NGOs slam higher UN salaries

In the backdrop of increasing efforts by the assistance community to rebuild Afghanistan, many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have criticised the UN for paying higher salaries and depriving them of a much needed talented workforce.

"It is [creating] a kind of dominos effect," assistant country director of the international NGO CARE Hassan Mohmed told IRIN on Monday from Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar. "The UN is paying too high salaries, which is counter productive to the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan," he said.

Out of some 500 staff members of CARE, at least 10 have joined the world body after being offered more lucrative salaries. "The issue is not that people are leaving, but the kind of people that are leaving," he added.

Most of CARE employees leaving the organisation were highly skilled. "The labour pool in Afghanistan is limited and NGOs invest a lot to train their staff," Mohmed explained.

Indeed, the increase in assistance to Afghanistan is not without problems. Many international and Afghan NGOs are losing their trained employees, who are joining larger international organisations such as, the UN, international financial institutions, donors and embassies for higher wages.

Compounding the problem further, property prices, especially in the capital Kabul have soared making it difficult for Afghan NGOs and returning Afghans to rent appropriate accommodation. The Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR), an umbrella Afghan NGO body deplored the situation in press statements on Friday and Sunday.

Analysing to the situation, veteran aid worker and consultant to ACBAR, Nancy Hatch Dupree termed it "a very complicated situation". "You have so many systems operating and programmes going on at the same time that the UN steal [skilled] people from the NGOs and the NGOs steal people from the government," she told IRIN.

But Dupree maintained it was the Afghan government that loses most in the crisis. "We are all supposed to help the Afghan government but this vicious circle goes around," she said. She suggested a meeting of all the actors involved to resolve the discrepancy. "It's time to take out the problem from under the carpet and resolve it," she explained.

Fazlullah Wahidi, head of the Afghan NGO coalition, Afghan NGO Coordination Bureau (ANCB), said that they had no objection on higher salaries being paid to Afghans. "We are happy that our Afghan brothers are getting higher salaries, however there must be some bottom lines and some kind of flexible regulations," he said, adding that the international NGOs now complaining about the issue had been doing the same to Afghan NGOs for the past decade.

Wahidi explained that there can be no fixed salaries, however flexible wage limits should be put in place to guard against malpractices and exploitation. "All actors involved in providing aid and assistance to Afghanistan and the Afghan government should agree to a common code of conduct," he maintained. Afghan NGOs need core funds for long-term sustenance, he added.