The weather was decidedly British on Saturday; it was grey, cold and wet. Such unusual weather for Rwanda was particularly unfortunate for the traditional wedding I attended! In the hope that the weather would clear up, we sat eagerly waiting for two hours, but to no avail. It did not stop raining all day long. So the show went on, and the people I attended with did their best to interpret what was going on. There was singing and dancing by cow herders, the timeless tradition of giving and receiving orange fanta, and a long process of witty negotiations between the two families (possibly lost in translation). The groom’s family asked for the bride’s hand in marriage, the bride’s family pretended she had already been taken by another man, to which the groom’s family responded “oh, but don’t you remember, she was promised to a man, but he turned out to be a priest, so they never married!” It went on...
At the weekends, I have been exploring the country as much as possible. A few weeks back, we arrange a trip to Lake Kivu, and over 20 people ended up coming along. I learnt that some Rwandans like to party hard so was almost relieved to go back to work on the Monday! Last weekend, fancying a quieter weekend and long hike, we set off in the general direction of some coffee plantations. Along the way, we came across a dozen or so prisoners sitting on the side of the road, wearing brightly coloured-coded jump suits depending on the offence they had committed, and seemingly unattended. Hundreds of their fellow inmates were working in the paddy fields in the valley below. It really intrigues me that none of them seem to run off. After a hilly 15 km, we felt almost triumphant to come across a coffee washing station, run by a women’s co-operative. One of the women kindly showed us around, acting out the process as we knew only a few shared words. And then we set off to walk home. But if I’m honest, we got pretty tired, so hitched a lift and visited our second co-op of the day, an ice-cream parlour back in Butare (the university town of Rwanda).
It can’t always be time for adventures; I need to earn my keep. Having been here for over a month now, I feel like I might actually have started to be useful! You were warned by the blog title...
The main project I am working on is the implementation of a reporting and monitoring process, which will support the recent expansion of PIH's activities to fund around 40 health centres. The aim is for each health centre to submit a monthly financial return, with a budget summary, detailed breakdown of expenditure, petty cash count results and a bank reconciliation. The PIH district accountants will then visit each health centre on a regular basis to verify the reported expenditure, and monitor controls over general expenditure, payroll and cash.
Having developed a proforma for the health centre monthly returns, and an audit template for the PIH teams to use, I spent last week out and about with the Burera district team performing our first audits, and teaching the health centre accountants how to complete their monthly returns, how to perform bank reconciliations, and so forth. Initially, it was planned that I would do a couple of visits with each accountant until they are confident with the process, but they have decided they want me to attend as many of the first audits as possible, so I should be kept out of mischief for at least the next month! This week I am working with the Kirehe district team. It is pretty fun work as we get to go out and about and see some remote countryside (unfortunately the remoteness almost always makes for a very bumpy journey), and I’m collecting a stash of telephone numbers of new friends I make along the way. After spending a day grilling one health centre accountant, she gave me a huge hug, thanked me for visiting her, and said she’d never had a British friend before. Not quite how auditor independence is meant to work, but there we go!
The stock count went well a few weeks back. We started by counting food packages, which were spot on, but I was sceptical that the stationary cupboard would be so well accounted for. It is a small room, absolutely crammed full to the roof, with no apparent logic or order. I was proved wrong. When I called out 102 blue bic biros, there was a short period of rummaging but low and behold, they had exactly 102 biros!
Otherwise, Excel training continues, and I have been updating and creating finance forms for purchase orders, payment requests, petty cash withdrawals, etc. We have also updated job descriptions for all the finance team, and have been working with them to ensure they are clear of their roles. It is the first step towards introducing a performance appraisal system across the whole organisation, the success of which will be interesting to follow.
A doctor who is working on a new sister project in Mali has been visiting for the past few weeks to try and learn lessons from the project here. He even seems interested in accounting and audit, so I’ve also been spending some time with him, teaching him debits and credits, discussing internal controls and explaining how to account for restricted funds!
