News & Events

16th May 2009 – The Daily Mail has reported today about Sentebale and the Lesotho Child Counselling Unit.

In April, we announced in our Annual Review that regretfully we were suspending support of the LCCU as they had failed to comply with basic accountability and transparency that all of our partners adhere.

Kedge Martin, Sentebale CEO said:
“I have reluctantly taken the decision for Sentebale to suspend support for the LCCU after they continually failed to comply with basic accountability and transparency for money already given to them; all of our other partners adhere to this standard NGO practice. We cannot partner organisations without absolute transparency to ensure that we are accountable to our donors, making sure that we reach the most vulnerable children in Lesotho. The children of the LCCU continue to live in the facility that we built for them and we know that they receive funds from other donors”.

It is the condition of our funding and part of our terms of agreement with each of our partners that:

• all sources of donations are disclosed to ensure that we are not double funding
• detailed budgets for income and expenditure are provided
• receipts for money spent are provided to ensure a clear audit
• an effective governance and reporting structure is established

Following the development of the LCCU, a new facility funded by Sentebale and Standard Bank, we committed ongoing funding for the LCCU, on the agreement that they would meet the terms of our standard agreement. The LCCU not only consistently failed to meet the terms of the Agreement but there were additional concerns such as some of the money being spent on private activities for the Manager, rather than the children. Many of our concerns were confirmed following an independent investigation we commissioned to assess the situation. The independent investigation did however assure us that the children were being provided with enough food so that our suspension of funding would not affect their wellbeing.

Sentebale will only fund organisations which are transparent, fully accountable and honest.

The children are still living in the well equipped new facility that we built for them and we are monitoring the situation.