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| Middle East |
| Donors freeze funds to Paleo human rights group |
| 2003-03-25 |
| International donors have frozen funding of a leading Palestinian human rights group after an independent audit raised suspicion of mismanagement of millions of dollars in grants, the European Union said Tuesday. The group under scrutiny is Law Society, which has been monitoring Israeli and Palestinian human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1990. More Israeli than Paleo, I'd imagine... An audit by the accounting firm Ernst & Young indicated that Law Society funneled at least $1.5 million in donor money into a savings account without the donors' knowledge. The group did this by overstating wages and other expenses and by falsifying annual budget statements and audits, according to an initial report. Ah, yes. Skimming. The Haaretz newspaper, citing the audit report, said Tuesday that $4 million are unaccounted for. A partial copy of the report obtained by The Associated Press makes note of about $2 million that apparently were mismanaged. The audit spans the period from September 1997 through August 2002, a time when LAW received nearly $10 million in grants. Ummm... $4 million out of $10 million is a 40 percent rake-off... The report names LAW's former director, Khader Shkirat, as being involved in the mismanagement of funds. In a telephone interview Tuesday, Shkirat acknowledged setting up savings accounts without the donors' knowledge, but denied any money disappeared. "I mean, I've still got it here... somewhere. Fatimah! Have you seen the loot, uh, donor funds?" The accounts were set up to make sure the group would have money should donors decide one day to stop the funding, Shkirat said. "We wanted to secure the future," Shkirat said. "The donors would not have agreed to allow us to save money for the future which is why we didn't tell them." "I had to look out for my retirement, y'know? I'm not a young man anymore." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 The accounts were set up to make sure the group would have money should donors decide one day to stop the funding, Shkirat said. "We wanted to secure the future," Shkirat said. "The donors would not have agreed to allow us to save money for the future which is why we didn't tell them." Ah, a SLUSH FUND. That's different, then. Oh, wait...no it isn't... |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-03-25 16:12:52 |