Work

Work

By popular request hereby an attempt to explain what I actually do.

Burundi is a very poor country with a lot of problems still. The (new) minister has decided to put more focus on the so-called ‘fragile states’. This means that Burundi, like a few more countries that are on the brink of a major crisis, gets more money the next four years. A risky strategy, the money could help this country a lot, but government in these countries is often not perfect, which means a high risk that the money is wasted due to bad governance. In financial terms: High risk, high (possible) return.

Anyway, there are momentarily two men in Burundi talking to a lot of people, thinking up policies and getting a lot of proposals for help. If a project gets past them, my job is to check if the proposal is financially sound and sustainable. Of course if I have opinions outside of my expertise, I still ask questions. In a way, use common sense and make sure that the project is not total nonsense.

Furthermore I have to function as an intermediary between the office in Bujumbura and the embassy in Kigali. Most papers, contracts and so on, have to be signed by the ambassador. Bills are paid in Burundi, but the administration is in Kigali. It is my job to make sure every document is at the right place at the right time and that they are sign in time, and are put in the system.

So in practice; read some (financial) reports, put things in the computer system, shout at the computer, wait for the computer, try to get things out of the computer, have an obligatory break from the anti RSI programme, try again. Meanwhile trying to get a signature on contracts that had to be paid yesterday and were in limbo for three months.

Sounds busy, but I am sure that I will find a manageable system; at the moment I am trying to do too much at the same time.

Tomorrow I am off to Bujumbura, for two days. By air, the road is declared unsafe by the UN. The UN tends to be very careful, but we are rather safe than sorry. The flight takes a whole half hour, so about 1 millisecond between taking of and landing. I will report on my trip on this blog.


Lon