GiveDirectly has lost U.S. $900,000 allegedly stolen by staff or former workers in a large-scale fraud that penetrated every department of the organisation’s office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Development Diaries reports that more than 1,700 families in the country’s South Kivu province were impacted by the fraud scheme, according to a report by The New Humanitarian.
It is understood that the fraud started in late August 2022 when GiveDirectly began cash transfers there.
‘To the people who should have received cash, we are sorry. It is our job to design systems that protect the funds that are supposed to reach you, and ultimately, we let you down’, The New Humanitarian quoted GiveDirectly’s Managing Director, Joe Houston, as saying.
‘To our donors, I think we have a similar message: that it’s our job to deliver your funds safely’.
Households were meant to receive one-time transfers of $392, and then $40 per month for the next two years.
The DRC is one of the five poorest countries in the world, with nearly 62 percent of its population or 60 million people living on less than $2.15 a day, according to the World Bank.
The lack of formal economic opportunities, years of political instability, armed conflict, high rates of malnutrition and poor education are some of the significant causes of poverty in the country.
Although GiveDirectly suspended cash transfers in DRC since January, pending internal investigations, the organisation says it hopes to resume the distribution of cash to households despite the exploit.
Corruption involving aid workers and public officials is common in DRC’s long-running humanitarian crisis, with perpetrators often justifying it as a way of getting by in a dysfunctional state.
Source: The New Humanitarian
Photo source: World Bank