# 203 Questions for Bob Alexander - Chief Operations Officer for CCF & member of the CCF board

Bob Alexander - Chief Operations Officer & CCF Board member!

Dear Bob Alexander

You are a member of the Cambodian Children’s Fund board. You are also "Chief Operations Officer."

On the CCF website your role is described in the following words:

“Bob leads CCF’s global operations, implementing systems to enable an integrated and co-ordinated approach and providing a high degree of transparency and accountability, good governance and sustainability.”

My first question is:

“Do you believe that there is a conflict of interest between your direct management of CCF’s finances as an employee and your duty, as a board member, to see to it that donor and sponsor monies are spent responsibly and effectively?”

My second question is:

“Are you committed to the precepts of transparency and accountability in either of your CCF roles or are these just words used to impress sponsors and donors?”

On 3^rd August 2014 I wrote to you in your capacity as Chief Operating Officer. I have pasted the letter below. You did not respond to it.

http://cambodianchildrensfund.blogspot.com/2014/08/20-for-bob-alexander-chief-operating.html

No member of the Cambodian Children’s Fund board ever answers questions put to it by the media, making a mockery of Charity Navigator’s 100% rating for transparency and accountability.

CCF’s way of dealing with the media is to issue press releases and count on their being reported as news. The Cambodian media goes along with this, to its shame.

A few days ago I asked some questions of fellow board member Samuel Robinson regarding CCF’s Financial Statements. He did not answer them.

They can be found on the Khmer440 blog at:

http://cambodia440.blogspot.com/2016/10/202-some-questions-for-samuel-robinson.html

I will ask these same questions to you. Would you like to answer them Bob? If not, I will make my way through the list of CCF board members in the hope that I may  find at least one board member with a genuine commitment to the precepts of transparency and accountability.

I would like to add one more question:

“Could you and the CCF board please provide donors and sponsors (and curious journalists!) with a breakdown of the costs involved in the category entitled:

“Direct Program Expenses”?

Direct Program Expenses in the financial year 2014/2015 amount to:

$2.7 million

Given that the category “Compensation” appears to refer to salaries paid by CCF (please correct me if I am wrong), would it be fair to presume that this $2.7 million does not have a salary component?

If this be the case then, as far as I can tell (again, please correct me if I am wrong) CCF claims to be spending $2.7 million on:

(1)  The Child Protection Unit.

(2)  CCF’s medical clinic

(3)  Rice Support

and

(4)  The Granny Program.

I have not included World Housing in this list because the houses have been donated to CCF by generous donors and sponsors. (Sponsors and donors who have been led to believe they were giving the houses to impoverished Cambodian families, NOT to CCF!)

Are there other items that I have forgotten to include in this list of “Direct Program Expenses”?

I imagine that CCF’S most costly Direct Program Expense is the Child Protection Unit?

What  budget was allocated to the CPU in the financial year ending Dec 2015?

How much does it cost to run CCF’s medical clinic for a year?

How much does the Granny Program cost?

How much does CCF’s ‘Rice Support’ program cost each year?

I look forward to your response, Bob, committed as you say you are to the precepts of transparency and accountability.

cheers

Bob Alexander

Chief Operating Officer

Cambodian Children’s Fund

2416 Santa Monica Boulevarde

PMB 833

3^rd August 2014

Dear Bob

I am a filmmaker and journalist who has, for a few years now, been trying to obtain from Scott Neeson answers to a few questions. He not only refuses to answer questions from myself but refuses invitations to be interviewed by other journalists who have similar questions to ask.

Upon your appointment as Chief Operating Officer, Scott had the following to say about you:

“Bob's experience will ensure our donors receive a high degree of transparency and accountability, with an assurance of good governance and sustainability."

Given Scott’s own lack of commitment to the precepts of transparency and accountability, his refusal to answer questions of the kind that sponsors and donors have a right to ask, let me put some of these questions to yourself and see if I have more luck:

- Did Mr Andrew (Twiggy) Forrest give $1 million of FMG shares to the Cambodian Children’s Fund?

- What is Scott Neeson’s wage this year for the role he plays in running CCF?

- What is your own wage as Chief Operating Officer?

- What remuneration do members of the CCF Board receive per annum?

- What is the wage of CCF teachers,  cleaners and others involved in the day to day running of CCF?

- Has CCF bought land in Steung Meanchey with money provided by sponsors and donors?

- Has CCF built homes on this land?

- Does CCF rent these homes to families who have children living in any one of CCF’s institutional residences?

- If CCF is renting homes to the parents of CCF kids, how much rent are they required to pay?

- How many children sleep in each of CCF’s dormitories?

- How many sponsors paying $140 a month does CCF have?

- How much of this $140 a month goes to helping support the families of the kids living with CCF.

There are many other questions to be found on my blog – not just my own but those of others with an interest in the work being done by CCF:

http://cambodianchildrensfund.blogspot.com/

best wishes

James Ricketson