NGO ends Mozambique flood aid over graft
2013-02-04 14:17
Johannesburg - A charity has withdrawn assistance from flood-torn
Mozambique's biggest displaced persons' camp after its administrators allegedly
plotted to steal food meant for thousands of people, a report said on Monday.
Camp officials near the southern town of Chokwe put down their own names for
aid worth $225 000, Gift of the Givers organisation told The Times.
"Things went wrong because of the Mozambican government
officials," Imtiaz Sooleiman, the head of the South African-based
non-governmental organisation, said.
"They were taking from the people we were meant to be helping," he
added. "We discovered these bogus and fictitious lists with people not in
need of anything."
Mozambique has called for millions of dollars in foreign aid after the
deluge left dead 68 and affected as many as 250 000, according to the United
Nations.
Good governance NGO Transparency International last year scored the poor
southern African nation 123rd out of 178 countries on its Corruption
Perceptions Index.
