Accounting in Congo

I have been in Congo for 4 weeks, and time to blog about why I came.  Ach, say the word accounting and I think only my friends in the accounting department where I worked until retiring will bother to read this.  I get it, accounting is boring. Although, the Director of Development at the school I worked for years ago said I was a creative accountant.   I know it was meant as a high compliment, but I was never completely convinced…

The school uses Quickbooks Pro 2007 (QB) to manage their accounting records.  However, much of the finances are really managed by lots of bits of papers and cash. Everything in cash, US dollars cash. I was not expecting this, but this part of Congo has no functional banking system.  Few checks are written; most transactions are handled in cash. Things are bought and sold in cash, people are paid in cash. Plenty of receipts, plenty (!) of paper, and I wonder if this was what life was largely like for Bob Cratchett (of Christmas Carol fame), hunched over his desk keeping paper ledgers for Scrooge . Credit cards are accepted in Kinshasa, but I understand even there (the capital) only a very few places accept them.  Bunia feels like an underground economy, but I am not sure you can have an underground economy if everything above ground is cash too. Collecting any income taxes must be a real challenge. The treasury must be starved for funds, which makes the customs levies all make sense.

The school’s books mirror the economic life of Bunia, and transactions are recorded as they happen.   But hard to track what to expect if you only record what you get when you get it.  At first, I could not understand hardly anything about the school’s books, as things were recorded so differently.  But I kept asking questions.... My primary project, as it developed,  is putting in place a student billing system to bill students at the beginning of the school term. My work experience at a school years back allowed me to understand what needed to be done, but I am not familiar with the accounting software this school uses. I think I could have figured it out, but the books are in French, and I can read just enough French to make it all very frustrating.  I thought it a huge mistake to have come, because I could not navigate the software well enough to figure out how to implement this in their system.  But my church came to the rescue. I am so grateful for their help.  They sent me an old copy of Quickbooks 2008 (close enough!) in English, and I have been able to make real progress.

After being here for 4 weeks, I will finally start tomorrow to migrate hundreds of tuition account receivable balances around their balance sheet to make a way for a student billing system.  I have offered suggestions on making changes to their income statement and balance sheet, and some operational suggestions as well. The books will still not be GAAP, but I think that is not so important here. What they will be able to have is more transparent reporting about how they are doing and the ability to forecast accurately where they will land at year-end.

There are two more projects I can tackle if I have time, and I think I might be able to get to them.  The dispensaire needs an inventory and billing system. While I have never worked with accounting for inventory, QB should be able to support this, and it will be a bit of an interesting challenge to figure it out. Okay, maybe only an accountant would say that…  But they could really use some help on that. And there is a primary/secondary school on campus, not part of the university, but connected - the University sort of acts like their bank, keeping their funds and paying their staff. They need their books set up, because they are going to start managing their own recordkeeping in the upcoming school year.They will be using QB as well.

To give you a flavor for how things work here, the school acts like a bank for a number of people/entities, since the banking system is not that reliable and fees are quite high. Foreign businessmen (mostly Chinese) come to Bunia to sell their goods, and since it is a cash economy, at the end of their selling, they have thousands in US dollars. It is not very safe for them to carry that cash back to their country.  USB is a school that needs lots of dollars (until a few months ago, all salaries were paid in cash) for their operating expenses. So the businessmen give their cash to the University and the University wires funds from the school’s account in Kenya to their banks in China. It all works and everyone gets what they need – funds safely in China and the dollars in Bunia to keep the operations going.  (Of course, all tuition is paid in cash, too…) I marvel at the resourcefulness, but also remember that when I was a Controller, I hardly ever even saw money.  In America, accounting is so much more about controls and process, here it is so much more about handling hard currency.

Updating on other matters:

It has rained some, and they say the rainy season has started, even if much delayed.  Not that much rain, but the days are cloudier, and it is a bit cooler. Although that is relative, as the temperature is pretty much between 23C and 28C year round.  Weather wise, this place would be ideal for US retirees, sort of Florida like, only much nicer. They just need to build roads, develop reliable electricity, have safe water, a good banking system and a postal service, deal with the rebels,  and oh yeah, the malaria thing… Hmm, I guess the developers are not going to rush in… Well, no nice shopping either, but I figure the developers would have managed to fix that one…

It is day 23 without electricity, and I am getting used to it.  No word on when it might come back. Nights are very dark. Several people have checked in on me to see how I am managing alone, and I am now on my fifth book. Nothing much to do recreation wise, except reading, so it is good that I like to read. I am very appreciative of my Kindle, thank you Rachel, and glad to be having this adventure now and not ten years ago before there were Kindles!

Now that the Witmer’s have left, Kwinie is cooking some African fare for me, and I am enjoying that very much. They don’t have ovens here, so everything is cooked on stovetops, just like in Morocco.  I am up to about 12 words or so in Swahili, and able to now be polite to people in Swahili as they pass me in the streets. I can say jaumbo (hello), and ha-bari (how are things) with a measure of confidence! Don’t quote me on the spelling though!  Asante.