Fraud by Red Cross workers and others wasted more than six million dollars (£4.6 million) meant to fight the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the organisation has confirmed.
The revelations follow an internal investigation of how money was handled during the 2014-2016 epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Up to two million dollars (£1.5 million) disappeared due to "likely collusion" between Red Cross staff and employees at a Sierra Leonean bank, the investigation found.
The International Federation of the Red Cross also revealed evidence of fraud in the two other hardest-hit countries during the Ebola crisis, Liberia and Guinea.
Investigators in Liberia found "evidence of fraud related to inflated prices of relief items, payroll and payment of volunteer incentives."
The IFRC estimated the loss at 2.7 million dollars (£2.1 million).
And in Guinea, at least one million dollars (£765,000) disappeared because of fraudulent billing practices by a customs clearance service provider. Two other investigations there are pending, the IFRC said.
Ebola erupted in Guinea and spread rapidly to Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The international aid response was initially slow, and once money arrived it was often disbursed quickly in the rush to purchase supplies and get aid workers into the field.
"I feel disappointed and concerned by the reaction of a few individuals, that their actions detract from the amazing work of the Red Cross staff and volunteers during the Ebola outbreak," said Paul Jenkins, head of the delegation for the IFRC and Red Crescent Societies in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown.
"Their actions saved thousands of lives and the IFRC will continue to ensure that its funds are used for the purpose for which they are given," he said.
The IFRC said it was strengthening its efforts to fight corruption, including introducing cash spending limits in "high-risk settings."
It also plans to send trained auditors along with emergency operations teams.
Other measures will include additional staff training and the establishment of a dedicated and independent internal investigation function.
The IFRC said it was working with Sierra Leone's Anti-Corruption Commission to "investigate and legally pursue any persons involved."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here