More than $6 million in Ebola aid stolen
Red Cross admits its officials siphoned relief money
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Barely two years after West African nations defeated a deadly Ebola scourge, they are confronting a new epidemic: corruption.
In October, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) admitted that its officials, local bankers, volunteers and others had embezzled more than $6 million in aid relief money in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
“For it to now behave like corrupt politicians, to steal Ebola money meant for the poor masses, is unacceptable,” said Freetown teacher Musa Koroma, 26. “It’s a shame. The Red Cross must account for this.”
From March 2014 to January 2016, the Ebola virus killed more than 11,000 people in the three West African nations, the World Health Organization says. The plague crippled their economies and forced their governments to institute quarantines and other harsh restrictions, such as banning public assemblies.
Many of the 17,000 Ebola survivors in the three countries are facing health complications from the sickness.
“I have received reports of eyesight and other health problems from some of my members,” said Yusuf Kabba, president of the Sierra Leone Association of Ebola Survivors.
In an internal audit, the IFRC said it discovered inflated purchase orders, payments to non-existent workers and padded expense accounts.
“We didn’t hear the news from outside. Our internal auditors discovered the fraud,” said Aissatou Nafo Traore, who leads the IFRC in Africa. “This is a sign of transparency. We are unhappy about it, and we are very sorry.”
The IFRC is investigating where the money might have gone in hopes of retrieving it and punishing those responsible, she said.
The IFRC revelations were not the first indication of corruption related to the epidemic in Sierra Leone. Early this year, a government audit found that at least $14 million had been misappropriated or was unaccounted for by government agencies and their partners. The audit found that health workers in highrisk environments, such as transporting corpses, did not receive the hazard pay they had been promised.