruption work across the organisation as well as making it easier to uncover cases that may not at the outset be considered as a deviation from acceptable routines or actions.
