Mbale: Government re-opens children's NGO after nine months of suspension
The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development has lifted the ban on Child Restoration Outreach (CRO) operations after nine months of suspension.
The organization had played a key role in rehabilitating street children in Mbale town but it went into a turmoil following the death of the country director, Christine Kamiti, prompting the line ministry to halt its operations in dealing with children in February this year.
The reasons for its closure included abuse of office by top management, including; irregular dismissal of staff, Infighting, attempted sale of the organisation's property, changing the organisation status from an NGO to a company limited by shares, allegations of corruption and lack of audit and exclusion of the alumni in the affairs of the organization.
Its closure led to an influx of street children on the streets of Mbale city.
The Minister of State for Youth and Children Affairs, Sarah Nyirabashitsi Mateke visited the Mbale based NGO on fact finding mission to ascertain whether the organisation meets the required standards.
"We requested them to to put things right and we put there an interim committee that was going to investigate the conflicts. Some conflicts were resolved, other conflicts were a misunderstanding and after the report was out I had to come and investigate. I had to come and inspect the premises today morning." she said.
In his detailed report to the minister, Paul Nabitiri, the Country director of CRO denied the allegations although he noted that the company had some employees whose contracts had expired and had not been renewed due to financial handicaps caused by the Covid-19 lockdown.
He also admitted that the death of the founding father of the organisation Pastor Benjamin Otim also partly contributed to the decline and some divisions in the organisation.
The minister asked all parents to take full responsibility of their children and avoid burdening development partners.
She permitted partial operations of the organization pending a memorandum of understanding with government.
