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Britain
expresses concern over TRO’s links with LTTE
Britain’s Charity Commission -- the state body monitoring charities – has expressed concern that the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) had consulted the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in determining allocations of funds. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Charity Commission spokesperson Sarah Jones said investigations had revealed that the TRO in Sri Lanka might have liaised with the LTTE in allocating funds. She said the commission had made its finding after some of its accountants probed the work of the TRO in Sri Lanka and in Britain, tracing specific transactions. A report on the findings states that in September 2000, the commission received complaints that the TRO in Britain was supporting terrorist activity by transferring funds to Sri Lanka in support of the LTTE, which is proscribed in Britain under its Terrorism Act of 2000. The report states that since the TRO’s transactions were questionable, the Charity Commission had directed the banks that any transfer of funds from the TRO accounts must have the prior approval of the commission. The report states that the “Commission found evidence of mismanagement” of funds. It was established that the TRO’s financial controls were inadequate and that there was a lack of transparency in its operations. The trustees of the TRO exercised little or no control over the use of funds in Sri Lanka and failed to demonstrate a clear audit relating to expenditure. The TRO also failed to provide the Commission with any explanation regarding some of the funds received from the US and Canada, the report says. The British Charity Commission's Investigations Chief David Rich had earlier stated a tough line must be taken if any group was found to have links with terrorists because even allegations of links erode the public's confidence in the integrity of charity and that the trustees will be accountable for ensuring that procedures are put in place to ensure that terrorist organisations cannot take advantage of a charity’s status, reputation, facilities or assets. However, though the overall British policy is tough, little or no action was taken against the TRO. In an earlier interview with The Sunday Times, spokesperson Sarah Jones said that “any illegal activity including those relating to acts of terrorism is a matter for the Police”. Asked what Britain’s policy was regarding terrorist financing, she said: “you would need to contact the Home Office to ask for this policy – we are the regulator of charities.” Such remarks made clear that the UK Charity Commission only confined itself to the charity law and paid no attention on whether moneys collected in the United Kingdom were being channelled for terrorist activity. In 2002 the Charity Commission decided that the TRO’s property was at risk and accordingly, on May 21 as a temporary and protective measure and following a tendering process, the Commission appointed Don Bawtree of BDO Stoy Hayward, as Interim Manager for the Charity By
the Commission’s order, this Interim Manager was given all
the powers and duties of the trustees of TRO and was required to
take control of the Charity’s affairs and property. However,
the order allowed the trustees to continue to raise funds for the
TRO with the prior consent of the Interim Manager. The Interim Manager’s initial evaluation of the TRO’s state of affairs found that the trustees had not been able to account satisfactorily for the disbursement of funds and also ruled that the trustees were not administering the TRO to an acceptable standard. The Interim Manager appointed BDO Burah Hathy in Sri Lanka to undertake a review of the systems operated by TRO SL, tracing specific transactions from the British TRO. This review concluded that financial record keeping was adequate but the results of the review suggested that the TRO SL liaised with the LTTE in determining where funds could be applied. It
also found that once funds had been received by TRO SL, they were
used for a variety of projects which appeared to be generally humanitarian,
but not necessarily charitable in English law nor in line with the
Charity’s objects. As
no suitable partner was found, in November 2003, the Interim Manager
decided to set up a new charitable company -- Tamil Support Foundation
(TSF) with a new trustee body, independent of TRO-SL and with objects
similar to those of the Charity to which he would transfer its funds.
The report adds that immediately following the Asian Tsunami, the Interim Manager decided to apply a significant proportion of the charity’s funds by making donations to a number of registered charities undertaking relief work in the affected area of North East of Sri Lanka. The Interim Manager awarded grants to the new charitable company, the Tamil Support Foundation (registered charity number 1107609), after it had been set up in January 2005. In August 2005, the Interim Manager confirmed that TRO-UK had no assets and had ceased to operate and accordingly on 10 August 2005 the Commission discharged the Interim Manager and removed the Charity from the Register of Charities as having ceased to operate. The Inquiry was closed on 10 August 2005. The report states that the appointment of the Interim Manager protected the Charity’s funds at the time when he took control of its bank accounts, by preventing them from being applied in a manner that was unaccountable. The amount involved was £575,500. Through the setting up of the Tamil Support Foundation, the Interim Manager secured another vehicle for those wishing to support the Tamil speaking people. However Project Director of TRO- Sri Lanka told The Sunday Times that not only the TRO, all other NGOs had to consult the LTTE when performing humanitarian work in the Tiger-held areas. |
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