MCC Aid to Iraq 

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Accounting For Aid in Iraq

With one week’s notice, David Pankratz, CGA, was offered the opportunity to spend six months delivering aid in Iraq. He returned to Canada changed by the experience.

FROM: JUL-AUG 2004 ISSUE | BY PEGGY HOMAN

David Pankratz, CGA, has travelled a path few people ever do in his work for the humanitarian organization, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), which is active in 55 countries worldwide. Last year, that path took him from Winnipeg to Baghdad as MCC’s Emergency Relief Co-ordinator for Iraq.

When one thinks of foreign aid field workers, images of medical personnel usually come to mind first. Pankratz agrees, and says this stereotype raises the question, what is a humanitarian aid worker? His definition is anyone who wants to use their professional skills in a humanitarian capacity. Accountants can and do play an important role in delivering humanitarian aid. “The delivery of aid is quite complex and requires financial and narrative reporting on a weekly basis,” explains Pankratz. “Timely, accurate accounting information is required in order to make decisions about which projects can proceed and when. Questions such as, ‘Do we have enough money to purchase additional supplies to send in to an area?’ must be answered all the time.”

“During my time in Iraq, my accounting training was useful in other ways as well,” he continues. “I was more prepared for doing security assessments than I could have imagined. It is a real strength to be able to look effectively at a situation from both sides when doing a security assessment, as the assessment must be based on fact. The discipline around making sure to get the details right — acquiring more information, determining what needs to be known, and not rushing off to make decisions until I had all of the information — these are all skills I learned through accounting and that I used to assess our security environment.”

And just how was it that Pankratz came to be in Iraq? In 2002, he attended several presentations in Winnipeg given by people who had worked in the Middle East for years. He found himself lying awake at night analyzing issues pertaining to that part of the world and trying to come up with viable solutions. “Based on my reaction to the lectures, I was compelled to do something different with my life, and that week, handed in my resignation at Westgate Collegiate,” he states matter-of-factly. “I had been employed in accounting for more than 20 years and thought I was finished working in an accounting capacity when I received a call from MCC asking if I’d like to go to Iraq for six months. When I heard the details of what the job entailed, it became clear to me quite quickly that they had written the job description with me in mind, and that the role would draw heavily on my accounting background,” he recounts.

During his stay in Iraq, Pankratz spent most of his time in Baghdad. “I worked out of my hotel room,” he says. But one of his most memorable experiences took place in Hai Tareq, the poorest community in all of Baghdad. “We had arranged for fresh water to be trucked in daily to the 50,000 people in Hai Tareq,” he says. “Seeing the expressions of delight on the faces of the people was incredible,” he recalls. “These were people living in extremely difficult circumstances with much to be unhappy about, so to see their happiness was incredibly moving,” he adds.

It is not surprising that the overall experience has structured Pankratz’s perception of the Iraq situation. “I find myself constantly wondering how the Iraqis are doing,” he says pensively. “I am much more sensitive to the experience of the people who must bear the brunt of this war and can’t just go home after six months.” Pankratz says he learned a great deal from the people he came into contact with — a number of Iraqis, Americans, and Europeans during the highly-charged experience of being in Baghdad in the last half of 2003.

“I went to Iraq with a number of assumptions and a chip on my shoulder about the U.S. presence there,” he states frankly. “But early on in my stay, I had a conversation with an American soldier who really didn’t want to be in Iraq in a military capacity. I found myself listening carefully to what he had to say, and after that experience, I changed my approach to interacting with people whom I presume to hold very different views from my own. I am now much more willing to listen. My time in Iraq forced me to let go of some of my own biases — I’d say I am more aware and less judgmental now,” he states philosophically.

Pankratz’s reading material in Iraq included a copy of The Penguin History of the World and Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. As for language skills, he speaks French and Arabic well enough to ease daily tasks such as shopping and asking for directions, but not well enough to hold a conversation.

Years ago, Pankratz wanted to be a physicist. But his parents wanted him to spend a year at a small bible college in Manitoba, and that’s where Pankratz discovered he had a passion for linguistics and cultural studies. He graduated from the University of Winnipeg with a bachelor of arts degree in 1980. “I quickly realized I would need a PhD if I wanted a career in linguistics,” he says. But that didn’t seem like the right path for him, and like many recent graduates, Pankratz found himself wondering what he was going to do next.

One thing was clear to him — he needed to take action. So he bought a newspaper, donned a suit and tie, and started working his way through the want ads. “I did a number of informational interviews and determined that I wanted to pursue a career in accounting,” he recalls. There were several reasons for his choice. “To me, accounting requires an aptitude for problem solving, as do physics and linguistics, and I knew I enjoyed the challenge of figuring out problems,” he says. “I also realized accounting skills would be useful to me anywhere, anytime, as I could always hang a shingle on my house to say, ‘Taxes and Bookkeeping Done Here’,” he explains.

“I started in the CA program but realized quickly that I didn’t want to work in private practice as an auditor, so I switched to the CGA program. I was very happy to have made the change, as the CGA program offered much greater flexibility, and I found more opportunities to learn the kinds of things I wanted to do.” After completing his designation in 1990, he became involved in the Association and spent several years on CGA-Manitoba’s professional development committee.

Between 1983 and 1990, Pankratz worked at Winnipeg’s Providence College as an accountant. But by the time he received his designation, Pankratz had grown more and more interested in Third World development. He decided to leave his job at the college, and wasn’t really sure what he wanted to do next. “I didn’t have anything on the horizon,” he says. That’s when he saw MCC’s recruitment ad for an accountant. He was offered the position and became the financial controller, responsible for managing MCC Canada’s budget of $20 million (US). In addition to setting up country-wide integrated accounting systems, he was responsible for financial and regulatory policy development.

During this period he also worked on business issues for MCC’s Ten Thousand Villages — a program selling Third World handicrafts in North America. Pankratz says that the differences in working for the charitable sector were striking. He assisted with the transition from a board of volunteers without business experience to a board that included several business people. “I really appreciated being able to bring a business mentality to the charitable sector in order to make some positive changes,” he says.

Working in Iraq wasn’t Pankratz’s first experience living overseas. In 1996, he and his wife, Jan, went to Zambia as MCC volunteers for three years. “When we got married in 1986 we decided that in 10 years we would go to work overseas, regardless of what else was happening in our lives,” he says. So when the time came, the couple held fast to their commitment and set off for Africa. “We were both mid-career and if we hadn’t defined the goal years earlier, I don’t think we would’ve gone,” says Pankratz. While in Zambia, he provided assistance to self-employed potters and farmers, and mentored several charitable organizations. Upon returning to Canada, Pankratz worked on contract for MCC to provide assistance with tax issues related to overseas assignments. He has also performed more than 40 audits in Central America, Africa, and the Middle East between 1990 and 2003.

For now, Pankratz is busy doing the accounting for his wife’s growing conflict resolution business, speaking to school, church, and community groups about Iraq two to three times per week, and renovating the couple’s heritage house in Winnipeg’s well-known neighbourhood of Wolseley. He’ll likely start his MBA through the online program offered by CGA-Canada and Laurentian University in the fall. “I’m wondering what is next, but my assumption is that my accounting background will take me somewhere interesting, just as it has in the past,” he muses. No doubt the route will follow a path less travelled — and that it will involve making a positive and constructive difference in the lives of others.

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Peggy Homan is associate publisher and editor of CGA Magazine.