Well, they have, and they do. I'm currently in Uganda to see the work of controls officers, financial controllers and internal auditors in the field with GOAL, Ireland's equivalent to Oxfam (don't ask me why I'm not seeing this kind of work somewhere with Oxfam, they didn't invite me).

Ravaged by war in north with the Lord's Resistance Army (more or less a cult professing to be fighting to return the country to the true spirit of the Ten Commandments) and probably still recovering from the Idi Amin years, Uganda is a country is transition, though still very much in need of aid.

Yesterday, I travelled four hours east from the capital Kampala to Bugiri with John Sheahan, controls  officer with the charity here. Bugiri is a rural district where GOAL works with local partner organisations providing funds and technical support. The partners however make pitches to GOAL and deliver the work. Once you get GOAL's backing however, you deal with John.

I watched him sit in a tiny office in a dust covered town and discuss contracting a local auditor, examine the cash book, go over reconciliation statements and generally test the partner group's accountant on record keeping and procedures. GOAL doesn't tell partners what procedures to have, but they do insist they have something and that they hold water. It was a display any accountant steeped in the need for strong controls could appreciate, an impressive performance and completely dispelling my rather ill-thought attitudes to charity finance.

Even this far from home there is still room for financial rigour.

More on Uganda later.