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The abuse of state funds is the major issue for the financial department of each government.
We hear many things, but little action is actually taken.
The reason I mention all this is the fact you’ve all heard in various occasions
numerous malfunctions and non-transparency in the way NGOs operate in our countrys
the number of which counts up to hundreds, contrary to
other countries abroad
that have much more population and fewer NGOs.
In Greece we have many, hundreds of active NGOs,
that receive funding mostly from two sources:
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture.
The issue about funding of NGOs and cultural associations
became known from the case of Mr Zachopoulos
and his attempted suicide,
the case of the sinful Special Account of the Organisation for Football Pool (OPAP),
from the way each Minister of Culture uses state funds as they consider best,
only to provide them to NGOs and associations
with doubtful action without any transparency. s
I report these since now we host Achilleas Topas,
who’s made a very interesting research
for an NGO that I believe many of you have heard of,
“Act Up”. - Good morning Achilleas.
.- Good morning Kostas. .- First of all, let us know what Act Up does.
- Act Up, as you said, is a nongovernmental organisation founded in 1993,
that implements projects for the protection of trafficking victims,
*** positive people and people living with AIDS. - Right.
- Now, according to our research, this NGO has participated
participated in four projects
of “Hellenic Aid” department of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs
for International Cooperation, which funds NGOs
who wish to implement such projects
for development and humanitarian assistance
- And does that by providing € 60.000.000 annually… - Yes, provides that amount for NGOs.
In Hellenic Aid’s register, to analyse what you said before
for the number of such organizations, in Greece
there are more than 500 NGOs,
not all of them active..
From 2004 to 2006, this particular organisation
received as advance approximately 75% of the total fund
fund for the implementation of its projects, about € 200.000,
according to our information.
- In 2006, an issue on the management of that money is raised,
the Ministry interrupts the funding towards Act Up,
due to the fact that the NGO failed to fill in their obligation
and submit the intermediary reports,
to prove the progress made on the projects.
This fact dos not come from us, it is official information
verified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
as well as from employees of Act Up,
former employees to be precise,
and I believe it is worth listening to what one of them has to say.
- Mr Simon Rawicz reported to Skai, that the President of Act Up,
Mr Konstantinos Kampourakis, asked him to falsify receipts
to cover the funds the organization had received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- We had financial problems throughout the whole period I was employed in Act Up.
tried to help the boss and realize what was going on
with the money the organization had received .
At Christmas, we demanded that something finally happened to improve the situation,
καθώς as a new year was coming and I was unable to work
without telephone and computers anymore. It wasn’t practical.
At that point he asked me and another colleague
to help him falsify receipts to cover for all the money
we had received from the Ministry. We didn’t know what happened with all that money.
The books with the accounts of the last five years hadn’t been filled in.
These procedures, in the UK at least, are criminal
and attract imprisonment of 5 to 10 years.
Of course I refused to do such a thing.
- Did you see those receipts yourself?
- Yes, there were receipts going back five years, which I saw in detail.
We’re talking about 100.000 euros for funded projects.
Many of them were from trips to Mr. Kampourakis’s summer house
from cat litter purchases for his cat,
and I repeatedly asked in which way all these could be justified in Act Up’s projects.
There was a gap of € 25.000 to 35.000 for 2004 and 2005.
- Why did you decide to report all this now?
- I started working at Act Up by chance and I felt well for doing something good.
In the end I realized we weren’t in the position to act in any way and do what we should
for all those people we were supposed to be assisting.
I think that those accusations reported to you Achilleas Topas
from the former employee of Act Up Mr. Simon Rawicz are very serious.
- They are indeed. - What does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs say about all this?
- For that reason and for the fact that the organization hadn’t submitted the intermediary reports to the Ministry,
with great delay obviously, Act Up is called to present
before the Committee of Hearings of the Ministry
to give explanations.
According to our information, this is due within next week;
the Committee of Hearings is a quite serious,
or very serious I should say, department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In the case that the organization does not provide satisfactory explanations,
it will have to return the funds with the equivalent interests to the Ministry
and, should there be any further suspicions,
the Ministry will proceed to all necessary action
in order to secure transparency in funding.
- Has this organization received any funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2006;
- No Kostas, there was no funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
there is information though for funding from the Ministry of Health
from KE.EL.P.NO.,
the Greek Centre for Disease Control,
whose funds derive from the regular budget of the Ministry of Health.
There is at least one occasion we know of that Act Up received funding from KE.EL.P.NO.
while funding from Hellenic Aid has been already interrupted,
in 2006 for a summer campaign, to visit five islands
and distribute informative material
on AIDS to the public.
- What amount did the organization receive?
- According to our information, there is the amount of € 55.000,
however there have also been other requests
submitted several times.
We are not in the position to know exactly.
- The amount could be bigger…
- It could be bigger…in any way, the research is ongoing
and we shall hopefully be aware of more details very soon…
- Now, let me summarise… We have an NGO
working since the beginning of the 90s
which as you report
received € 200.000 as funding,
used them without transparency,
– we have the report of the former employee
according to which the President of Act Up Mr. Kampourakis asked him and a colleague
to falsify receipts to cover the funds received
from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Funding is stopped from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and Mr. Kampourakis and Act Up turn to and receive funding
from the Ministry of Health and KE.EL.P.NO. for some campaigns you mentioned.
- Exactly, Act Up receives money from KE.EL.P.NO.
which is allowed by its own regulation
to provide funding to third parties only after this is
officially announced as a competition,
and is reported into two newspapers.
- Does Mr. Kampourakis have any other activity, apart from being President of Board of Act Up?
- Apparenly mr Kampourakis is quite competent and holds more than one positions:
He is the President of Board of Act Up since 2000,
the Head of the Department to Study and Fight Human Trafficking of KE.EL.P.NO.
since November 2008…
- Therefore he is paid by the Ministry of Health…
- Exactly, he appears in one occasion-
during a memorial for AIDS victims
at Kallimarmaro Stadium of Athens,
as advisor to the Minister of Health…
-Advisor to the President of KE.EL.P.NO…
- to the President of KE.EL.P.NO. too,
advisor to the President of KE.EL.P.NO Mr. Pierroutsakos.
He also appears in the National Plan for ***/AIDS as advisor…
- I see, multi-task this Mr. Kampourakis.
He’s involved in non-transparent procedures with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
turning to Ministry of Health receiving funding from there as well,
while being a paid employee of the Ministry of Health
through KE.EL.P.NO.
That is all very interesting as is the general situation
on the action of NGOs in Greece .