Despite billions in tsunami relief needs, some aid groups stop collecting donations

WASHINGTON -- Several major charities and relief agencies have stopped soliciting donations for tsunami victims and at least one has begun returning money.

Billions of dollars more ultimately will be needed for long-term rebuilding in the devastated Asian region. But agencies sensitized by recent charity scandals say they're being careful not to accept more money now than they legitimately can spend in aiding tsunami victims.

The American Red Cross and British-based Oxfam stopped raising money for their tsunami relief work more than a month ago, when pledges hit spending targets. Great Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee stopped last month, for the same reason.

Catholic Relief Services also has ceased active solicitation, having received $114 million for $80 million in currently programmed tsunami relief activities. Doctors Without Borders has started sending money back.

"We didn't want the restricted funds to outpace our capacity to use them effectively in the field," said Nicolas de Torrente, executive director of Doctors Without Borders. "We want to be responsible toward our donors and respect their wishes, that if they give for the tsunami, it will be used for that."

With upward of $115 million in donations, and a current tsunami relief budget of about $33 million, the organization has been asking its tsunami donors if their money can be used elsewhere. About 90 percent have agreed, de Torrente said, but more than $500,000 has been returned.

Since the Dec. 26 tsunami killed more than 170,000 people in 11 Asian countries, governments have pledged more than $6 billion in relief and reconstruction funds. The United States initially pledged $350 million, including $226 million the U.S. military spent in emergency relief. President Bush has asked Congress to increase the overall U.S. aid package to $950 million.

Americans have donated another $1 billion to relief agencies, and British citizens have contributed $575 million.

Jan Egeland, emergency relief coordinator for the United Nations, said 90 percent of the $977 million the United Nations initially sought for emergency relief has been received and mostly spent providing food, shelter and medical help for tsunami survivors.

Governments and development groups now are focused on the estimated $12 billion in reconstruction costs.

"I don't think you'll see any group doing long-term development (in the Tsunami countries) saying they have enough," said Sid Balman Jr., a spokesman for InterAction, an alliance of 160 international relief and development groups.

The high-profile reconstruction fund drive by former Presidents Clinton and Bush promises to bring increased scrutiny for both public and private agencies helping tsunami survivors. Officials say the risk of theft and fraud will increase as reconstruction gets under way.

"There is a limit to how much you can misuse a blanket, really, or how much you can misuse a bottle of purified water, or food ration," Egeland said. "It's more complicated if you are to rebuild highways, airports, schools and so on, and our development colleagues are acutely aware of that."

Officials involved in the relief effort say they welcome the increased scrutiny.

Mark Melia, director of annual giving and support at Catholic Relief Services, said all tsunami donations have been segregated into a special fund and the CRS board has directed that no more than 6 percent of that fund can be spent for administrative and other overhead costs.

The CRS board is meeting this week to decide what to do with the $34 million in donations that have come in since the agency last projected its tsunami relief spending at $80 million.

"I can understand that it looks awkward, where we have more money raised than committed, but that's just part of the process," Melia said. "We expect a higher level of scrutiny and think that's appropriate."

At the United Nations, Egeland said an agreement is near completion for the accounting firm PriceWatershouseCooper to help track and verify its relief donations and spending and to investigate allegations of wrongdoing.

The U.N.'s role in coordinating the emergency aid already has come under fire on Capitol Hill because of the agency's involvement in the recent Iraq oil-for-food scandal. Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, cited the scandal at a January hearing while urging the State Department to be "more engaged and vigilant."

"We cannot allow corruption to divert one dollar from where it is so desperately needed," Lewis said.

More than a third of the $122 million in nonmilitary emergency relief spending by the U.S. government thus far has been disbursed through U.N. agencies like the World Food Program. The U.S. Agency for International Development provides grants and contracts to charitable organizations, international relief agencies and other non-governmental organizations.

Because of the need for quick action after the tsunami, Mark Ward, a deputy USAID administrator, said the agency worked almost exclusively with relief agencies and contractors it had vetted in previous disasters. He said dozens of auditors, lawyers and accountants also have been in the field since day one, tracking the spending.

USAID's emergency spending included $7.6 million to Red Cross agencies, $4.6 million to Catholic Relief Services, $3.6 million to the International Organization for Migration, and $3.5 million to the Irish relief organization, GOAL.

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On the Net:

USAID: http://www.usaid.gov

US Freedom Corps: http://www.usafreedomcorps.gov

International relief activities: http://www.reliefweb.int