{"id":368039,"date":"2017-11-03T14:57:03","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T14:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=368039"},"modified":"2017-11-03T14:57:03","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T14:57:03","slug":"red-cross-loses-5m-of-ebola-funds-to-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/11\/red-cross-loses-5m-of-ebola-funds-to-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Cross loses $5m of Ebola funds to fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Red Cross has confirmed that more than $5m (\u00a33.8m) of aid money was lost to fraud and corruption during the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.<\/p>\n
Auditors found overpriced supplies, salaries for non-existent aid workers and fake customs bills.<\/p>\n
The disease, which raged between 2014 and 2016, claimed at least 10,000 lives.<\/p>\n
It required a massive humanitarian operation costing hundreds of millions of dollars to bring it under control.<\/p>\n
As Ebola spread across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the Red Cross Federation in Geneva was dispersing cash donations to the national Red Cross societies in each of those countries – altogether a sum of about $100m.<\/p>\n
An investigation by Red Cross auditors has revealed that in Liberia $2.7m disappeared in fraudulently overpriced supplies, or in salaries for non-existent aid workers.<\/p>\n
In Sierra Leone, Red Cross staff apparently colluded with local bank workers to skim off over $2m while in Guinea, where investigations are ongoing, around $1m disappeared in fake customs bills.<\/p>\n
The Red Cross told the BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva that it is deeply sorry for the losses.<\/p>\n
The organisation adds that has introduced stricter financial rules, and promised to hold any Red Cross staff involved to account.<\/p>\n
Fraud involving donor money is every aid agency’s nightmare, our correspondent says.<\/p>\n
The Red Cross is the world’s best-known humanitarian organisation, and this revelation will be damaging, she adds.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Red Cross has confirmed that more than $5m (\u00a33.8m) of aid money was lost to fraud and corruption during the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Auditors found overpriced supplies, salaries for non-existent aid workers and fake customs bills. The disease, which raged between 2014 and 2016, claimed at least 10,000 lives. It required a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[2031,172,2032],"yoast_head":"\n