The suspension in March of millions of dollars in USAID procurement grants – taxpayers' money – to 14 humanitarian NGOs working in Syria arose out of reports that, among other scams, some aid workers had been receiving kickbacks from suppliers, buying low quality goods for refugees at inflated prices and taking "commission" for the contracts. In one case salt had been found to be the sole element in a shipment of "food ration kits".
The US in 2015 spent nearly $400 million in Syria through aid groups on whom it depends, and suspended part of that funding to allow a full probe by spending watchdog, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
Caught up in that suspension and investigation, as well as internationally renowned groups like the International Rescue Committee and the International Medical Corps, was Irish-based agency Goal, which saw €6.2 million of its €113 million USAID Syria funding cut off. That led also to a precautionary suspension by Irish Aid of €10 million in its grants to the organisation.
As well as Goal, which has commissioned an investigation by the accounting firm BDO, an aid supply company, Noble House Business PLC, established by two Goal employees and a consultant to it, is also under investigation. Goal has since distanced itself from the company after it became aware of potential conflicts of interest.
The OIG investigation is likely to take some time to complete, leaving all the named agencies under a cloud. But BDO is understood to have completed its report and its findings are now part of an action plan by Goal which it should publish.
Its credibility with international government donors like USAID, the UK’s DfID, and the EU, who made up by far the largest part of Goal’s €210 million turnover last year, should, hopefully, be helped by the eventual OIG report. It is expected to find that the scams were the work of small numbers of rogue individuals and not systemic – Goal has sacked two of its staff in Syria. But that will neither be soon enough nor sufficient.
The agency, whose programmes have trebled in size in the past five years, to the point where it is now reaching out to 12 million people, can only survive if it can restore the full confidence of international government donors, not least of which is Irish Aid which in the past had issues with Goal reporting practices. If it can not do that, talk will inevitably turn to transferring the assets and staff of the organisation to another international NGO.
Goal needs to demonstrate a firm commitment to strengthen its internal audit, governance and transparency as an organisation. The honourable resignation reported in this paper yesterday of CEO Barry Andrews, the former Fianna Fáil minister who took the helm at the organisation in 2013 and who is not implicated in any malpractice, is a first and necessary earnest of intent.