Aid agency Goal seeks to shed 25 jobs in Dublin, London

The aid agency Goal is to seek 25 redundancies at its offices in Dublin and London as it moves to cut costs in the wake of a damaging US investigation into its operation in Syria.

Staff at Ireland's largest aid organisation were told of the redundancies at a town hall-style meeting addressed by general manager Celine Fitzgerald in Dublin on Tuesday.

In a formal letter issued to more than 100 employees on Wednesday, management said that in an effort to avoid compulsory redundancies, a two-week voluntary redundancy application period would be opened for all staff.

Goal said the job losses reflected “a much tighter funding environment” for the organisation in 2017, saying it was seeking to mitigate the impact on its humanitarian relief programmes for millions of the world’s poorest people.

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“Each member of staff who either volunteers or is selected for redundancy will be entitled to a statutory redundancy package,” Goal said in a statement, adding that any redundancies would take place on or around March 1st.

The bulk of the 121 affected employees are based at Goal’s Dún Laoghaire head office, with around 15 on contracts attached to the London office, which focuses primarily on fundraising. The redundancy scheme will not be open to Goal field staff, many of whom, in common with most aid agencies, work on contracts linked to specific donor grants.

Upheaval

The job losses come at a time of upheaval for Goal, which has been reeling since April when USAID, the US government’s foreign aid arm, ordered it to halt procurement using some American funds pending the outcome of an investigation that drew in a number of major aid agencies operating in Syria from bases in Turkey.

The US inquiry, which is ongoing, prompted the Government to withhold millions of euro it had already committed to Goal for its work elsewhere in the world.

Goal closed its offices in the United States and terminated the contracts of almost 10 employees there in October. In the same month Barry Andrews, a former Fianna Fáil minister who led the charity since 2013, stepped down, saying the organisation needed "a fresh start in terms of leadership" after a tumultuous six months.

Ms Fitzgerald, an expert in change management, was then appointed to oversee a 12-month transition period. A number of senior figures, including chief operations office Jonathan Edgar, Goal USA chief executive Mark Bartolini and chief financial officer Nicola Maguire, have also stepped down.

Development funding

Goal received some respite last month when the Department of Foreign Affairs released almost €4 million of the €7.16 million in long-term development funding it had withheld earlier in the year. It is expected that the department will release the remainder next month.

Separately, USAID awarded new grants to Goal for its programmes in Honduras, Ethiopia and Sudan.

“Despite this progress and ongoing discussions with our major donors in respect of future funding we need to develop a more sustainable cost base to support our ongoing humanitarian relief efforts and, regrettably, this is likely to involve some redundancies,” Ms Fitzgerald said on Thursday.

The Irish Times understands that the US investigation, which is being carried out by the US office of the inspector general, is focusing on one individual with links to Goal and on a particular tender for items valued at $170,000 (€154,000).