Geneva — 'We share the faults' when things go wrong
The UN has pledged to "carefully consider" the recommendations of an operational review into humanitarian aid operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a draft of the document leaked to The New Humanitarian revealed widespread corruption and abuse.
The operational review was commissioned by an anti-fraud taskforce created by UN agencies and aid groups in Congo after the NGO Mercy Corps discovered a large-scale fraud scheme in late 2018 - first made public this week after a more than nine-month investigation by TNH.
"We share the faults" when things go wrong, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Congo, David McLachlan-Karr, said in a frank statement, vowing that the UN would do "everything possible to maintain... trust by fighting fraud, corruption and abuse at all levels".
McLachlan-Karr said allegations in the review that the selection committee of the UN's humanitarian pooled fund - a major pot run by the UN's emergency aid coordination body, OCHA - had demanded kickbacks from national NGOs in exchange for contracts could "damage donor confidence in the Fund and ancillary financing".
The operational review said there is a mutual lack of trust between aid groups and communities in Congo, who "perceive humanitarian aid as corrupt and driven by external agendas".
