At least $6 million in funds meant to fight the 2014 Ebola crisis was stolen from the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), the organization confirmed on Saturday.
The Red Cross discovered several instances of fraud as part of its own internal investigation into the handling of more than $124 million during the Ebola crisis.
Ebola killed 11,000 people as it spread from Guinea to Sierra Leone and Liberia. The international response to the outbreak drew criticism for moving too slowly.
In a statement, the Red Cross said that its investigation uncovered fraud in all three countries affected by the plague, and is working with those governments to ‘investigate and legally pursue’ any persons involved.
An internal investigation has uncovered that $6 million was stolen from the International Federation of the Red Cross through fraud during its response to the Ebola crisis in Guinea, Sierra Leon and Liberia in 2014. The organization insists that it is pursuing all persons involved, but that the cases of fraud ‘must not diminish’ the work of thousands of Red Cross volunteers
The Ebola virus broke out initially in Guinea in 2013, eventually killing more than 2,500 people there. The outbreak was declared on March 23, 2014.
The Red Cross reports that more than 6,000 of its volunteers were deployed to address the Ebola crisis through safe burials, mapping and education.
Money to fight the disease’s spread trickled in slowly even as the disease ripped across West Africa. The Guardian reported that by October 2014, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs had only received $378 million toward the crisis, accounting for less than half of what the department said was needed.
The $6 million that was stolen from the Red Cross accounted for more than 20 percent of the total funds that the Red Cross had allocated to combatting the epidemic.
An internal investigation found three forms of fraud in the three countries.
The first identified fraud took place in Liberia, where the Red Cross lost $2.7 million to inflated payments made for relief items and payments of payroll and volunteer stipends. These first signs of fraud led to a fuller investigation.
In Sierra Leone, the Red Cross statement says that there was ‘likely collusion’ between then-staff members and a bank, resulting in the disappearance more than $2 million dollars.
The organization is investigating additional fraud in Guinea, where it says a ‘clearance service’ provider was giving it fake or over-estimated bills, leading to the loss of about $1.17 million dollars there.
In its press release, the IFRC said it was ‘outraged’ by the discovery that funds had been pilfered from donations made to fight a health crisis.
In response to the results of its investigations, the IFRC says that is implementing a plan to bolster its defences against corruption through training, auditing, investigation, and limits on cash-spending allowances in ‘high-risk settings.’
‘We are pursuing every possible avenue to reclaim all funds that have been misappropriated, diverted, or otherwise illegally taken. This includes working with authorities in affected countries and elsewhere as appropriate,’ Dr Jemilah Mahmood, the IFRXC under secretary general for partnerships said.
The instances of fraud, however, ‘must not in any way diminish the tremendous courage and dedication of thousands of volunteers and staff during the Ebola response. They played a critical and widely recognized role in containing and ending the outbreak, and preventing further spread of the Ebola virus internationally,’ he added.
The internal investigation’s findings were first released on October 20, but were not widely publicized until Friday.