- International aid group Oxfam is investigating the possible theft of tens of thousands of dollars in tsunami funds by its staff or contractors in Indonesia.
The British-based agency has suspended some operations, including house building, while it conducts an inquiry at one of its offices in the northern province of Aceh, the region that bore the brunt of the disaster.
The tsunami, which slammed into a dozen Indian Ocean nations on Dec. 26 2004, left around 170,000 dead or missing in Aceh and another 500,000 homeless.
Oxfam has informed the police and Indonesian authorities of its investigation after uncovering apparent discrepancies at its Aceh Besar office.
"It???&${esc.hash}39;s basic theft. We are not giving any more details as the audit investigation has only just begun, but it???&${esc.hash}39;s that rather than anything more complicated," Oxfam spokesman Brendan Cox said.
Oxfam???&${esc.hash}39;s overall budget for Aceh is ${esc.dollar}30 million while that for Aceh Besar is just over ${esc.dollar}5 million. Cox said the sum being investigated could be ${esc.dollar}1,000 or tens of thousands.
He could not give details about how many people might be involved or which sphere they worked in.
Oxfam&${esc.hash}39;s Aceh Besar office is helping 60,000 people. The agency has put its house building and livelihood support operations in the district on hold but will continue emergency work such as delivering drinking water and clearing rubbish.
It said it expected to resume all work within a few weeks at the most and would do everything in its power to recover any money found to be missing.
Corruption fearsThe tsunami generated a record amount of aid -- around ${esc.dollar}13 billion -- but the enormous inflow of cash to countries like Indonesia with a history of corruption raised fears the money could vanish into the wrong pockets.
Aid workers privately say corruption is inevitable in relief and recovery operations, but agencies are usually very reluctant to admit it exists for fear of hurting fund raising.
Cox said he did not think donors would be put off. "It???&${esc.hash}39;s much better to be open and transparent about it. These are obviously issues that all agencies are dealing with and it???&${esc.hash}39;s much better that we are open about them and confront them head on, that we spot them early on and take action early on, rather than try and do any kind of cover up."
Analysts welcomed Oxfam???&${esc.hash}39;s openness and did not think it would stop people donating as it showed the agency had systems in place to identify problems.
"It???&${esc.hash}39;s very refreshing to have an aid agency being willing to be transparent. It???&${esc.hash}39;s an important step that they have taken and one that???&${esc.hash}39;s pretty exemplary," said Nicholas Stockton, director of Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International which campaigns to make the aid world more accountable to its intended beneficiaries.
"No one that???&${esc.hash}39;s a member of the donating public to Oxfam is going to say this proves that ... the whole of the management team are corrupt and have their hands in the till."
Indonesia is perceived to be one of the World&${esc.hash}39;s most corrupt countries according to anti-graft watchdog Transparency International.
Cox said that given the amount of money being spent in the tsunami region Oxfam had put in place very stringent checks and was monitoring programmes twice as often as it normally would.
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