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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