Goal seeks to allay concerns over US fraud inquiry

The aid agency Goal has sought to allay concerns about its governance after it emerged that the Department of Foreign Affairs had withheld almost €3 million in funding from the aid agency.

The department informed Goal in June that it was holding back €2.95 million in humanitarian funding pending a US government investigation into alleged fraud involving Goal and a number of other agencies working in Syria.

News of the decision was contained in documents released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act.

Goal is awaiting the findings of an inquiry it commissioned by the accounting firm BDO after the spending watchdog of USAid, the US government's foreign aid arm, began an investigation into alleged bribery and bid-rigging involving about 20 agencies operating in Syria.

USAid has ordered Goal and the other organisations to stop some procurement using American funding pending the outcome of the investigation, a decision that affects about €6.2 million of the €113 million it receives from USAid.

‘Cash-flow issue’

Commenting on the decision by the department to withhold some money, Goal chief executive

Barry Andrews

said it presented the organisation with “a cash-flow issue” and had an impact on its response to certain chronic emergencies.

“We have managed to shore up some of the gaps. There are other funders we can look to,” he said. “But it is a difficult situation and I think really what we have to do is to go back to Irish Aid with the outcome of the BDO investigation and restore their confidence as soon as possible.”

Mr Andrews said the employment of three Goal employees in Turkey had been terminated as a result of information that had emerged so far – one more than has been reported on until now.

He said the agency had robust governance structures, including a whistle-blowing mechanism, “very serious anti-fraud measures . . . and a very strong audit and risk committee.”

Possibility of fraud

Notwithstanding these checks and balances, he said, it was impossible to fully exclude the possibility of fraud in the future.

"We work in very difficult environments and I think most of our funders understand that that is the situation," he said on Newstalk's Breakfast programme.

Despite the partial suspension of procurement, Mr Andrews said Goal continued to get its aid to one million beneficiaries in Syria who relied on its supplies.

Goal has said that the US investigation does not relate to any Irish Government funding.

On July 14th, USAid inspector general Ann Calvaresi Barr told a House of Representatives committee in Washington, DC, that the agency had opened 25 investigations relating to aid for Syria since February 2015.

She said the most common fraud schemes involved collusion between vendors and agencies’ procurement and logistics staff, who accepted bribes or kickbacks in exchange for contract steering.

The USAid investigations are understood also to include International Medical Corps and the International Rescue Committee.

Mercy Corps, which was included in a report in Monday's Irish Times as one of the organisations under investigation, said it co-operated with the investigation but was not itself under investigation.