Cameroonian NGO, DEMTOU, in hot seat over non-payment of humanitarian workers

By Tata Mbunwe

Workers have complained about nonpayment of their remunerations, in violation of their initial agreement, a month after they carried out humanitarian activities with DEMTOU, an NGO contracted by the World Food Program (WFP) to execute a project in Cameroon.

One of the workers, who spoke to MMI from Kumba, in the South West Region, said DEMTOU agreed to pay each of them 145,000 FCFA for transportation and credit allowances, plus another amount as per diem for the two-week job they did.

The workers were recruited from Kumba, Mamfe, and other towns in the South West Region, to collect data for WFP’s food assistance to people in need in the Region.

Based on a contract signed with DEMTOU on April 4, 2023, the workers were going to work from April 6-19 in executing the project entitled, “Targeting of beneficiaries for WFP’s food assistance on the Southwest”.

The contract specified that they were to be paid 15,000 francs daily as per diem, plus 10,000 francs daily as transportation fare and an additional 5,000 francs at the end of the work for communication credit.

The contract specified that the payment will be done at the end of the project and that both parties were going to respect its terms.

But over one month after work ended, the workers say they have not been paid.

Breach of contract

Saturday, May 20, made it one month since the work contract between DEMTOU and the workers ended. Yet, the stipends are not forthcoming.

A worker who spoke to MMI said this clearly violates the agreement they had with the NGO.

“We are not even supposed to beg for our transportation. We got into a contract with them and we merit our transportation not pleading for them to send us transportation. It’s preposterous to see an Organization that claims to have international status not to respect a simple and basic contract which they made by themselves,” the worker said.

Some of them borrowed money to carry out the humanitarian work, hoping they will be paid at the end as they were promised, the worker furthered.

“At this juncture, enumerators might do something rash because of the breach or no respect for the contract bounding us to Demtou Humanitarian. We really respect the status of WFP and it is because of them we even went on with this exercise while saying it shall be well as long as WFP is involved,” he told MMI.

WFP says the money was long disbursed to DEMTOU

MMI Editor-in-chief, Mimi Mefo, during an interview with a representative of the World Food Program in Cameroon, was told that the organisation had already disbursed funds to DEMTOU to pay the workers.

In a statement released on May 22, WFP confirmed it contracted DEMTOU to “support data collection for food assistance to people in need in the South West Region of Cameroon”.

WFP furthered: “The data collection process including recruitment and payment of enumerators is entirely managed by the NGO DEMTOU. However, WFP values partnerships for Zero Hunger and is currently engaging with DEMTOU to ensure the alleged enumerators’ payment issue is swiftly resolved.”

DEMTOU admits fault, promises prompt payment

Also in an interview with MMI on Monday, May 22, DEMTOU’s Country Director, Petcheche Kevin, admitted they have not paid the workers’ stipends, but said it was an internal problem that they are sorting out.

He also said they will pay the workers by the end of this week or latest the start of next week.

“It’s true that we were going to pay the enumerators since, but now due to some internal challenges, we had to delay their payment. But that will be done latest by the end of this week or beginning next week,” Petcheche Kevin told MMI’s Mimi Mefo.

He added: “This week, we are going to have a meeting with some of these workers in the office so that we can explain to them what’s happening and of course, we are going to pay them, like I said, by the end of this week or latest beginning next week.”

The workers who spoke to MMI said this was not the first time DEMTOU was promising to pay them. Other promises made in the past have not been kept.

Many of them heavily depend on the stipends from DEMTOU to survive with their families.