Udenrigsudvalget 2014-15 (1. samling)
URU Alm.del Bilag 118
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Concise Summary
of
the report of the European Anti-Fraud Office
on
the embezzlement of the EU humanitarian aid funds
intended to the refugees in camps of Tindouf
It has now known worldwide that the report European Anti-Fraud Office -OLAF-
on the embezzlement of the EU humanitarian aid funds intended to the refugees in
the camps of Tindouf report has been declassified seven years after its conclusion
in 2007. This report concerns specifically the misuse of huge quantities of
humanitarian aid more particularly food products.
Indeed, European Commission’s humanitarian aid department-ECHO- has been
informed, since 1999, about founding aid food products in public markets in
Nouakchott/Mauritania, 1500km far from the camps.
As a matter of fact, by the end of 2001, ECHO Finance has discovered huge
quantities of the humanitarian food items in many markets more specifically in
Algeria (Bechar) and Mauritania (Nouakchott, Chingetti and Nema).
Since then, eleven ECHO’ missions had confirmed that, during the period going
from the end of 2001 to April 2003, many tons of donated food products (like tuna
cans and powder milk) were found in 12 different spots in the region. The report
mentioned also that donated medical equipments were sold in Algeria.
Moreover, the ECHO report confirmed that spare parts of water tanks were
ordered many times within the same year and resold elsewhere and consequently
accused the Polisario leaders of submitting false invoices and overestimated virtual
projects to various donor ONGs.
It should be emphasized that Algeria’s Secret Services-DRS- were also stated in the
report as part of the diversion machine. DRS Offices ‘‘have setup outlets, kind of
grocery shops, in the camps to sell the humanitarian assistance to the population.
This is an indirect way to recover all the money circulation in the camp especially
wages and pensions paid by the Spanish government to the sahraouis retirees. ’’
Food is not only form of aid abused by Polisario, according to OLAF, donors
provide money they believe is going to pay construction workers, for example,
when in fact prisoners do the building, and false personal list are created in order to
receive payment for the work.
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It has appeared very quickly that the diversions mentioned in the ECHO’s report
were not the only problem in this file; In fact, many sources have declared that the
number of the refugees in the camps who were assisted by ECHO was
overestimated. This explains that one of the reasons that made this fraud possible
is, in fact, this overestimation of the number of the refugees and consequently the
amount of the aid provided.
It is no surprise that the EU’s financial support to the Tindouf camps that started
in 1975 was based on Algerian authorities’ estimates of the camps inhabitants, as
being the wrong figure of 155.000.
It is worth recalling again and again that the issue of census of the Tindouf’s
refugees, has been and is still an issue between Algeria and UNHCR. Indeed, not
only the UN body, several other NGO’s and a number of countries, including
Morocco, has repeatedly requested Algerian authorities to allow a count and
identification of the camps population but all the requests were denied and turned
down.
By the beginning of 2004, OLAF has signed a contract with the Joint Research
Centre (JRC) at Ispra to conduct an investigation with the aim of examining this
issue. By November 2004, on the basis of comparing satellite’s images taken in July
2004 to previous photos, this investigation has allowed to set up a scientific
assessment of the number of the inhabitants of the Tindouf’s camps, as being
91.000 persons. Thus and starting from September 1
st
2005, the number of 91.000
was taken into consideration by ECHO.
The OLAF investigators met several ONG’s members acting on the field, civilian
and military prisoners who took part in the embezzlement of the donations. Several
meetings were organized with representatives of United Nations’s Agencies who
are dealing with this file. On the basis of these actions, OLAF’s investigation has
concluded the following:
- A huge important part of the humanitarian aid, partially financed by the
European Commission, has been diverted ;
- A large part of this diversion was organized in the camps by Polisario and
Algeria;
- A part of the donated products was taken on its arrival in the Port of Oran;
- Another part the donated items was diverted on the road between the city of
Oran and Rabouni’s Camp.
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Besides, the same investigation has detected the following:
- High-quality items were replaced by cheap ones and sold.
- All donated food items related to poultry production especially chicken and
eggs were sold and not given to the refugees.
- When, on an exceptional basis, some donators are allowed to assist to the
distribution in the camps, tracks come later to retrieve a part of the
merchandise to be sold afterwards.
- 50% of the roadmaps of the tracks were inexistent.
It is highly prior that the European Commission could take appropriate measures
in order to avoid that a situation similar to the one described at present would be
repeated in the future.
In this regard, OLAF highly recommends to the General Directorate of ECHO the
following:
- Take into consideration the figure of the number of the refugees as it has
been established by the study made by Joint Research Centre (JRC) at Ispra.
- Ensure the free circulation of the donors within the camps and the free
communication with the beneficiaries; make unannounced checks to control
the stocks and to supervise the allocations of the donated items.
- Oblige the contracting parties to control effectively the volume of the aid at
its arrival in the camps and supervise its concrete distribution to its intended
refugees.
- Demand that the persons were involved in the diversion of the donated aid
would never take part neither in the programming, the management, nor the
distribution of the aid financed by the European Commission.
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