Britain's Department for International Development is accused of allowing tens of millions of pounds in UK aid to be invested in Nigerian money laundering fronts, BBC Newsnight has learned.
Showing posts with label nigeria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nigeria. Show all posts
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Global health fund uncovers $20 million more in losses through corruption in new probes
By Associated Press,
GENEVA — A global health fund investigating its own losses in grant money said Tuesday that 12 more probes had turned up an additional $20 million of mismanagement, alleged fraud and misspending.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria posted the results — contained in three fraud probes, eight audits and an internal review of travel involving about $1 billion in grant money — on its website.
Earlier probes by the fund’s internal watchdog, the inspector general’s office, had detected about $53 million in losses, according to fund documents, some unpublished, provided by senior officials.
The fund’s board chairman Simon Bland told The Associated Press it has now reviewed about one-seventh of $14 billion in grants disbursed but it would be misleading to extrapolate the percentage of corruption turning up in fund programs.
He said the fund, which has approved more than $22 billion in grants since its creation in 2002 as a major financing tool, is demanding repayment of the money — and two new cases in Nigeria and India could lead to criminal charges. The fund says it has recovered $19 million in misspent or undocumented money so far.
“We think the Global Fund standards of accounting are really high,” Bland said. “We will not tolerate misuse of our resources.”
In Nigeria, the probe found $22 million in unauthorized foreign currency exchanges by a not-for-profit center in Abuja, that diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars to non-fund accounts. In India, at least $872,000 had been misappropriated, some transferred to a shell corporation and used to rent and renovate an official’s home.
A third probe was in Mauritania, where $6.73 million in potential fraud and other losses were found but the country has already paid back $4.2 million.
Auditors also looked at grants in Dominican Republic, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, South Sudan, Swaziland and Togo, and examined almost a half-billion dollars in fund programs run by Washington, D.C.-based Population Services International.
Completion of the latest investigations and audits was delayed until after the end of a six-month review of the fund’s financial controls by an outside panel created in the wake of Associated Press reports on the losses that prompted intense scrutiny from donors over the misuse of some grant money.
The Global Fund suspended grants — or put in place new safeguards — in Djibouti, Mali, Mauritania and Zambia. The European Commission and some nations had decided to withhold hundreds of millions of euros from the fund until they could be reassured.
In January, the AP reported that the fund was bleeding tens of millions of dollars to mismanagement and corruption, prompting Germany, the European Commission and Denmark to withhold a collective $457 million (euro315 million) in funding. Spain, Italy, Japan and Ireland also delayed committing to 2011 pledges.
Sweden had previously withheld a pledge based on the inspector general’s findings.
The fund warned Germany that its withheld dollars would lead to the deaths of 43,000 people but Germany called that “extremely questionable” and said it’s corruption that kills.
The fund then created an outside panel headed by former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt and former Botswana President Festus Mogae. In September it recommended a major overhaul in the fund’s financial practices.
Since the panel’s report, Germany released half of its $285.7 million pledge.
It also said the unhealthy tensions must end between the fund’s executive director, Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, who has sought to minimize the scale of misspent money, and the fund’s inspector general, John Parsons, whose job is to probe for losses.
“If it’s seen as a war, we have to stop that,” Bland said.
Japan paid the Global Fund $114 million Monday toward its 2011 contribution but is keeping frozen a second amount — some $178 million — that it might release in December, fund spokesman Andrew Hurst said.
He said the European Commission is still awaiting the outcome of a board meeting later this month in Ghana before deciding whether to unfreeze its 2011 pledge of $185.7 million (130 million euros).
Hurst said Denmark’s decision whether it might release its $33.5 million pledge for 2011 also might come next month.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thursday, 21 July 2011
UN requests more than $4 billion in humanitarian aid for the rest of this year
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos
Relief agencies require another $4.3 billion to assist millions of needy people around the world during the second half of this year, the United Nations humanitarian chief said today, adding that donors have so far made available 45 per cent of the funds requested at the start of 2011.
UN agencies and their partners had asked for $7.4 billion for humanitarian emergencies in 2011, but that figure has since risen to $7.9 billion as a result of increasing needs in some regions, including the Horn of Africa, where a severe drought has left 11.5 million people in need, Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters in Geneva.
Some $3.6 billion of the requested amount has been received, Ms. Amos said after presenting a mid-year review of the status of humanitarian funding to UN Member States.
“Our key concern is that there are persistent imbalances in funding among crises,” said Ms. Amos, who is also the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator. “The funding percentages of different appeals range from 29 per cent to 60 per cent.”
The least-funded appeals are the regional appeal for West Africa and the funding requests for Zimbabwe, Djibouti and Niger.
“We expect humanitarian needs in the second half of 2011 and in 2012 to continue, at least at current levels, as the effects of high commodity prices, adverse weather conditions, disasters and conflicts persist,” said Ms. Amos.
“As I said to donors during our mid-year review launch, I hope that they will close the funding gaps. It will make a big difference to the millions of people we need to help,” she added.
The launch of the mid-year review of the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) coincided with the classification of the drought emergency in southern Somalia as a famine in two regions.
In response to a question, Ms. Amos said that child malnutrition levels in parts of southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of Somalia had risen to 50 per cent, with mortality rates exceeding six deaths per 10,000 people a day.
More than 100,000 malnourished children had been treated in 800 nutrition centres throughout Somalia between January and May 2011. A total of 554,000 children in southern Somalia are suffering from malnutrition, she added.
Other drought-affected Horn of Africa countries that require humanitarian assistance are Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. Newly-independent South Sudan, Yemen, Côte d’Ivoire and Libya, among others, will also require significant humanitarian interventions this year.
Monday, 18 July 2011
KoJo Annan's new life? Trading in Gold from Ghana.
Kojo Annan
THE brilliant son of ex-Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr Kofi Annan, Kojo must have mature in age and have measured
what is good for him as he now leads a new life in contrast to the past where he frequents Lagos hangouts and parties
The young man who once worked with Cotecna had a brief encounter with the ugly side of life when he was fingered in the UN oil-for-food scandal.
The sociable guy who now lives a quiet life in Accra, Ghana, where he trades in gold has put the old ways behind him and has adopted new interest.
Kojo is the son of Titi Alakija, Kofi Annan’s first wife and he frequents Nigeria from his Ghana base.
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