5.1.7 Due diligence assessment
Assessments should also consider ‘due diligence’ issues that might make an agency ineligible as a partner. While the context can call for heightened awareness, it is often possible to get enough sense on these from normal inquiries. Concerns can include:
- political affiliation or involvement of the agency and its key officers
- corruption, perhaps indicated by bad bookkeeping, audits or past donors
- nepotism, where key staff have close family links to CARE employees, or where nepotistic hiring clearly compromises the agency’s integrity
- partiality to beneficiaries on grounds such as ethnicity, religion or clan politics
- abuse of power in the field, including for money or sex
- unsuitable mission-for example, a mission to spread religion can be an issue
- links to warring factions or insurgent movements
- links to terrorism-a big issue for some governments and CARE Members.
