A Kenyan contractor hired by acclaimed non-governmental international development organization “SOS Children’s Villages” to carry out a donor-funded project is protesting the nonpayment of dues.
The independent NGO headquartered in Innsbruck, Austria, primarily provides humanitarian and developmental help to children in need and protects their interests and rights around the world.
Sometime in 2020, they sought the services of professional builders to set up modernized toilets and a dynamic waste management system to serve residents of Cotton City in Buruburu estate, Nairobi County.
Part of the plan also involved the construction of a multi-purpose community hall, which was to assist residents to raise money by letting it out for events.
But three years after completion, they are yet to hand over the project to the vulnerable groups, who were its originally intended beneficiaries.
Reason?
The NGO and its administrators keep taking everyone in circles.
Not only have they failed to pay for the work done, but are also hiding away from accountability.
Writing to us on Monday, June 27, one contractor informed us that all their efforts to reach out to an audience with the NGO’s officials have proven futile as they keep demanding bribes in order for them to process the transaction.
Every time they visit the SOS Children’s Villages offices located along Marcus Garvey Yard Road, the bosses lock themselves up and refuse to meet them to discuss the pending payments.
“Hi, Nyakundi,
I hope you are well.
I would like to discuss a problem I have with some NGO refusing to pay us because of their demand for bribes, which we could not give.
The NGO is SOS Children’s Villages International.
We were contracted to build a Bio Center, In Buru Buru City Carton to help strengthen vulnerable families living around there.
The project was donor-funded and was supposed to be handed over to the vulnerable families to assist them to raise money by charging for toilets and letting out a multi-purpose hall.
We completed the project in June 2020, but the project has not been handed over to the beneficiary group, because SOS has chosen to take us around in circles.
We have not been paid for the work.
Instead, we have been treated to a wild goose chase; we are not allowed access to the SOS offices on Marcus Garvey road; the bosses refuse to meet with us to discuss our pending payments.
It’s now 3 years since we finished the work and some of our workers are still crying for payments to date.
Can you imagine how people behave with others’ lives?
They are denying the end-users their right to benefit from a donor-funded project simply because we refused to give bribes back to them,” writes the source.
