US confirms NGOs funds abuse

Felex Share, Harare Bureau
THE United States has confirmed that the quasi-political civil society organisations it had been funding to push the regime change agenda in Zimbabwe squandered funds meant for the “project”.

The US said it had suspended funding the organisations and reported the matter to USAid office of the inspector general (OIG). The OIG is an arm responsible for investigating the abuse of USAid programmes.

Organisations which embezzled the funds included Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights), Election Resource Centre (ERC) and Counselling Services Unit (CSU).

All the three civil society organisations, which are appendages of opposition political parties, deal with political and governance issues.

Responding to emailed questions from our sister paper, The Herald yesterday, US embassy acting public relations officer Mr John Taylor said diversion of funds was unacceptable. “We can confirm allegations of misuse of US funding by local Zimbabwean partners, and we referred the allegations to the USAid Office of the Inspector General (OIG),” he said.

“The OIG is an independent oversight office responsible for investigating such claims of possible fraud and other abuse or misconduct in USAid programmes. As a result of the initial investigation, USAid has terminated programmes with three partners and mandated corrective action on programmes implemented by two additional partners.

“The investigation remains open, and we cannot comment further on matters referred to the OIG.”

The project coordinators and managers diverted the funds to personal use, with some reportedly marrying more wives, buying luxurious cars and houses.

Some coordinators are said to have completed building houses a few month ago.

Mr Taylor added: “The United States remains committed to assisting the people of Zimbabwe, and invests millions of dollars each year to support a wide range of programmes to benefit them.

“Attempts to divert US funds from their intended use is unacceptable under any circumstances. USAid will continue to hold its partners to strict financial-accounting standards, and require regular audits to ensure the appropriate use of US Government resources.”

The NGOs implicated in the scandal, whose salaries mainly came from the USAid, have denied abusing the funds. They have been ditched at a time Zimbabwe is left with four weeks to hold its harmonised elections.