Program Leadership and Structure, and Staffing

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3. Program Management

3.1 Program Leadership and Structure, and Staffing

CRC Personnel Changes There were several personnel changes at CRC that should be noted. Mr. Godfred Ameyaw took up a position within the ICFG project for the WFC. His replacement as the new Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist is Ms. Patricia Mensah. Ms. Sally Deffor, formerly Communication Officer, has left to the UK to pursue her studies and has been replaced by Elvis Addae who worked on the ICFG Initiative for Friend of the Nation in 2010 and subsequently for LOGODEP. WFC Personnel Additions As WorldFish activities focus increasingly at the fishing community level, it became apparent that a capable in-country ‘fishery focused’ team would be a necessary addition to the program– conducting this type of work on a fly-infly-out basis would not be productive. To this end, a team of 3 staff based in Ghana has now been established: Dr Tendayi Mutimukuru Marivanyika – has been recruited as a post-doctoral fellow for the remainder of the project duration. Tendayi is a community engagement expert, with a history of implementing and building capacity for community-based management of natural resources. She will lead training and participatory research components of community pilot trials. Mr. Godfred Ameyaw – has moved from being CRC staff to fill the role of coastal fisheries expert on the WorldFish team. His skill set in fisheries will complement well that of Dr. Tendayi Marivanyika in community work and capacity building Mr. Cephas Asare – Cephas first worked with the fisheries team as a national service volunteer. He will serve as research assistant to the fisheries team, and having been involved in community research and gill net experiments, now has a broad basis of experience. In other staffing changes, Dr Marie-Caroline Badjeck completed her engagement with the project with a trip in January, as she has left WorldFish. Dr Froukje Kruijssen will take on extra duties with the project to fill this gap. 47 Financial Management During this period, upon internal audit, some financial irregularities were reported. The University Office of Compliance Director, Eileen Tobin traveled with the CRC Business Manager, Cindy Moreau to investigate and document the anomaly. As a result, standard operating procedures were tightened, financial support personnel were terminated and a new more experienced finance administrative manager was hired. There were funds that were embezzled totaling less than 5,000. This amount is being charged to university institutional funds and no project funds will be charged to USAID for this incident. Comprehensive internal audit of monthly accounts has isolated the problem and we are confident that this problem has been identified and there are not additional incidents that have gone un- rectified. Specific procedures that were not followed that lead to this unfortunate problem related to the delinquent advance ledger postings and weakness in the management of cash. The advance ledger is now up to date, which was a contributing weakness. Both issues have been addressed and are being monitored closely. Internal audit did not uncover any other incidence of mismanagement of funds. Cash management practices have been strengthened to address the weakness. There has been a through on-going internal audit of expenditures as a well as The University of Rhode Island has an A-133 audit annually for research funds. CRC is working with URI Office of Compliance Director, Eileen Tobin to schedule an independent audit on site, however the recommended firms submitted bids that are in excess of 60,000 USD, and not affordable under our current project budget. URI is modifying the specifications slightly and re-bidding to include vendors that are A-21A-133 literate but not limiting the bid search to USAID IG listed firms.

3.2 Monitoring and Evaluation