‘Ambiguity’ of charity
this article should have been published last thursday, but our desire to write about the presidential election in tunisia which took place the same day prevented it, excuse me for misinforming.
the international islamic c h a r i t a b l e organization (iico) was e s t a b l i s h e d in 1984 as an independent body. despite its numerous activities, it has not gone beyond the traditional scope of providing assistance to the needy in different parts of the world. this is what all similar associations claim to do, and therefore i do not know the justification for the establishment of this body.
kuwait was chosen as a headquarters as it was the country that hosted a meeting of an islamic conference and was the largest donor to the iico’s capital. since its establishment, the organization has been managed by eminent personalities, but like any government activity, it has been sagging over time.
the absence of oversight and the huge assets that fall under the control of the iico’s officials have led to increasing confusion about the corruption in some of its projects, mostly classical, last of them the accusation that one of the members of the organization seized the land granted by the government of azerbaijan to build an islamic center but instead registered it in his name.
the board of directors composed of a kuwaiti president and members from sudan, saudi arabia, qatar, chad, south africa, pakistan, kosovo, oman, nigeria, india, iran, indonesia, and britain, and one can imagine the performance of this board that barely meets. if it meets, it fails to come to clear decisions and their absence has strengthened the role of executive management.
yesterday, essam al-bashir, a strong iico board member was allegedly arrested by the authorities in sudan on charges of money laundering and transferring a large sum to his account in a turkish bank.
this coincided with or preceded by a decision issued by the minister of awqaf fahd al- shoula stipulating the formation of a committee to inspect and oversight the iico, consisting of an assistant undersecretary at the ministry of awqaf, the director of the office of inspection and audit and a number of other investigators, in order to investigate the organization’s compliance with the provisions of the decree of its establishment and ensure good application.
the minister also instructed the committee to investigate and review the minutes of the tenders and purchasing committee in the organization and to audit the committees of sorting, counting and selling dispensed assets.
the ministerial decision also authorized the committee to conduct field visits to the headquarters and warehouses of the organization and to request any data or review any topics deemed necessary by the oversight team to complete their investigations and perform their oversight role.
i personally expect the committee will be shocked by the size of what will be seen after 35 years of work without almost any oversight, with hundreds of millions of dinars in the hands of iico administrators, everything is possible. i hope the activity of the investigation committee will reach all other charities, and i hope the members of the committee will not get the shock of their life from the horrors they ‘may’ see.
