APSO to close over a dozen offices abroad

The Agency for Personal Service Overseas (APSO) is to close over a dozen offices in overseas countries as part of a major internal reorganisation, The Irish Times has learned.

A 30-year tradition of sending Irish volunteers to work in the developing world has also ended with the decision to phase out direct funding of long-term placements. The decisions were taken at an APSO board meeting last month.

The agency intends to continue co-funding volunteers sent by aid agencies and missionaries, but these arrangements have also been cut back severely for the moment, until decisions about the organisation's future have been made.

APSO has offices in 17 countries, but this will be reduced to four or five regional offices.

APSO's chairman, Mr Aidan Eames, last night confirmed the changes. "We will continue to work in all the countries we're in at the moment, but there won't necessarily be APSO staff or an agency jeep in all of them."

Some redundancies may be involved but it is expected most affected staff will be reassigned.

The board also approved the development of a major initiative to provide counselling for HIV/AIDS sufferers in African countries, with training and advice provided by Irish third-level colleges.

With many Irish missionaries approaching retirement age, the agency is also offering to help religious orders plan an orderly transition of their missions to local ownership.

The revamp is recommended in a report by KPMG Consulting, which has been seen by The Irish Times.

It points to ineffective leadership, low staff morale and poor communications as the organisation's main weaknesses and says that "APSO as a purely personnel-sending agency is becoming obsolete".

However, APSO does have a strong reputation and experienced staff, and should become a "one-stop shop" for funding of non-governmental organisations.

More than 10,000 Irish doctors, nurses, technicians and other people with specialist skills have been sent on two-year placements since APSO was set up in 1974. However, the economic boom has made it increasingly difficult to find suitably qualified staff in recent years. In addition, restricting eligibility to Irish people, as stipulated in the agency's mandate, is no longer seen as appropriate.

Last year, 1,375 people were on APSO-funded placements overseas, 547 of them directly funded and 828 co-funded with aid agencies or missionaries. The annual budget was £11 million.

Mr Eames conceded that the agency's "outdated mandate" had led to a "slump in morale and direction" in recent years.

Following an 18-month re view, APSO wants to reposition itself as a support agency for NGOs at home and in the developing world. "We're increasingly moving towards the NGOs, so it doesn't make sense for us to be competing with them," said Mr Eames.

This approach would involve the agency providing personnel services for aid agencies here and assistance to "civil society" organisations in the Third World. This would run parallel to the Government's support through Ireland Aid, the State's aid programme, for governments in Africa and other developing countries.

However, the future of APSO depends on decisions made in the review of Ireland Aid, which will not be completed before the autumn. While the agency sees itself as "separate but complementary" to Ireland Aid, the Government could yet decide to amalgamate the two. This could present significant industrial relations difficulties.

The Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs is due to discuss the APSO restructuring today.