The non-profit humanitarian agency World Vision United States negotiated improperly with the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA) in 2014, with the approval of the Obama administration, sending government funds to an organization that had been sanctioned for its links to terrorism, according to with a new report.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) recently released a report detailing the conclusions of an investigation initiated by his team in February 2019 on the relationship between World Vision and ISRA.
The investigation found that World Vision was not aware that the ISRA had been sanctioned by the United States since 2004, after channeling about $ 5 million to Maktab al-Khidamat, the predecessor of Al-Qaeda controlled by Osama Bid Laden.
However, this ignorance was born out of insufficient verification practices, the report said.
“World Vision works to help people in need around the world, and that work is admirable,” said Grassley in a statement. “Although I didn’t know that ISRA was on the sanctions list or because of its affiliation with terrorism, I should have known. Ignorance is not enough as an excuse. World Vision’s changes in verification practices are a good first step and I look forward to your continued progress. “
The investigation started in July 2018 National Review an article in which Sam Westrop, director of the Middle East Forum’s Islamic Observatory, detailed the MEF’s conclusions that the Obama administration approved a “$ 200,000 taxpayer grant to ISRA.”
Government officials specifically authorized the release of “at least $ 115,000” of this grant, even after learning that it was a designated terrorist organization, wrote Westrop.
According to the Senate report, World Vision submitted a grant application to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to carry out its Blue Nile Recovery Program on January 21, 2014. The proposed program was intended to provide security food, sanitation equipment and health services for areas hard hit by the conflict in the Blue Nile region of Sudan.
USAID awarded World Vision a $ 723,405 grant for the program. The following month, ISRA agreed to provide humanitarian services to parts of the Blue Nile Region for World Vision, according to the report. The two organizations also collaborated on several projects in 2013 and 2014.
World Vision only discovered that ISRA was sanctioned after the evangelical non-profit humanitarian organization discussed partnering with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on a separate humanitarian project in Sudan. By conducting a routine World Vision check and its partners, IOM discovered ISRA’s sanctioned status and contacted the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Compliance Team to confirm.
After receiving confirmation from OFAC, the IOM rejected World Vision’s offer to collaborate, says the report.
The World Vision legal department was notified of the potential status of ISRA as a sanctioned entity in September 2014 and immediately suspended all payments to the organization while investigating.
The non-profit organization sent a letter to OFAC on 19 November 2014, asking for clarification on the status of ISRA, and requesting that, if ISRA were sanctioned, a temporary license would be granted to terminate the organization’s existing contract.
Two months later, the Treasury responded, confirming that ISRA is sanctioned and denying the application for a license to work with the organization, as this would be “inconsistent with OFAC policy”.
A month later, World Vision submitted another application for a license to negotiate with ISRA to pay $ 125,000 for services rendered, so that it would not face legal consequences and possible expulsion from Sudan.
On May 4, 2015, the State Department of the Obama administration recommended that OFAC grant World Vision’s application for a license to conduct transactions. The following day, OFAC granted the license to pay ISRA $ 125,000 for services rendered and subsequently sent the nonprofit a “warning letter” stating that its collaboration with ISRA appeared to have violated the Global Sanction Regulations against Terrorism.
The report said the investigation “found no evidence that World Vision intentionally sought to circumvent US sanctions through a partnership with ISRA.”
“We also found no evidence that World Vision knew that ISRA was a sanctioned entity before receiving notification from the Treasury,” adds the report. “However, based on the evidence presented, we concluded that World Vision had access to appropriate public information and should know how, but failed, to properly examine ISRA as a sub-donor, resulting in the transfer of US taxpayer dollars to an organization with an extensive history of supporting terrorist organizations [sic] and terrorists, including Osama Bin Laden. “
The report calls on the World Vision system to veto possible sub-donors from “borderline negligence” and says the organization “ignored elementary-level investigative procedures”.
World Vision spent weeks after being informed by the IOM about the status of the ISRA sanction investigating the complaint and was unable to reach a conclusion, based on “what could only be described as a flawed logic”, says the report.
The report accuses World Vision of trying to avoid guilt and notes that the IOM “was able to quickly examine ISRA and determine its status as a sanctioned entity”.
“If World Vision had employed the same due diligence and similar methods employed by the IOM, taxpayer dollars would not have exchanged hands with an organization that is known for financing terrorist organizations,” the document said.
Although World Vision has instituted additional screening methods, “the Finance Committee team has reservations” about its ability to avoid similar situations in the future, the report says.
“World Vision has a duty to ensure that funds acquired from the United States government or donated by Americans do not end up supporting terrorist activities,” he says. “Particularly worrying for this Committee is World Vision’s attempt to shift the blame to the federal government for its own inability to properly examine a subcontractor. A more robust and fundamentally sound screening and verification system is needed to restore public confidence that contributions made to World Vision are not funding illicit organizations. ”
“Furthermore, while we find no reason to doubt World Vision’s claim that the funds in their entirety were used by ISRA for humanitarian purposes, this money inevitably helps its terrorist activities,” he concludes.
World Vision said in a statement that “takes our compliance obligations seriously and shares the goal of Sen. Grassley and the good management committee team.“
“We appreciate the recognition that the committee’s report to the president ‘found no evidence that World Vision knew that ISRA was a sanctioned entity before receiving notification from the Treasury’,“ is added. “Terrorism goes against everything that World Vision represents as an organization and we strongly condemn any act of terrorism or support for such activities.“