Georges Mpaga

I’ve been strongly influenced by my experience working for social projects.

For a decade I worked on issues related to youth health and the fight against AIDS. I saw the disease spread and the leaders mismanage the health services and there was a massive misappropriation of funds. I’ve seen people – directors, managers, powerful people in the fight against AIDS – I’ve seen them take money and carry it away in bags. This money was intended for awareness campaigns aimed at reducing the impact of AIDS. Aware of this embezzlement happening on the ground, I believed something had to be done, I believed I should engage in this campaign to effectively monitor public budgets for social services, including health.

The desire to fight against the waste and the squandering of public money is my motivation. There are ministers who have embezzled money – they built houses and they have property they cannot justify.

In fact, in a general way it is because of ill-gotten gains that I told myself I had to get involved in publish what you pay. For me, Publish What You Pay is a big family. It is an organization that allows me to lobby and monitor effectively how public money should be used. But the coalition has also allowed me to develop a network at the international level and now our campaign is respected, we can take effective actions in a difficult environment. PWYP now become a major player to the benefit of civil society and good governance.