Financial management
Our medium-term goal is financial self-sustainability. We have made a start with our cassava starch factory in Battambang, which supports both our Battambang training centre, our Phnom Penh HQ, and various ad hoc projects such as researching our planned rural piped water scheme.
In the meantime, we rely on charitable and philanthropic bodies in the developed world for about three-quarters of our funding. These donors include the Kadoorie Charitable Foundation in Hong Kong, USAID, AusAID, the EU, IEPALA-Spain and CIDA (Canada). [See Our donors and partners]
Funds are solicited by a submitting concept note then a full proposal and budget. Funds usually arrive in regular tranches through the life of a project - typically every six months. At regular intervals throughout the project (commonly quarterly or half-yearly) narrative and financial reports are written for the donor; an end-of-project report is sent at project’s end. Funds may not be spent on items not in the donor-approved budget; at project’s end, unspent funds are returned.
Where buildings need to be built for projects, or goods such as rice seed bought, written bids are solicited. Our policy against 'under-the-table' payments and kickbacks is explained to each bidder - something which is necessary in Cambodia, where corruption is common.
Projects normally run for one, two or three years. When a project ends, capital items are handed on to a charitable body or an arm of government pursuing social aims. For example our training centres in Pursat and Kampong Thom trained virtually all the war-disabled people in those provinces, so we decided to close them. The buildings were handed to local government and an NGO (respectively) to mount charitable projects.
If we decide to continue the project, the funding application process begins again - sometimes with the original donor, sometimes a new one.
Lom Orng has managed about 35 projects since 1994, turning over about $US8 million.
Our books undergo regular audits by authorised auditing organisations, normally on a by-project basis.
Lom Orng’s finances are managed in Phnom Penh by Mr Noung Buntheng, a former ILO accountant who is our chief financial officer. He is backed by a two-person book-keeping team.
Legal and tax status
The Lom Orng Organisation is incorporated as an ‘LNGO’ - a local non-governmental organisation. In Cambodia, this is done via a Memorandum of Understanding between the NGO and the relevant Government Ministry - in our case the Ministry of the Interior. The registration number is 054; our registration was most recently renewed on January 13, 2012. [ Download PDF Certificate (275kb) in Khmer or English ]
Due to its charitable status, Lom Orng is income tax-exempt in Cambodia.