Directors
of the Global Development Group Board
Unit
6, 734 Underwood Road
Rochedale, QLD 4123
27th Feb 2014
Dear
David James Pearson, Geoffrey Winston
Armstrong
Ofelia (fe) Luscombe, Alan
Benson, David Robertson
As I wait in Phnom Penh
to receive some answers from the Global Development Board to questions I have
asked this past two weeks, and as Chanti and Chhork wait to meet with a
representative of GDG, I have a little spare time to ponder the meaning, the
significance, of Geoff Armstrong’s email/letter of 25th Feb. I will
ponder aloud because, as I have already made clear, I am both writing a book
and making a film (both entitled CHANTI’S WORLD) and my correspondence with GDG
now forms an integral part of both. Also, I happen to believe that I should be
subject to the same ideals of transparency and accountability that donors to
GDG expect of the board and GDG employees.
I wear two hats here. On
the one hand I am a filmmaker who has, for 19 years now, been recording the
lives of Chanti and her mother Vanna - since Chanti was a 9 year old street
beggar. On the other hand – my second hat - I am a friend of the family and want to do all
I can to see the family become self-sufficient and to prosper. They are very close to achieving both these
objectives – without $1 of assistance from Citipointe church this past five and
a half years. And I want to see Rosa and Chita re-united with their family.
Three generations of the
family call me ‘Papa’. I am very fond of them and will fight to my dying breath
to get Rosa and Chita returned to the family that loves them and to the family
that the girls not only love but wish to be returned to. The Global Development
Fund’s unquestioning support of Citipointe church, as revealed in Geoff
Armstrong’s letter of 25th Feb, will not stop me. How many other
families worldwide have been broken up with the help of Global Development
Group funding?
The line between being an
observer with a camera and a participant in the life of Chanti’s family’s is now
very blurred. For the purposes of this letter (and others surely to follow, and
to be published on my new blog) I will not try to distinguish which hat I am
wearing. It would not be too far off the mark to presume that I am wearing both
most of the time.
As Chanti’s family grew
over the years, so too did my record on her life – to several hundred hours of
raw footage now. And then along came Citipointe in 2008. The church, quite
apart from removing Rosa from the family illegally (the evidence is
overwhelming), walked straight into my filmic record of Chanti’s family’s life.
I had no choice but to accept this as a fact. The same applies with the Global
Development Group. Just as I thought I had wrapped up filming and editing for
CHANTI’S WORLD, the Global Development group dropped, metaphorically speaking,
into my lap - unannounced and unexpected.
As I am sure you will be aware, no broadcaster anywhere in the world will
broadcast a documentary that contains defamatory material. You can rest assured
that I will not make any defamatory comments about the Global Development
Group. I will stick to the facts and let members of the audience make up their
own minds.
My first thought when I
learned of GDG’s funding of the ‘SHE Rescue Home’ earlier this month was,
wearing my ‘friends’ hat:
“This is terrific news.
As soon as GDG becomes aware of the trickery and deception Citipointe used in
2008 to get Chanti and her mother to sign a fraudulent ‘contract’, as soon as
GDG realizes that Citipointe has broken Cambodian law, abrogated the human
rights of Chanti, Chhork, Rosa and Chita and is in serious breach of the ACFID
Code of Conduct, GDG will pull Citipointe into line and insist that the church
abide by the ACFID Code of Conduct. Citipointe, not wishing to lose GDG funding
will comply with GDG’s wishes and immediately return Rosa and Chita to their
family. A happy ending, thanks to the Global Development Group.”
Alas, Geoff Armstrong did
not respond as I expected he might and as one would expect the head of a $25
million a year NGO committed to transparency and accountability should. No,
Geoff knew all the relevant facts and on his first day back in the office. He
had no hesitation at all in declaring Citipointe innocent of any of the alleged
breaches of Cambodian law and the family’s human rights that I had brought to
the Global Development Group’s attention. He had no interest at all in having
any GDG representative meet with Chanti and Chhork; no interest in the evidence
I have offered to present to GDG.
It is, perhaps,
appropriate at this point to ask a pointed question:
“Is Geoff
Armstrong a Citipointe church parishioner?”
My initial research
indicates that he is. If Geoff is a member of Citipointe church, there is a
clear conflict of interest here as regard any investigation into Citipointe
breaches of the ACFID Code of Conduct. Has Geoff, before responding to my
questions on 25th Feb, alerted the Global Development Board to the conflict
of interest he is clearly confronted by? If there is a conflict of interest for
Geoff here, is it appropriate that he be involved in any further dealings with
this matter? This is not a rhetorical question. Could the GDG board please
answer it, along with the many other questions I have asked this past two
weeks?
Had Geoff responded
appropriately on behalf of the members of the GDG board on 25th Feb,
my documentary would have included a sequence (and my book a chapter) in which
the Global Development Group, committed as it is to transparency and
accountability and horrified to hear the allegations I have made, moved heaven
and earth to conduct a thorough investigation; an investigation that would have
made, as a top priority, speaking with Chanti and Chhork, speaking with their
Village and Commune chiefs, visiting the village where the family lives (a mere
90 minutes from Phnom Penh) and taking cognizance of the evidence that Chanti,
Chhork and James Ricketson were keen to show to him or some representative of GDG.
Alas, neither my film nor
my book will include such a sequence. Instead I must don a third hat – that of
investigative reporter – and look into what reason the Global Development Group
might have for not wanting to be presented with any evidence at all that one of
the NGOs it funds is, amongst other things, in serious breach of the ACFID Code
Of Conduct? This will involve a good deal of homework on my part as I am
obliged professionally (and am committed personally) to only deal in facts that
can be verified and not merely in rumour, innuendo and scuttlebutt.
If I do not receive some
answers to my questions today, I will alert Global Development Group partners
(including the Institute for Economics and Peace and the Club of Madrid) of my
serious concerns about the assessment and monitoring processes employed by GDG.
If Citipointe can slip so easily through the GDG assessment and monitoring net,
how many other NGOs worldwide, funded by GDG, an NGO blessed with the seal of approval of
ICP and Madrid) are also slipping through the net and able to breach the laws
of the country they are working in and the human rights of the poor people they
are in country to help?
Could you please let me
know how much funding the ‘SHE Rescue Home’ receives each year from the Global
Development Group? Could you also please let me know what wage Geoff Armstrong
receives each year in his capacity as Executive Director?
best wishes
James Ricketson
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