Govt to recover €50K from Finn Church Aid misused in Somalia

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will recover EUR 50,000 from Finn Church Aid because it has not been possible to verify that funds have been used in accordance with the government grant decision, said the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a press release on Thursday.

The recovery concerns funding which the Foreign Ministry’s Peace Mediation Centre granted in 2021 for the promotion of the national reconciliation process in Somalia.

The funds are administered by Finn Church Aid’s country office in Somalia.

The funds were granted for strengthening the broad-based participation of Somali people in national consultations and thereby preventing the escalation of pre-election political violence.

However, it has not been possible to verify that the funds were used for this purpose.

The problem was discovered as part of Finn Church Aid’s internal audit. The recovery of funds is based on the Act on Discretionary Government Transfers.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has launched an independent audit process to ensure that Finn Church Aid has in place sufficient measures to strengthen its risk management processes.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs takes all suspected case of misuse very seriously and will address any detected problems.