Displaying items by tag: misappropriation

Transparency International warned of the dangers of funds for the response to the coronavirus crisis being misappropriated. On 26 May more stories confirmed the validity of these concerns. In Bolivia, the minister of health was removed from his post after the government paid over the odds for ventilators that were not even fit for purpose. In Italy, the head of Sicily’s coronavirus response has been put under house arrest following an investigation into bribery cases going back to 2016. In Poland, the health minister is under fire after the government bought more than 10,000 useless face masks through a family friend. The case has been referred to prosecutors. These examples join many others, including an investigation in Bosnia and Herzegovina into a multi-million-euro government contract for ventilators that went to a raspberry farm with political connections, and the resignation in Panama of a senior politician involved in yet another ventilator procurement scandal.

As climate change creates huge ecological and economic damage, more and more money is being given to at-risk countries to help them prevent it and adapt to its effects. But these grants can be diverted into private bank accounts and vanity projects. Senior staff at Kenya’s geothermal energy company went on compulsory leave after trying to embezzle US$19 million, and a Bangladesh fishing community cannot reach their cyclone shelter that was built on the other side of a river which isn’t crossable during bad weather. The contractor built the shelter next to his own house. Also 52 Maldivian families were relocated from islands vulnerable to erosion and sea surges. The government raised funds to house them. Construction never began; they were still homeless eight years after the relocation. Transparency International works to safeguard climate change funding from corruption, by monitoring and exposing corruption risks and supporting communities.