The German government is under rising pressure to look into allegations that a Berlin aid group active in Afghanistan and Iraq embezzled millions of dollars in taxpayer money.
The German government last week sent a reply to an official inquest by the German Green Party into allegations that Berlin non-governmental organization AGEF overcharged the government for aid projects in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Kosovo. AGEF, led by founder Klaus Duennhaupt, born in 1953 in East Germany, strongly refutes the allegations.
The government's 15-page reply, obtained by United Press International, revealed that Berlin since 1999 has paid AGEF $69 million for aid projects. It unearthed little else that could clear up the allegations, which could turn into a major embarrassment for the government if proven true. Berlin has since said it would halt payments to AGEF and hire an external auditing company to assess the NGO.
"Those are clear signals that the government is concerned," Ute Koczy, the development policy spokeswoman of the Green Party, told United Press International in a telephone interview. "Yet while the government has become active, its answer doesn't provide a lot of revealing insight. The ministries seem to be concerned over AGEF but don't really know what's going on. The government for now has closed off like an oyster. … My instinct says there's a real problem with AGEF."
The affair has been simmering since the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung daily on Nov. 1 accused AGEF of receiving around $5 million for projects in Afghanistan that required only $3.6 million.
Citing internal AGEF documents, the daily mentions the specific case of AGEF's economic reintegration program, which is to help Afghans returning from Germany to find a job in their new country, as an example of how money was embezzled. The group transferred aid worth around $55,000 to 34 Afghans returning to their home country, the NOZ claims. At the same time, AGEF allegedly charged the government nearly $500,000 — and said it had helped 278 people.
The group in a Nov. 12 statement said the allegations were "completely unfounded" and based on "a number of assumptions, suspicions and untruths that seem to be aimed at damaging AGEF's good reputation."
AGEF said it hadn't embezzled any funds, strongly refuted allegations that it fabricated identities to bill more and vowed it had indeed transferred aid to 278 Afghans returning to their home country.
"We welcome the upcoming audit and will of course support it," the group said.
Were the audit to unearth anything suspicious, it could prove embarrassing for the German government. Some 5,000 German troops are stationed with the NATO-led International Security Assistance in northern Afghanistan. Berlin, eager to show that its focus is on reconstruction rather than military missions, has vowed to fight corruption and boost good governance in Afghanistan, listed by Transparency International as the world's second-most corrupt country.
The Green Party and many observers to the affair, however, are concerned that the ministries responsible for granting aid projects to AGEF — mainly the Development Ministry, where Duennhaupt fosters excellent personal contacts, might have been too lax with the NGO before the allegations surfaced.
The government's cooperation with AGEF seems "clouded by intransparency," Koczy told UPI. That's why she wants Berlin to release the results of the AGEF audit as soon as possible.
Until then, the Greens will "keep up the pressure" on the government, she added.
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