Embezzlement of Funds From Global Fund Partners
24 January 2022
The former Executive Director of International Civil Society Support (ICSS), a Netherlands-based Civil Society Organization, embezzled an estimated EUR 113,000 in Global Fund funding from ICSS, from the Global Coalition of TB Activists (GCTA) and from the Global Fund Board’s Communities Delegation between 2018 and 2020. These embezzled funds were among over EUR 550,000 in suspicious transactions undertaken by the individual, which involved multiple donors’ funds belonging to ICSS, GCTA and the Communities Delegation.
Various fraudulent practices were employed, such as creating falsified payment requests, making unsupported bank transfers, and abusing access to corporate bank accounts and a corporate credit card with extensive unsupported and personal expenditure. ICSS and GCTA lacked effective internal controls, as well as escalation and oversight mechanisms which could have identified and stopped the wrongdoing at an earlier stage.