Norwegian aid money stolen in Syria
In the past year, three aid organizations have had to repay almost NOK 1 million to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after being exposed to criminals in Syria.
CARE, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) have had to repay the allocated aid money wrote VG newspaper.
The figures appear in an overview from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ central control unit.
The relief organization, CARE, is responsible for the largest repayment of almost half a million kroner, which was returned in the fourth quarter last year.
NOK 182,059 was repaid after a loss at one of the local partners, while NOK 299,064 was repaid after theft of computer equipment and cash at another of the organisation’s partners.
The Norwegian authorities were notified of the situation after CARE became familiar with the cases.
In the same quarter, NRC had to repay NOK 107,170 after embezzlement and corruption by a local partner.
NOK 381,263 was reimbursed by Norwegian People’s Aid in the first quarter according to what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to as double payment and overpricing of office rent and salaries.
The central control unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs registered a total of 21 new notifications of financial fraud in the last quarter of last year. Ten of these were terminated with a reaction, and a total of NOK 3.3 million was repaid in these cases.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
