SIDA aid projects strongly criticised

The Swedish National Audit Commission has found serious shortcomings in SIDA's aid projects, reported Dagens Nyheter on Oct. 3rd. Swedish development aid channeled through churches, Caritas, Forum Syd and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are full with gross errors and irregularities. Huge sums of taxpayers' money disappear without a trace in the handling process, according to the report of the audit commission.

Development aid Minister Gunilla Carlsson said that this was unacceptable. "One is both saddened and angry." Last year, 370 Swedish NGOs with the inclusion of trade unions LO and TCO, administered around 1.3 billion crowns out of SIDA's 2006 year's 15 billion crown aid money. The lack of control over aid money was shown in the Audit Commission's inspection of 15 out of these projects in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya and Tanzania. During four and a-half months, several inspectors from the Audit Commission were out in the field, meeting with small African village aid-recipients, project leaders, participants and auditors.

None of the inspected projects were found faultless. In two-thirds of the projects were found significant errors in the accounting, while three out of four lacked sufficient basis for the Audit Commission to determine which or what the operation was concerned with. One out of three cases showed falsified receipts and attendance lists. In several other cases, it was unsubstantiated high salaries, local costs and consultancy. Half of the projects had not paid the legally-required taxes and employers' fees.

In spite of these anomalies, all the projects were approved by the local auditors as well as the Swedish donor organisations' audit forces from firms such as KPMG and Price Waterhouse. The African auditors have a dependency position vis-a-vis the project leadership, hence the inability to act independently. The Swedes on the other hand, have taken for granted reading the local auditing reports without asking for the projects' accounting documents such as invoices.

Development aid Minister Carlsson stated that she had earlier asked SIDA to do something about the routines for the aid money channeled through the NGOs. " These organisations should have idealism and local commitment, small-scale and presence in the field. And coming from Swedish popular movements who are expected to understand and show respect for taxpayers' money." She has not mentioned any specific measures she would take with respect to the Audit Commission's devastating findings.#