Several months ago, I wrote about the outpouring of charitable gifts received by humanitarian relief organizations in the wake of the December tsunami that killed 250,000 people and displaced five million and its effect on support for urgent global health needs elsewhere.

Later, I gave an update on progress and an explanation of the priorities, motives, and emotions of donors who contribute to disaster relief in contrast to giving charitable dollars for other pressing social concerns.

Several recent stories--that have yet to be covered in the US mainstream media--demand new scrunity over the distribution of relief funds and the responsibilities of nonprofit organizations to its donors.

From Reuters:

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference on post-tsunami rehabilitation in Washington, U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland urged more cooperation between governments, world bodies such as the United Nations and World Bank and nongovernmental organizations in pushing the rebuilding ahead.

"We could spend too much time in endless meetings, with no clear leadership and people's frustration exploding. They (displaced people) have heard of billions of dollars being available and they are sitting in tents and saying 'I want my life and community back,'" said Egeland.

You may recall that Egeland criticized the Bush Administration days after the tsunami for being "stingy" with the initial relief aid and for circumventing the UN with another hastily organized Coalition of the [Humanitarian Relief] Willing© to pool relief aid.

While responding to criticism that relief organizations have been slow to spend the $8 billion in government appropriations, charitable gifts, and aid pledges, Egeland took another well-placed swipe at BushCo:

Egeland urged governments to follow proper bidding rules when advertising contracts for rebuilding work, a criticism made against the U.S. government in its handing out of deals for Iraq reconstruction.

"What we cannot afford is scandals, any kind of scandals with that money going in the wrong direction or into the wrong pockets. We had such unprecedented generosity and these should be fulfilled," he said.

A story published Friday in The Financial Times reported that 25% of critical relief supplies such as bottled water, construction supplies, emergency vehicles, etc., in Sri Lanka and more than 36% in Indonesia are stranded dockside because of unclaimed freight, missing transit paperwork, and unprocessed import permits.

First up...
Once again, Médecins sans Frontières is being beaten up in the press--French charity denies Australian report on "refunded" tsunami donations--for their outstanding stewardship and responsibility toward donor contributions.

A total of "105 million euros (134 million dollars) were collected by the 19 sections of the association across the world," the Paris-based charity said in a statement.

"By the end of March 16 million euros (20.5 million dollars) had been spent on operations in the region. Total spending should reach more than 22 million euros (28 million dollars) for 2005," it said.

"MSF wants to redirect the gifts that it is unable to use in southeast Asia towards forgotten crises such as those ravaging the Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur (in Sudan), Niger or AIDS victims in poor countries," it added.

"So far the majority of donors contacted have accepted that their contributions be used for these aid programmes; as of today fewer than one percent of the amount collected (920,000 euros, 1.18 million dollars) has had to be paid back.

"In France 60 euros (76 dollars), in the form of two contributions of 30 euros each, have been reimbursed out of a total of 9.1 million euros (11 million dollars) contributed."

Yeah, read that one again.

SIXTY EUROS (US $76) HAVE BEEN RETURNED TO TWO FRENCH DONORS OUT OF A TOTAL OF €9.1 MILLION (US $11,000,000) GIFTED. What the fuck! MSF asked permission to re-direct donors gifts, which they have every right and responsibility to do if the immediate need has been met. That's what honorable, transparent, mission-focused charities do!

And in the never to be out-done category...

BushCo's Orwellian slogans have reached an all new level of lunacy. USAID is distributing tee shirts in Lampuuk, Indonesia--which lost four out of every five residents in the flood--imprinted with "Cleaning up Equals Prosperity". Meanwhile, the same US propaganda-attired villagers just outside of Banda Aceh haven't had any food aid distributions since February because the survivors have taken to scavenging concrete reinforcement rods to sell as scrap metal in order to buy food.

According to World Food Program emergency coordinator, Charlie Higgins, WFP stopped distributing food when it determined recipients had an independent source of livelihood and no longer need relief.

Arrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhh! Boom! That would be my head exploding.