Goal funds withheld pending US inquiry into alleged fraud

The Department of Foreign Affairs withheld millions of euro in funding from the aid agency Goal pending a US government inquiry into alleged fraud relating to humanitarian contracts for Syria.

Goal and a number of other agencies operating in Syria were ordered to halt procurement using some American funds earlier this year as the US government’s foreign aid arm, USAid, began an investigation into alleged bribery and bid-rigging.

The suspension affects about €6.2 million of the €113 million Goal receives from USAid.

Goal has already sacked two staff members based in Turkey on foot of information emerging from the investigation, which is being carried out by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), USAid's internal spending watchdog.

The Department of Foreign Affairs responded to the US investigation by withholding €2.95 million in humanitarian funding earmarked for Goal, records released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal.

The Goal chief executive, Barry Andrews, was informed in late June that the funds were being held back "until we have clarification on the ongoing US investigation", according to an email from the head of Irish Aid, Michael Gaffey, to the department's secretary general, Niall Burgess.

The €2.95 million was intended for Goal programmes in a number of countries.

Board apology

The records also show that the chair of Goal, Anne O’Leary, apologised to the department on behalf of the board of the charity for failing to inform officials about the suspension of US funding before it appeared in the media.

This followed a strongly worded letter to Ms O’Leary from Mr Burgess in April in which he expressed “serious concern . . . about the almost complete lack of communication by Goal’s management or board with this department around these issues prior to today”.

At a subsequent meeting requested by Mr Burgess, according to a departmental memo headed “confidential internal note”, Ms O’Leary apologised on behalf of the board.

“She also said that the OIG investigation was a very sensitive and confidential process and they were under specific instructions from the OIG on what information should be shared,” the memo stated.

Goal has said that the US investigation does not relate to any Irish Government funding.

In the records it released, the department redacted all information on the nature of the allegations being investigated by the US authorities.

It is understood the investigation springs from inquiries that began last December into procurement irregularities in the multimillion-euro Syria aid operations based in Turkey.

Collusion allegations

On July 14th, USAid inspector general Ann Calvaresi Barr told a House of Representatives committee in Washington that the agency had opened 25 investigations relating to aid for Syria since February 2015.

She said that the most common fraud schemes involved collusion between vendors and agencies’ procurement and logistics staff, who accepted bribes or kickbacks in exchange for contract steering.

Goal responded to the US inquiry by sending a team to Turkey to carry out its own review of procurement practices in its Syrian operation.

That review found the process was “a competitive process and in line with Goal policy”, according to a copy sent to the department.

However, it identified “several gaps” in Goal’s “internal control process which could increase the exposure to potential manipulation of the process in order to justify a vendor selection or allocation decisions”.

The review made recommendations on how to close these gaps.

The USAid investigations are understood also to include International Medical Corps and the International Rescue Committee. *

Goal continues to support hundreds of thousands of people in northern Syria through the provision of water and sanitation facilities, vouchers, and agriculture and livelihood programmes.

* This article was amended on August 12th. The original version stated that the aid agency Mercy Corps was understood to be under investigation by USAID. Mercy Corps says it co-operated with the investigation but was not itself under investigation.